What Did Tesla Like to Eat? Exploring the Inventor's Unusual Diet

December 11, 2025 •

4 min read

In his autobiography, Nikola Tesla stated that his diet was one of the most important elements of his life plan, viewing his body as a machine that required proper fueling. This perspective drove his minimalist eating habits, which leads many to wonder: what did Tesla like to eat to maintain his legendary mental and physical stamina?

Quick Summary

Nikola Tesla famously adhered to a simple diet, typically eating only two meals a day, with a heavy emphasis on vegetables, eggs, and milk. He avoided meat for health and ethical reasons in his later years, favoring simple, boiled, or stewed foods to maximize mental clarity and longevity.

Key Points

Two Meals Daily: Tesla adopted a two-meal-a-day schedule, believing it improved his health and mental function by reducing the burden on his digestive system.
Mostly Vegetarian: In his later years, Tesla became a near-vegetarian, significantly reducing and eventually almost eliminating meat consumption for both health and ethical reasons.
Favored Vegetables: He heavily favored simple, boiled vegetables like celery, onions, and potatoes, often mixed with a large amount of butter for easy digestion.
Eggs and Milk for Breakfast: His typical breakfast consisted of warm milk and egg whites, which he considered easily digestible and rich in protein.
Abstained from Stimulants: Tesla quit coffee, cigars, and other stimulants, though his view on alcohol was inconsistent over his lifetime.
Simple Dessert: He would occasionally finish his evening meal with a simple piece of fruit, such as an apple.
Avoided Acidic Foods: He deliberately avoided acidic foods, such as peas and beans, which he believed introduced harmful uric acid into the body and shortened lifespan.

Tesla's Philosophy: Food as Fuel

Nikola Tesla viewed food not as a source of indulgence but as fuel for his body, which he treated like a finely-tuned machine. He believed that overindulgence and the consumption of rich, acidic foods burdened the digestive system, thereby detracting energy and focus from the mind. This philosophy informed his lifelong pursuit of a simple, clean diet, which evolved significantly over the years.

He experimented with different meal schedules, starting with multiple meals per day and eventually settling on just two. He was an early proponent of what we now call intermittent fasting, skipping lunch entirely. Tesla reasoned that the process of digesting a large midday meal diverted blood and energy from the brain to the stomach, reducing efficiency.

The Evolution of Tesla's Diet

Tesla's eating habits were not static; they changed and adapted throughout his life, reflecting his evolving philosophies on health and longevity. While he grew up in a culture where meat was common, he gradually reduced and eventually eliminated it from his diet, becoming a near-vegetarian in his later years.

His diet became a reflection of his ascetic lifestyle, driven by a desire for self-preservation and mental clarity. He claimed to eat meat only once or twice a year, preferring vegetables, dairy, and eggs, specifically avoiding the yolks which he believed contained too much uric acid. This move toward vegetarianism was not just for health, but also based on ethical and environmental beliefs.

Staple Foods on Tesla's Menu

Tesla's diet was built on a foundation of simple, easily digestible foods. His meals were predictable and sparse, a stark contrast to the lavish meals enjoyed by many of his contemporaries. Here is a closer look at the foods that were staples in his daily life:

Breakfast: A glass or two of warm milk and a few eggs, particularly the whites. Milk was considered a 'complete food' and a reliable source of protein and fat to start his workday.
Dinner: A simple meal, often centered around a nourishing vegetable soup. He particularly enjoyed a cooked mixture of chopped onions and celery, prepared with a large amount of butter, which he found easy to digest. He also ate potatoes and other root vegetables regularly.
Fruit: A favorite of Tesla's was the simple apple, which he would have for dessert. He believed fruits provided the purest form of natural sugar and were beneficial for digestion.
Meat and Fish: Consumed very rarely, sometimes as little as once or twice a year, and often preferring fowl or leaner fish.

A Comparison: Tesla's Diet vs. His Era

To understand just how unusual Tesla's diet was, it's useful to compare it to the typical eating habits of a wealthy American in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The differences highlight Tesla's unique, health-focused approach.


Aspect	Nikola Tesla's Diet	Typical Contemporary Diet
Meal Frequency	Two meals per day (breakfast and dinner), skipping lunch.	Often three or more large meals a day, plus snacks.
Meat Consumption	Very rare; sometimes only once or twice a year.	Hefty portions of meat (steaks, chops) common at dinner, and sometimes breakfast.
Vegetable Emphasis	High consumption of boiled and simple vegetables like celery, onions, and potatoes.	Vegetables often a small side dish, not a centerpiece.
Dairy	Relied heavily on milk and sometimes cheese.	Standard but not a centerpiece of the diet for protein.
Stimulants	Actively avoided coffee and tobacco; quit stimulants entirely later in life.	Coffee was a common part of breakfast; cigars and other stimulants were popular.
Sweets	Primarily limited to fruit, such as an apple.	Elaborate cakes, pies, and rich desserts were common.

The Impact of Tesla's Diet

Tesla's disciplined eating habits were part of a broader, ascetic lifestyle that included limited sleep and long hours of work. While not a conventional diet by any standard, it clearly worked for him, allowing him to live to 86—a notably advanced age for his time. His focus on whole foods, limited meals, and avoiding excess has surprising parallels to modern health trends like intermittent fasting and plant-based diets.

While some of his specific beliefs, such as the avoidance of egg yolks due to uric acid, might be viewed differently today, his overall philosophy of using food to enhance mental and physical performance is a testament to his commitment to self-optimization. He famously stated, "I did not know what life was until I eliminated lunch".

For more insight into his life, you can explore the PBS page on his history and dinner parties at Delmonico's, where his unique habits surely stood out.

Conclusion: The Ultimate Biohacker

Nikola Tesla's diet was more than just a preference; it was a deeply considered part of his unique lifestyle and pursuit of optimal mental clarity. From his early meat consumption to his later vegetarian phase and commitment to two simple meals a day, his choices were always guided by the principle of treating his body as an efficient machine. His eating habits, though peculiar to his peers, foreshadowed modern-day health movements focused on minimalist eating and mindful fuel for the body and mind. What did Tesla like to eat? The answer is simple: food for thought, not for excess.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nikola Tesla became a near-vegetarian in his later life. While he did eat meat sparingly (sometimes just once or twice a year), he primarily relied on a diet of vegetables, milk, eggs, and fruits.

Tesla believed that eating a midday lunch diverted energy from the brain to the digestive system, impeding his mental activities. By skipping lunch and eating only a small breakfast and a simple dinner, he felt he could maintain higher mental clarity.

Tesla's favorite dish was a cooked mixture of chopped onions and celery prepared with a great deal of butter, which he found easy to digest and ate for many years.

Yes, milk and eggs were staples of Tesla's diet. He often started his day with warm milk and eggs, specifically favoring the egg whites and discarding the yolks to avoid uric acid.

While Tesla consumed meat more regularly in his younger years, he almost completely stopped eating it in his later life, limiting it to perhaps once or twice a year. He preferred fish or poultry when he did.

Tesla actively avoided coffee and cigars, calling coffee a 'rank poison'. His stance on alcohol was less consistent; he enjoyed it earlier in life, once calling it a 'veritable elixir of life,' but eventually quit it as well.

Tesla’s core philosophy was that the body is a machine that requires efficient, clean fuel to operate at its peak. He believed that eating simply and avoiding excess would maximize his mental clarity and lead to a longer, healthier life.