What Marilyn Monroe Ate: The Diet of America's Most Desired Woman

In 1952, Marilyn Monroe gave an honest interview to Pageant magazine where she spoke about her "absolutely strange" eating habits. Breakfast of raw eggs with milk, dinner of steak with carrots and evening ice cream with hot chocolate — this is how the woman considered a beauty standard ate. But in 2021, her personal cookbooks with handwritten notes surfaced at an auction, revealing a completely different picture of the star's diet. It turns out that Marilyn Monroe’s real diet was much more ordinary than what she told journalists. Which version is closer to the truth?

Key points from the article:

• In her 1952 interview, Monroe described an extreme high-protein diet and skipping lunch;
• Notes from cookbooks show regular three-meal-a-day eating with porridges and bread;
• The real diet included toast for breakfast, pasta for lunch, and daily desserts;
• Monroe was a sweet-tooth — she ate ice cream every day and loved rice pudding;
• Her approach to eating was ahead of her time: high-protein breakfasts and simple dinners.

Two versions of one diet

"I was told that my eating habits were absolutely strange, but I don't think so," Marilyn admitted in her 1952 interview with Pageant magazine. At that time, the 26-year-old actress was just beginning to conquer Hollywood and cooked meals on an electric stove in her hotel room.

According to her, breakfast consisted of warmed milk with two raw eggs whisked with a fork, plus multivitamins. "I doubt any doctor could recommend a more nutritious breakfast for a working girl in a hurry," she claimed.

Monroe often skipped lunch, and dinner was "surprisingly simple": steak, lamb chops or liver baked in an electric oven, plus four to five raw carrots. "I must be half rabbit," she joked.

But in 2021, Siegel Auction Galleries put her personal cookbooks from the 1950s with handwritten notes up for auction. And there was a completely different eating plan.

What the cookbooks revealed

In books such as "The New Fannie Farmer Boston Cooking-School Cook Book" and "The New Joy of Cooking," they found a printed meal plan made for Marilyn. According to these notes, her real diet looked like this:

• 8:00 AM — Breakfast: orange juice or stewed black raisins, toasted bread with butter, well-cooked porridge, a cup of milk or weak cocoa.
• 1:00 PM — Lunch: egg, potato, spaghetti or noodles with tomato sauce or oil, bread or toast, jelly or cooked fruits for dessert.
• 6:30 PM — Dinner: fish or meat, vegetables, bread, pudding or baked apple for dessert.
• Snacks: milk with crackers in the middle of morning and afternoon, plus eggnog at 11:00 PM.

A sweet-tooth who didn't hide it

In the same 1952 interview, Monroe admitted her weakness: "In recent months I've developed a habit of stopping at Wil Wright's ice cream parlor for hot chocolate ice cream on my way home from evening acting lessons.

She justified it by saying she mainly ate protein-rich food during the day. According to the found notes, desserts were indeed a daily part of her diet: rice pudding, custard, tapioca, baked apples.

In the shopping list found in her cookbook were eggs, milk, cornflakes, jelly, cream, bread, coffee, butter and soda. Quite a normal list for a young woman of the 1950s.

High-protein breakfasts: ahead of their time

No matter which version is considered truthful, Marilyn was consistent in one thing — high-protein breakfasts. A milk and raw eggs smoothie might sound strange, but essentially it was a protein shake long before they were invented.

"I doubt any doctor could recommend a more nutritious breakfast for a working girl in a hurry," she said. And she was right: such a breakfast gave long-lasting satiety and energy for the whole day.

Modern bodybuilders would appreciate her approach. Raw eggs with milk are around 300 calories, 20 grams of protein and a full amino acid profile. However, today dietitians do not recommend raw eggs due to the risk of salmonella.

Simple dinners and complex dishes

In her interview, Monroe described Spartan dinners of meat with carrots. But in her cookbooks, recipes for complex French dishes were found: beef burgundy, bone marrow soup, lasagna.

The handwritten menu for beef burgundy and the ingredient list for bone broth show that she could cook more than just steaks. Bone broth, by the way, is considered a superfood for skin health today — perhaps it was one of Marilyn's beauty secrets.

Her notes also include a shopping list: "ribs, tomatoes, tomatoes, milk, cream and coffee." The repetition of "tomatoes" shows that she herself made these lists and actually cooked.

Diet for the camera or real life?

Why such a difference between her public version of the diet and personal notes? Perhaps it's about image. In the 1950s, a "strange" diet of raw eggs sounded intriguing and emphasized the star's uniqueness.

Moreover, the interview was given during a period when Monroe was still an up-and-coming actress cooking in her hotel room. Later notes might reflect her life at the peak of fame, when she could afford varied meals.

"My biggest concern before was to get enough food. Now I need to worry about not overeating," she said in the same interview.

Ice cream as a philosophy of life

One detail remains unchanged in both versions — her love for ice cream. Monroe didn't hide that she regularly indulged in sweets and felt no guilt.

"Well, it's probably good that I eat simply during the day because in recent months I've developed a habit of stopping at an ice cream parlor on my way home," she honestly admitted.

This approach — strict eating during the day and permitted pleasures in the evening — was quite progressive for its time. Marilyn intuitively understood balance, a principle that dietitians only started talking about decades later.

Lessons from America's most desired woman

• Protein for breakfast works. A high-protein breakfast gives energy and satiety for a long time.
• Simplicity is elegance. Her meat and vegetable dinners prove that you don’t have to overcomplicate things.
• Enjoyment is important too. Marilyn didn’t deny herself ice cream and saw nothing wrong with it.
• Cooking is normal. Even a superstar cooked at home and made shopping lists.

Perhaps the main secret of Marilyn Monroe’s diet was not in specific foods, but in her approach to food — without excessive drama, with joy and common sense. Principles that remain relevant today.

Cover photo from kuhnyavau.ru