Forbes has released its annual "most powerful" list, and for the second straight year, Russian president Vladimir Putin tops it. The pale but physically primed head of the Kremlin once again beat out Barack Obama to earn one of the most enviable titles given out by a popular magazine. According to Forbes' Caroline Howard, the methodology behind the selection and ranking of the list involved considerations of factors like use of power and financial resources. But we have only one question for Mr. Putin: What do you eat for breakfast? You see, while Forbes has its finance and power experts, we have our mothers, and our mothers told us that a good breakfast is the first step to success. So in the spirit of maternal respect, we've decided to discuss some powerful people – but our discussion will be limited entirely to their breakfast choices.
- Randy Orton: OK, so Orton isn't "powerful" in the Forbes sense. That is, he doesn't have political clout or huge financial impact. But Orton is powerful in a way that Putin and Obama decidedly aren't, in that he's a large, vascular hunk of man. At 6'5'' and a billed 235 pounds, the WWE wrestler nicknamed "The Viper" has the kind of physique that Michelangelo would've seen fit to carve – not to mention a face that merges the best of Kurt Russell and Channing Tatum. Orton is raw power. But that doesn't come from genes and pumping iron alone – it also comes from his breakfast. Randy tweeted that one of his recent breakfasts consisted of frittata with sweet potato, caramelized onions, and turkey bacon. Lots of protein and omega-3 fatty acids there.
- Gwyneth Paltrow: Actress, lifestyle guru, food expert – is there anything she can't do? Far from just being the character with whom Shakespeare fell in love, Paltrow has staked out space for herself in the realms of cuisine and healthy living. But what is the breakfast that makes this all possible? Well, based on her book "It's All Good," her key to a robust breakfast is juicing. Not steroids, of course, but something even more vitalizing: breakfast juices! A typical Gwyneth juice involves some kale leaves (I mean, duh), mint, apple and ginger. From a glass of all that stuff blended together you're going to reap all kinds of benefits, including calcium and antioxidants. In a piece for The Cut, Rebecca Harrington tried the Paltrow diet and concluded the following: "It's an awesome way to live! If I wasn't going to go bankrupt to do it, I would follow the Gwyneth diet to the letter every day. The food is healthy, delicious, and filling, the recipes are not particularly complicated."
- Mark Zuckerberg: Many tech people rightly consider Zuckerberg to be just about the most powerful person around. And in that sphere, he is. Everybody in Silicon Valley knows his career trajectory and wants to model their lives after him. But do they know what he eats for breakfast? Probably not – until now. The answer is: nothing at all, at least according to a 2004 interview he did when Facebook was still thefacebook.com.
"The only time I eat breakfast is when I have meetings that early in the morning," he said at the time. "Usually it's a late lunch and then a late dinner and then a second dinner at Jack in the Box."
We'd imagine his eating habits have changed a bit since he earned his billions (no offense to Jack in the Box), but still, it's hard to picture him actually sitting down to eat anything.
