What Did Michael Jackson Eat?

During the early days of the Jackson 5, Michael Jackson’s chubby cheeks and cherubic smile enchanted fans and endeared him to the public. Naturally slender, Jackson never needed to pay much attention to his weight, as daily rehearsals and gruelling stage performances meant him and his brothers maintained an active lifestyle. The Jacksons were the picture of good health, youth, vibrancy, and a model example of a wholesome black American family.

According to his mother, Katherine, when Michael was at home, he would eat normally, take care of himself and keep fit by shooting hoops with his brothers on their driveway. However, while on the road the Jackson brothers’ eating patterns would take a turn as they often resorted to fast food and sugary snacks to get them through their chaotic work schedules.

Like many teenagers, Michael Jackson developed a sweet tooth, and indulged himself with his favourite junk food, Kentucky Fried Chicken. Multiple sources have confirmed that he would often have KFC buckets all over his home and car. His teenage friend, David Gest, said that he had enjoyed fried chicken since childhood. “I remember he’d sit in his car, take off the skin and say, ‘David, now I’ve made it organic. I can eat it.”

However, David Gest mentioned how Jackson became increasingly preoccupied with his weight and image as he developed into adulthood, encouraging Gest to slim down, saying “you’ve always gotta improve, to make yourself look better!”.

In the early 1980s, Michael Jackson sort to lose weight due to his desire for ‘a dancer’s body’, believing his movements would appear cleaner and more precise when performed by a more angular body.

By the time ‘Thriller’ was released, Michael had become a vegetarian and adopted a strict healthy lifestyle. It was widely reported that Michael Jackson did not drink alcohol, smoke or abuse illegal substances due to his entrenched religious beliefs. Adding to Michael Jackson’s ‘goody two-shoes’ public image, which was at odds with Jackson’s much publicised endorsement of sugary soda brand, Pepsi Cola, that he reportedly never actually drank.

During this period, Michael was open about fasting at least one day a week for religious as well as health reasons, “I’m cleaning my body out, which is a healthy thing to do”, he explained. But instead of laying low that day to conserve his energy, Michael would dance non-stop on his portable dance floor in his bedroom.

But Michael Jackson’s restrictive diet didn’t stop there. Although a vegetarian he didn’t actually like vegetables very much and wasn’t a fan of pasta dishes neither. He soon became notorious for being a very picky eater. Katherine Jackson mentioned that Michael at one point employed a full-time chef, but she didn’t know why he bothered because when she took him his food, he’d eat two tablespoons then leave the rest.

During 1983 Michael Jackson’s dieting became more apparent, as his weight dropped to a reported 120 pounds while filming the ‘Thriller’ music video. Those around him became increasingly concerned about Michael Jackson’s inconsistent eating habits as they were preparing to embark on the Jacksons’ Victory Tour. Witnesses reported that he was often dizzy, and speculated he was suffering from anorexia nervosa.

His mother recounted that he told her that “If I didn’t eat to live, I’d never eat”. “Sometimes Michael didn’t want to eat at all, at least not a decent meal. He once had a handful of M&M’s and he was just popping those in his mouth one at a time saying that’s all he wanted and had not eaten anything else all day. There were times when he would eat in his room and a salad was made for him. He would sometimes just eat half or just take a couple of bites and leave it.”

Katherine Jackson also stated, “Michael enjoyed having the last word in our arguments about his diet. “You’re always worrying about me being too skinny”, he’d say, “but you know what? My doctor told me I was in number one shape. So, stop worrying about me.”

But ultimately 1984’s Victory tour got the better of Michael, as he suffered from exhaustion and dehydration due to lack of rest after his physical exertion on stage, as well as stress caused by family and business dramas while on the road. Brazilian chef, Remi Vila Real, who was once employed by Quincy Jones and impressed Jackson with her all-natural healthy vegetarian cooking, remembers when she was in her apartment and received a phone call. “The person on the phone asked me to look outside. He said, “See the limousine? Get in it, now!” I told him I could not because I had to change my clothes because I was all dirty from cleaning. They didn’t care. I was taken to a big building in Beverly Hills and up to the very top penthouse. It was very luxurious. The man on the other side of the desk handed me a ticket and said “you are going to the airport right now. Here is your ticket.” I asked him why. He explained to me that Michael Jackson was having stomach aches and specifically requested me to be his “nutritionist” on the Victory tour. He was feeling sick to his stomach and refused to go on stage until they sent me to be his private cook. They were all very nervous. They said they were losing millions of dollars in cancelled shows and I had to go right then”.

Years later when Michael Jackson chose to embark on his subsequent solo tours, his doctors insisted that he go on a strict high protein diet, including fish, so that he’d be able to keep his stamina up, which Michael reluctantly agreed to. In later conversations, Jackson stated “what turns me off is that I don’t like eating anything that used to be alive and now it’s dead on my plate. I want to be a strict vegetarian, but my doctors keep trying to throw in chicken and fish”.

However, the additional nourishment was needed for Jackson to perform in the manner he was used to and what his fans came to expect. It was reported that Jackson’s high energy performances were so physically gruelling he lost weight every time he performed. After each show, it was said that he lost between 8–10 pounds. His dresser, Michael Bush, even had pants with different waist sizes that Jackson would change into during those shows.

Corey Rooney and Chris Apostle, former Sony Executives, spoke about the discussions they had with Michael Jackson about a tour that could support his 2001 album, ‘Invincible’. “Cory, I can’t tour anymore. It will kill me. Ok? Remember when I was preparing for my concert and I passed out at the Sony Studio? Well, it’s because when I get ready for a tour, I get dehydrated. I don’t eat. I don’t drink. I don’t sleep. I put so much of myself into preparing for it”. Jackson reportedly said he wanted to continue to put out albums till he couldn’t do it anymore, but he just couldn’t tour again.

However, despite a lack of touring, weight fluctuations would become a recurring problem as the years went on. A few months after the allegations became news in 1993, he had stopped eating all together and lost approximately 10 pounds in weight in a matter of weeks. According to Jackson, he had a tendency to stop eating when “really upset or hurt” and long-time friend, Elizabeth Taylor, had to make him eat during this ordeal. “She took the spoon and would put it into my mouth”. He said that he eventually became unconscious and had to be fed intravenously.

It was around this time that Jackson developed a drug addiction that became unmanageable and had the potential to be deadly. The stress from this case put enormous pressure on the fragile health of Michael Jackson. Although the charges were dropped and the boy refused to testify any further against his “best friend”, the damage was already done.

Years later during his 2005 child molestation trial, Michael Jackson resorted to medicating himself in order to numb the mental and physical pain he was suffering with as a result of the stress he endured during the high-profile proceedings. As a result, his health diminished significantly. Nutritionist, Dick Gregory, reported that during the trial Michael Jackson’s weight had fallen significantly, as he was barely able to stay above 100 pounds. Due to the stress and emotional strain, the entertainer didn’t eat and drink enough. Because Michael’s family were so concerned, they turned to Gregory for help.

When he arrived to counsel Michael, Gregory was shocked to see how much dehydration and not eating had effected the entertainer. “I got this strange call from Joe Jackson one day. He said, ‘You gotta fly out here. Michael’s been in his room for 30 days, drinking nothing but water.’ I was shocked when they gave him four IV drips. That’s how dehydrated he was”. Gregory then trained Michael Jackson’s personal cooks so they can mix vitamins and herbs into his food to help stabilize and build up Michael’s strength.

Gregory also admitted that his client often collapsed when he returned to his Neverland Valley Ranch, after days in court. “He was stronger at the trial than he was when he got home in the evening. That’s when he was able to collapse and deal with the pain and feel the hurt of his body. He was a zombie… He just didn’t have an appetite and he wasn’t eating. There was nothing he could do to get his appetite back”.

After being found not guilty, Michael Jackson resorted to a self-imposed isolation and fell into deeper drug dependency. Staff around him noticed that he didn’t like to eat much after taking medications and even though Jackson didn’t eat all that much, he still made time to sit down with his kids for a meal together. “Even though he’d say a lot of times, ‘I’m not hungry,’ this is what he wanted to do. He was a prime example of a very good father”, said director and friend, Spike Lee.

In 2009, Lou Ferrigno, who personally helped Jackson train for his upcoming ‘This is It’ London performances, suggested that his eating regimen was far from ideal. “He only ate once a day and it was always a running joke with us, that I needed to put meat on his bones. But I just told him the proper supplements to take.” “He might have been a little thin because he was under a lot of stress training for the tour,” Ferrigno said. “But when I put him through the routine and everything, it was just fine — I mean, very energetic.”

Michael Jackson would often skip meals, and at one point a person was employed solely to remind him to eat, and the tour director would help by cutting up Jackson’s chicken for him. Karen Faye his make-up artist and friend said in an interview that she could actually see his heartbeat through his skin chest. She immediately told his manager Frank Dileo who answered, “so get him a bucket of chicken”.

Mike La Perruque, Michael’s former security, said “he was always thin, but he was also in the middle of a very stressful time, getting ready for the tour”. He noted that he last saw Jackson at a Beverly Hills restaurant. “I even said to him, ‘Michael, this is the skinniest I’ve ever seen you.’ He said, ‘Well, I’ve been rehearsing.’

Michael Jackson passed a four-hour physical in preparation for his London 50 show residency. Although many doubted the veracity of the physical. Keith-Thomas Ayoob, a New York nutritionist said at the time “I’m very concerned about all these pseudo-reports that Michael received a ‘clean bill of health’ to do these concerts,” he said. “I don’t know who examined him but, at reports of 5'10” and a reported 125 pounds, his body mass index was 17.9. That spells wasting.”

On June 26th 2009, the morning after Michael Jackson’s sudden death from cardiac arrest, Jackson weighed 136 pounds and measured 5.75 feet tall. According to details taken during his autopsy, Jackson’s stomach was absolutely empty of any food, except for partially dissolved drugs which he took a few hours before his final moments.