King Charles follows a rigid diet but doesn't eat lunch. Here's why

King Charles's cancer diagnosis also put the spotlight on his lifestyle.

King Charles's cancer diagnosis came as a shock to many including the 75-year-old monarch who has always ensured he maintained a strict diet and rigid daily exercise routine.

Apart from being affected by Covid twice and several injuries from a lengthy polo career, King Charles has lived an impressively healthy life.  Now, however, he will have to step away temporarily from public-facing duties.

The news of his cancer diagnosis also put the spotlight on his lifestyle and one of its most noticeable traits is that the monarch does not have lunch.

Gordon Rayner, former royal correspondent at The Telegraph, had earlier said that King Charles believes lunch is a “luxury” that interferes with his busy schedule.

The British monarch's former press secretary Julian Payne told the Independent: “The King doesn’t eat lunch; so, an early lesson I learnt when out on the road with him was to have a big breakfast or bring a few snack bars with you to keep you going. The working day is pretty relentless. Beginning with the radio news headlines and a breakfast of seasonal fruit salad and seeds with tea.”

This was first revealed after a list of 70 facts was released to mark the then-Prince Charles’s 70th birthday. Fact number 20 read: “The Prince does not eat lunch.”

What the king does prefer are homemade bread with nutrient-rich flours such as rye and spelt and eggs and side salads with every meal. His favourite among them are coddled eggs that have been cooked for just two to three minutes. He reportedly enjoys mashing them into a creamy paste.

In an interview with the BBC in 2021, King Charles also shared that he abstains from meat and fish on two days of the week.

Read more: King Charles III diagnosed with cancer: Buckingham Palace