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A Newly Discovered Marilyn Monroe Interview Reveals Her Bizarre Diet Secrets

Her breakfast sounds revolting - by Anna McClelland
  • 26 Jun 2018

Long before the days of #cleaneating influencers spruiking kale chips and coconut milk, a girl was left to devise her own approach to healthy eating and exercise – and Marilyn Monroe’s take was certainly unique.

 

In a freshly unearthed interview with Pageant magazine circa September 1952, the star details her unorthodox diet and fitness routine, as Elle UK reports.

Take Marilyn’s “liquid breakfast”. “Before I take my morning shower, I start warming a cup of milk on the hot plate I keep in my hotel room,” she shares. “When it’s hot, I break two raw eggs into the milk, whip them up with a fork, and drink them while I’m dressing.”

“I supplement this with a multi-vitamin pill,” she adds. “And I doubt if any doctor could recommend a more nourishing breakfast for a working girl in a hurry.”

Into The Gloss

Marilyn’s “startlingly simple” dinner doesn’t get much better. 

“Every night I stop at the market near my hotel and pick up a steak, lamb chops or some liver, which I broil in the electric oven in my room. I usually eat four or five raw carrots with my meat, and that is all. I must be part rabbit; I never get bored with raw carrots,” she says.

marilyn monroe diet fitness secrets
Getty

Her diet’s one redeeming factor? Regular ice-cream sundaes.

"It's a good thing, I suppose, that I eat simply during the day, for in recent months I have developed the habit of stopping off at Will Wright's ice cream parlour for a hot fudge sundae on my way home from my evening drama classes,” Marilyn admits. “I'm sure that I couldn't allow myself this indulgence were it not that my normal diet is composed almost totally of protein foods.”

marilyn monroe interview
Getty

And she’s careful to work the whole thing off care of a 10-minute “bust-firming” exercise routine done in the comfort of her hotel room each morning.

"It is a simple bust-firming routine which consists of lifting five-pound weights from a spread-eagle arm position to a point directly above my head. I do this 15 times, slowly. I repeat the exercise another 15 times from a position with my arms above my head. Then, with my arms at a 45-degree angle from the floor, I move my weights in circles until I'm tired. I don't count rhythmically like the exercise people on the radio; I couldn't stand exercise if I had to feel regimented about it."

So there you have it – raw eggs, ice-cream and weights is the key to Hollywood’s most famous hourglass figure.

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Anna McClelland
Anna McClelland
Anna is marie claire and InStyle's assistant digital content manager, reporting on everything from sell-out skincare to Meghan Markle's messy bun. Her work has taken her to tea with Miranda Kerr, the red carpet with Margot Robbie and New York with Jason Wu. Her words can also be found on Vogue, Body & Soul and Buro 24/7.

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