The battle of the Bidens' taste buds - First Lady Jill takes on President Joe's junk food cravings

Food feud at the Biden White House as First Lady Jill pushes for seafood and greens, but President Joe favors beige-coloured comfort foods.

It's a clash of the culinary titans in the Biden White House. President Joe Biden has always had a penchant for beige-coloured foods, much to the dismay of First Lady Jill Biden, who is determined to introduce more greens and seafood to the presidential diet.

FILE - President Joe Biden laughs as he speaks during the White House Correspondents' Association dinner at the Washington Hilton in Washington, Saturday, April 29, 2023. As Biden, the oldest president in U.S. history, embarks on his reelection campaign, he is increasingly musing aloud about his advanced age, cracking self-deprecating jokes and framing his decades in public life as a plus, hoping to persuade voters his age is an asset rather than a vulnerability. (AP)

The stakes are high, as aides and the first lady alike are scrambling to keep the 80-year-old president healthy as he prepares to run for a second term. But with the commander-in-chief stubbornly sticking to his comfort foods, Jill is facing an uphill battle.

According to insiders, Joe Biden's favorite dishes include peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, BLT's, pizza, cookies, spaghetti with butter and red sauce, and ice cream - lots of ice cream. He even has a go-to order at D.C.'s Taqueria Habanero - churros and a chicken quesadilla.

The president's sister, Val, can attest to the first lady's valiant efforts to sway her brother's taste buds. During a private dinner in September 2021, Jill served salmon in a pastry shell with a medley of vegetables. But the president wasn't exactly thrilled with the healthy fare.

"Damn, she makes me eat this healthy stuff all the time," he reportedly complained, as Val recounts in her memoir. Biden may have grudgingly eaten his salmon, but he made up for it later by indulging in some lemon pound cake and a carton of Breyer's chocolate chip ice cream.

The president's food preferences may be a source of amusement for some, but his physical health is no laughing matter. Biden works out with a physical therapist, Drew Contreras, many mornings, and has even shared his fitness routine with actor Jason Bateman during a podcast interview last November.

But the president is the first to admit that fitness is more challenging at his age. "The difference in age, if I let it go for a week I feel it," he told the hosts. "I used to be able to go for a week and nothing would change."

So, what's a first lady to do when her husband is set in his ways? It seems that Jill Biden is not one to back down from a challenge. We may never know who will emerge victorious in the battle of the Bidens' taste buds, but one thing is for sure - there's never a dull moment in the White House, even when it comes to what's on the president's plate.