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Just How Much Did Clinton Eat As President?

In recent years, former President Bill Clinton has turned it around, losing weight and forgoing meat and dairy.
Richard Drew
/
AP
In recent years, former President Bill Clinton has turned it around, losing weight and forgoing meat and dairy.

If you're not a fan of a little White House gossip, don't keep reading. But if you like reading about the everyday details of a presidency, you'll like this bit Washingtonian magazine reports in its current issue.

The magazine said that pastry chef Roland Mesnier, who worked at the White House for 26 years beginning with the Carter administration, said when President Bill Clinton came into the White House in 1993, he had a "scary" appetite. "He could eat five or six pork chops."

And check out this story he told a crowd at American University in Washington:

'The chef, who is given to flights of humor, says that when the cake could not be found, 'We decided [Vice President Al] Gore must have eaten it.'"

After leaving office, Clinton went through two different heart procedures. That was part of the reason he went vegan, giving up red meat, chicken and dairy. USA Today has a 2011 story about his transformation.

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Eyder Peralta is NPR's East Africa correspondent based in Nairobi, Kenya.