Nobody in his right mind would ever accuse Elvis Presley of promoting good nutrition. After all, he harbored food obsessions — some rather normal, others quite shocking — that were a huge part of his life from under-nourished Tupelo tot to overfed Vegas vulgarity. Gluttony aside, Elvis cuisine taken as a whole had health disaster written all over it.
And yet, food isn’t what killed the King, who died Aug. 16, 1977 (Friday is the 25th anniversary of his death). The official cause of death was “cardiac arrhythmia” — uneven heartbeat — caused by the deadly amount of drugs in his bloodstream. And while the autopsy revealed an enlarged heart, enlarged colon, narrowed arteries and a fatty liver, the official explanation of Elvis’ death was not focused on food or his unusual diet. Even the fatty liver was attributed not to fatty food but to Elvis’ penchant for eating Tylenol like candy.
There is a high probability that had Elvis not tumbled off his toilet 25 years ago (after a snack of ice cream followed by a deadly flurry of Quaaludes, Valium, Demerol, Amytal, Nembutal, Valmid, Elavil, Aventyl, codeine and Sinutab) he’d be alive today happily stuffing himself — as many Americans do — at Chili’s or Outback Steakhouse or Olive Garden. More hot breadsticks, please!
One could even suggest that Elvis’ culinary passions, taken in parts, were wildly ahead of their time — presaging some of the country’s most popular food and weight-loss (yes, diet!) trends. A look at some of Elvis’ favorite foods and dining habits should prove that the King was a major culinary and diet trendsetter.
Can’t Help Falling in Love with Fat: Long before the Atkins Diet, Elvis was the living embodiment of the high-protein, high-fat lifestyle. Sure, he was fond of his biscuits, corn bread, fried potato sandwiches, pies and ice cream, but that was nothing compared to Elvis’ love for fried pork chops, burgers topped with cheese, chicken-fried steak and all-day breakfasts of eggs, bacon and sausage. “A pound of sausage or a pound of bacon was just a meal for him,” one of his Graceland cooks, Pauline Nicholson, said in “The Life and Cuisine of Elvis Presley,” by David Adler.
If that’s true, Elvis was the forerunner of Robert Atkins, author of the bestselling “Dr. Atkins’ Diet Revolution” and “Dr. Atkins’ New Diet Revolution,” both of which advocate eating fat to your heart’s content. Even other wildly popular diets advocated in bestsellers such as “The Zone,” “Sugar Busters” and “Protein Power” that blame obesity on starches, carbohydrates and sugars — not on fat. As a fat-friendly celebrity, Elvis was a lone trailblazer in the high-fat movement.
Even when he was at his weakest and sickest, his frequent hospitalizations at Baptist Memorial Hospital in Memphis were met with a special diet that would put a smile at Atkins’ face. Elvis’ hospital breakfasts consisted of bacon and eggs; lunch and dinner were “hamburger steaks,” salad and a vegetable.
Elvis was a diet revolution without even knowing it.
The Wonder of Stew: The comfort food movement started in the ’80s and just kept getting stronger, hitting a zenith this year as our post-9/11 need for the familiar (and the familial) had us reaching for pot pies, casseroles, puddings, stews and any other warm and toasty childhood favorites that Mom made. Doesn’t this have Elvis written all over it? A mama’s boy until the day he died, Elvis was born into the food folkways of his mother, Gladys Presley, and the cuisine of Tennessee hill country: corn bread, greens, fried okra, crowder peas and fried squirrel; pork chops on payday, fried in a skillet until black.
“Gladys was never really domestic. Her goal in life was always to be a movie star,” Adler wrote. “However, her love for her newborn baby was so intense that she miraculously turned herself into a cook, expressing her love for Elvis through food.” Those foods included Elvis’ first solid food “goody mush” (the inside of corn bread mashed into cooked vegetables, such as canned peas) and “soaks” (corn bread saturated with buttermilk). And they continued with the sandwiches most associated with Elvis: the hamburger and fried peanut-butter-and-banana sandwiches, which Gladys made morning, noon and night for her voracious son.
Nearly all the other foods Elvis loved — macaroni and cheese, fried chicken, chicken-fried steak, buttermilk biscuits and sweet potato pie — are hallmarks of comfort food. Inherent in the comfort-food movement is the appreciation of regional and roadside cuisine that has come to personify Elvis. The comfort food and regional food appreciation championed by magazines such as Gourmet, Food & Wine and Bon Appetit and on cooking shows on Food Network? Elvis beat them to it.
Don’t Be Cruller: Today’s chi-chi donut is the Krispy Kreme. Hailed as the food world’s newest addiction, the Krispy Kreme glazed yeast donut isn’t new at all (just ask anyone south of the Mason-Dixon line who grew up on them). Elvis loved them long before they became America’s new franchise obsession. “Elvis splurged on Krispy Kremes in a big way,” Adler wrote. “He consumed about a box at a time. Jelly doughnuts were his favorite. They were purchased for him at the local Piggly Wiggly — Krispy Kreme didn’t open a store in Memphis until after Elvis died. When they did open it, they built it near Graceland.”
And now Krispy Kreme is known throughout the country — soon to open in Newington — with plans to go global. The first international store opened just outside Toronto in December with franchise interests in Europe, Asia, Mexico, Australia, South America and Africa. Elvis’ doughnut of choice is poised on world domination.
Treat Me Slice: You think the designer pizza revolution began with Wolfgang Puck? Think again. Elvis was designer pizza’s first celebrity champion.
While Elvis could have eaten anything he wanted, from anywhere in the world, one of his most intense cravings was for pizza from just minutes away from Graceland. Elvis didn’t like regular pizza; he demanded specialty pies from Coletta’s Italian Restaurant in Memphis. Barbecue pizza.
Say what? Yep, Coletta’s invented barbecue pizza pie in the 1950s and it was the King’s favorite. The pie was topped with barbecue sauce (instead of tomato sauce), chopped barbecue meat and cheese. Elvis liked the pizza so much he had a charge account at Coletta’s and Col. Parker received the bills. Elvis ordered two or three pies at a time.
Salmon and caviar pizza? Sun-dried tomato and asparagus? Goat cheese and truffle oil? Devils in disguise! Thanks to Elvis, the barbecue pizza is the first designer pie.
Don’t Craw Daddy: There were smidges of vegan and ovo-lacto leanings in Elvis that vegetarians might have appreciated. For one, he did not eat seafood, even fried catfish, which was a Southern staple. Although he recorded several well-known songs about shellfish, including “Song of the Shrimp,” “Do the Clam” and “Clambake,” Elvis generally avoided fish, according to the cookbook “Are You Hungry Tonight?” by Brenda Arlene Butler. “He even asked Priscilla not to eat fish around him,” Butler wrote.
For another, Elvis loved fresh tomatoes. “A sure way to the King’s heart was with a big plate of sliced beefsteak tomatoes,” Butler wrote. “Freshly sliced tomatoes were a true favorite of his, and no meal served in his memory should begin without them.” This is one heart-healthy habit has since been shown to have effective anti-cancer properties. Tomatoes, you see, contain an important carotenoid called lycopene, which appears to be effective in preventing certain cancers and heart disease.
Again, Elvis ahead of the curve!
Return to Slender: Elvis on a diet? Absolutely. After all, he had to find some way to lose the 50 pounds he gained between gigs during the Vegas years. While he did consume diet pills, he also was a great advocate of exercise and traditional workouts to keep thin. He had a racquetball court built at Graceland, and when he was there he played almost daily. He also enjoyed playing football in Graceland’s backyard.
But Elvis got his biggest athletic thrill from karate. Both he and Priscilla were active in the karate world (Priscilla trained with Chuck Norris). Elvis even took her to the Grand Karate Tournament in Honolulu in 1968 where she met the man she was to leave Elvis for in 1972 — International Grand Champion Mike Stone.
Elvis loved the kicks, chops and lunges of karate and even built them into his stage acts, complete with karate uniforms. Hey, this is decades before anyone ever heard of aerobics or Tai bo training. Yet another example of Elvis way out front.
