11 Famous Folks From The Past With Totally Strange Eating Habits

To be honest, I can be a pretty picky eater when it comes to the few things my palate just can't stand.

Even though I've come a long way from how bad I was as a kid, I will still turn my nose up at anything with too many carrots, peas, or even the smallest dash of cinnamon. I cannot tell you how much flack I get for not loving cinnamon, but it's actually because I would beg for so much of it on toast as a child that the thought of it makes me sick today.

It's so strange how our minds can react and evolve with our eating habits over the years, but the famous faces below definitely outdid me with their own weird food quirks.

Some of their preferences have been well-known in pop culture, like how much Elvis Presley loved his peanut butter, but others are just downright bizarre.

Did we miss any peculiar palates from famous folks of the past? Let us know in the comments and be sure to SHARE with your friends!

[H/T: CBS News]

1. Elvis Presley's Massive PB&J

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Wikimedia Commons

In 1976, the King was in Colorado when stumbled upon one of his signature favorite meals while at a restaurant, the "Fool's Gold" sandwich: a long baguette filled with peanut butter, grape jelly, and bacon weighing in at about four pounds, costing him what would be around $206 today. He even made his staff fly from Memphis, TN, to Denver to retrieve it for him one night!

2. Henry Ford's “Salad”

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Wikimedia Commons, Flickr / Anthony

After revolutionizing the automobile industry with his assembly line, Ford came to the conclusion that the human body only needed the bare requirements to function, and would often dine on the grass and weeds he could pull up from his backyard or the side of the road.

3. Winston Churchill's Breakfast

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Wikimedia Commons

England's most notorious Prime Minister started every morning with two trays of food, which included a poached egg, toast, butter, jam, coffee, milk, and cold cuts, with the second tray containing grapefruit with sugar and an orange squash and whisky soda drink.

4. Albert Einstein's Insect Snacks

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Wikimedia Commons, Flickr / Sebastian Peleato

Though his love of mushrooms and eggs was pretty normal, the time-honored genius was once caught by his chauffeur enjoying a bite of grasshopper, then washing it down with a nice glass of celery juice.

5. Pablo Picasso's Picky Palate

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Wikimedia Commons, Flickr / Rudi Riet

When the legendary cubist artist got older, he restricted his diet to consist only of mineral water, milk, veggies, fish, rice pudding, and grapes.

6. Judy Garland's Limited Options

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Wikimedia Commons, Flickr / Jessica Spengler

As a child actor at MGM Studios, Garland was strictly prohibited from eating anything other than chicken and matzah ball soup from the cafeteria. The staff was warned to serve the young actress only that dish, regardless of what she actually ordered. She referred to it as her “prisoner's diet.”

7. Vladimir Nabokov's Fluttery Food

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Wikimedia Commons, Flickr / Max Froumentin

The Russian novelist famous for penning Lolita admitted to chowing down on butterflies and claiming they tasted like “almonds and perhaps a green cheese combination.”

8. George Washington's Sweet Tooth

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Wikimedia Commons, Flickr / gordonramsaysubmissions

America's first president grew up on a lean diet consisting largely of nuts, something that led to his famous wooden dentures when his original teeth suffered from the walnut shells. That led to him unabashedly indulging in his favorite dessert: ice cream. It wasn't easy to come by in 1790, but that didn't stop Washington from spending $200 to obtain the frigid confection.

9. Louis Armstrong's Smooth Move

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Wikimedia Commons

As a child, the jazz trumpet player's mother would often instruct the family to eat laxatives with their meals because the only food they could afford was usually slightly rotten. Armstrong continued to do so his whole life and would often offer his favorite herbal supplement to friends.

10. Lord Byron's Fermented Condiment

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Wikimedia Commons

While studying at Cambridge University, the poet became worried about his weight and would therefore only dine on biscuits, potatoes, water, and apple cider vinegar. He would cover all of his meals in the vinegar, and after losing 60 pounds, the method became one of the earliest celebrity endorsed fad diets.

11. Salvador Dalí's Surreal Dinners

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Flickr / Hung Thai

Dalí and his wife, Gala, were known for their lush gatherings of famous literary and artistic friends, and the couple even came out with a bizarre cookbook revealing some of their predictably bizarre dishes, like “toffee with pine cones” and “frog pasties.”

Did we miss any strange eating habits you know from famous folks? Let us know in the comments and be sure to SHARE with your friends!