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Mayor Adams follows a plant-based diet that he talks about all the time. So I tried it.

Giulia Heyward

Published Aug 19, 2023

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pasta with sweet potatoes

Giulia Heyward

Published Aug 19, 2023

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Welcome to ‘I tried it,’ an ongoing series in which our reporters try novel or trendy experiences in New York — so you can decide if you want to.

It’s an understatement to say that New York City Mayor Eric Adams cares a lot about his food.

The origin story of his “veganism” goes like this: In 2016, Adams – then the Brooklyn borough president – was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes, which he was able to reverse after switching to a whole food, plant-based diet.

Years later, the diet stuck, and so did Adams' reputation for a wellness-focused lifestyle. The mayor – who is also known for taking the occasional ice bath and working out in his office – has made his healthy lifestyle a frequent fixture of his policies.

A little over a month after taking office, Adams implemented Vegan Fridays at the city’s public schools and later began offering financial incentives to grocery stores that supply healthy foods. He’s also connected patients who have diabetes and high blood pressure with medical professionals who will guide them through plant-based diets. In April, he announced a plan to begin tracking the carbon footprint of New Yorkers’ household food consumption, which is driven by meat and dairy consumption.

Pictures of his meals have gone viral on social media, notably a recent “vegan pasta” dish shared on his Instagram – an enormous lump of beige that involves layering black beans, sweet potato and mushroom onto a bowl of vegan spaghetti with no oil.

The mayor’s vegan bonafides have recently come into question: Last year, a Politico investigation revealed that the mayor occasionally enjoys branzino at Osteria La Baia in Midtown, and this month, a New Yorker profile revealed that Adams enjoys nibbling on chicken.

Here, oats are paired with berries.

Giulia Heyward

But the occasional dalliance aside, it’s safe to say he eats much better than most of us.

As someone who covers city politics, the intrigue around the mayor’s diet is undeniable. Because I spend some time covering and therefore thinking about the mayor, I wanted to understand the hype. Did Adams have the secret for a diet that would transform my life and make it better? Would I end the week with mayoral swagger?

I pulled recipes from his social media posts and his memoir-slash-cookbook "Healthy At Last" and decided to find out.

The most stressful grocery trip of my life

After perusing the recipes, I drafted a plan for the entire week. My shopping list basically boiled down to an assemblage of produce (think lots of sweet potato and berries) with a handful of grocery items I had never heard of – or seen – before (think arrowroot and moringa powder). He’s also got some interesting food combinations, like dropping pieces of pear into his soups and using applesauce instead of oil to make bread.

I headed over to my usual Trader Joe’s and purchased several days' worth of groceries, enough for a dozen meals, for $47.99. I was helped along the way by not one, not two, but three different employees who helped me find the sesame oil and flaxseeds.

I made Eric Adams' pasta that went viral on social media.

Giulia Heyward

Day 1: “The Pasta”

“Black beans? In pasta?” My madre, an Italian woman who immigrated to the U.S. in the ‘90s, asked me over the phone that morning.

I laughed.

I’d woken up that morning excited to tinker with my hand-me-down Magic Bullet and chop a bunch of vegetables. I hummed to myself as I blended an apple, a handful of berries and a banana. The shake definitely tasted healthy, but was easy to swallow. So far so good.

Around lunchtime, the day took a turn when my sweet potato soup – made of the pureed product, spices and tap water – was still too lumpy and I decided to pour the hot liquid into my Magic Bullet. Here I learned more about myself than about our mayor: never blend burning hot soup. The meal exploded all over my counter and left me with a gnarly burn on my left hand, which I’m still rubbing with aloe vera as I write this.

The soup was not a smashing success.

Giulia Heyward

For dinner, I opted for a meal I could make in my sleep: pasta. His book has several options and I went for the infamous dish he posted on Instagram – pasta topped with sweet potato, mushrooms and black beans – hoping it might taste better than it looks.

Nope.

In this case, the pictures did not lie, and it was absolutely disgusting. In a city with some of the best restaurants in the world, here I was consuming the driest, blandest meal imaginable. The black bean and pasta mixture made no sense, like I was eating two different meals at once.

I went to bed with a fairly empty stomach, which made falling asleep incredibly easy. In fact, I found myself needing naps at least once a day this week.

Day 2: The taco salad

I approached the second day with trepidation. Breakfast was easy: I went with a bowl of oatmeal with berries, the simplest and easiest to prepare. However, lunch called for a taco salad, swapping in mushrooms and walnuts instead of beef. I found myself longing for something that provided the same level of heartiness as meat – like sautéed tofu, tempeh or seitan. I imagined that even sautéing it with taco seasoning would have made it more edible.

The taco salad

Giulia Heyward

Instead, I suffered through the “taco salad” with a handful of kale. At this point, I was so hungry, I didn’t even care what it tasted like.

For dinner, I ditched one recipe from Healthy At Last and instead opted for a simple black bean soup from Healthy At Last, which surprisingly went down like water.

Day 3: Oats, oats and more oats

Oatmeal has never been my favorite, but as a busy reporter these days, it’s become my salvation. Adams has several recipes for rolled oats paired with nuts and berries that are the closest thing to something I would normally consume.

I had two separate bowls of oatmeal: one topped with walnuts, blueberries, raspberries and bananas. For lunch, I poured some unsweetened almond milk over the oats, which instantly elevated the experience.

Why did I have oatmeal for breakfast and lunch? In truth, I was stalling on making another pasta dish of the mayor’s. The one I’d planned to prepare called for a bowl of pasta topped with vegan sausage and mushrooms, but included a handful of kale on top. There was no sauce or oil, just a pile of raw kale. I had two bites and then pushed the bowl away, unable to continue. I went to bed hungry.

Day 4: Sweet, sweet defeat

I couldn’t stomach yet another bowl of oatmeal or blitzed produce, so I skipped breakfast altogether. I admit it: I slept through an alarm and didn’t have time to prepare a recipe before my first meeting.

I managed to ignore the hunger initially, but by afternoon, when a friend texted, asking if I wanted to get sushi, I knew I had reached my breaking point.

Around 2 p.m., I inhaled three salmon avocado rolls, a small side of spicy mayo and a Diet Coke. And in that brief moment, my $14 sushi order tasted just as decadent as a $42 branzino from an upscale Italian restaurant in Midtown. I messaged an editor to share my defeat and uploaded a photo of my meal to social media. I had stuck to the mayor’s diet for roughly 80 hours total.

What to know before trying to eat like Eric Adams

It’s really restrictive.

I want to be very clear here – vegan food can be delicious. Yet the restrictions the mayor touts in his memoir-slash-cookbook felt extreme even by usual vegan standards – and reminded me of the health-obsessed Soylent-drinkers in San Francisco. Some may find this efficient; I found it too constricting.

It kept things simple – in a good way.

I definitely ate more servings of fruits and vegetables in a couple of days than I normally do each week. I also enjoyed the simplicity of most of his meals – most of what I ate could be blended, sautéed or microwaved in minutes.

Despite how healthy everything was, I didn’t feel better.

I was sluggish and tired most days and I felt myself getting more irritable around others. I weighed myself the night before I began this journey and dropped a pound-and-a-half by Wednesday night. It turns out little things like cheese and olive oil bring regular joy to my life.

Tagged

Mayor Eric Adams

I Tried It

Giulia Heyward

Giulia Heyward is a breaking news reporter on the Day-Of desk. She previously worked at NPR, as a breaking news reporter, and the New York Times, as a reporting fellow on the national desk. Her work has also appeared in CNN, The Atlantic and Politico. Got a tip? Email [email protected] or more securely on signal at 917-715-1458.

Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations

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