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Home » Diets that Work » Pies, kombucha, burgers and Red Bull: The party leaders reveal their campaign diets – The Spinoff

We asked the people vying for our votes how theyre keeping their minds sharp and bodies fuelled for the final stretch of the campaign marathon.

What New Zealands political party leaders eat isnt usually something many of us give much thought to, but come election time, when theyre out and about winning votes, politicians kai is in the public eye.

Food is political, as we witnessed during Wednesdays Newshub leaders debate, when moderator Paddy Gower asked Jacinda Ardern and Judith Collins how often they eat meat. Both said twice a week, then demurred when Gower clarified that fish counts as meat. When asked whether they thought New Zealanders should eat less meat for the good of the planet, both leaders answers Arderns eat New Zealand meat! and Collins Im not a communist! showed how politically sensitive the issue is.

Tuckers not always as controversial, of course sometimes food simply provides a way for politicians to show theyre ordinary people and meet their constituents. Collins visited a farmers market in Napier yesterday, telling supporters via a Facebook video that she bought sourdough, coffee, cheese and olive oil. The Herald was there too, and reported that the women running the dumpling food truck were disappointed Collins wasnt a customer, so the National leader had to explain she would have indulged if it werent for the threat of a picture of her eating ending up in the press.

Who can blame her, really, when you think of the photos of former National prime minister John Key tucking in that will exist forever on the internet and burnished into our brains.

But of course food is also just fuel, and it must be a bit rough at times keeping crazy hours as you flit from town to town, event to event, and you cant even sample a dumpling without fear of an unflattering snap ending up in the media. Its enough to make anyone hangry.

On that note, we asked the leaders of Labour, National, Act, the Green Party and NZ First about their campaign diets. We received answers from all but Winston Peters, who we can only presume subsists on the odd cheeky dart and an occasional sip of apple juice.

Jacinda Ardern buys a sandwich during a walkabout at Riverside Market in Christchurch in September (Photo: Kai Schwoerer/Getty Images)

My campaign diet is terrible. I go from being really earnest about having a healthy breakfast, to the campaign period where I just have coffee and a muesli bar (and when I say muesli bar, I mean hash brown). I carry food in my bag. None of it especially appealing, which is why I probably eat things like toasted sandwiches and pies more during a campaign than usual I skip meals, end up hungry, and go for fast comfort food. I hope my mother doesnt read this (shes often the reason I have healthy snacks in my bag).

Kieran McAnulty [Wairarapa Labour list MP] almost lost his place in caucus when he neglected to stop at my favourite bakery in his electorate. Im still miffed. But I recently visited The Golden Kiwi, the fish and chip shop in Morrinsville I worked at from when I was 14 years old until I left school, every single Friday night. They have a small restaurant. I had fish, chips, sausage, and a token salad. My old bosses Carol and Grant still run the show, and it was as good as I remember.

Judith Collins checks out the pastries at a stall at the Napier farmers market yesterday (Photo: Kerry Marshall/Getty Images)

Other than drinking a lot of tea and water, my diet hasnt changed at all. Im trying to eat healthily during the campaign, although occasionally I do indulge in a no-sugar cola and have even had a kombucha.

Marama Davidson, probably thinking about RJs raspberry chocolate twists (Photo: Hannah Peters/Getty Images)

My daily diet is sometimes terrible, and has included a dinner of a day-old muffin from a dairy because I had a very small window after a late night event to eat anything before I had to get to sleep for a 5.30am taxi. I do try to at least start off right, with my own homemade smoothie of greens and fruit and egg, but I dont always get to pop that in, especially when travelling. I think in short, my campaign diet has room to improve. A petrol station pie is sadly a menu regular. The nights that Im with whnau are normally the best people who make food for me with aroha and care are the strongest part of campaign resilience. RJs raspberry chocolate twists are also a campaign trail winner for me, and New Plymouth Airport caf saved my puku rumbles recently after hopping off a plane one morning without having had breakfast and about to head out on a full day.

James Shaw cooking breakfast at Waitangi on Waitangi Day this year (Photo: Fiona Goodall/Getty Images)

There is no pattern to my campaign diet on any given day Ill eat a healthy lunch prepared for me by Green Party volunteers between events, fish and chips at a pub round the corner from the next meet-the-candidates evening, anything in between, or nothing at all. I stopped by the Clareville Bakery outside of Carterton recently and had a steak and red wine pie. It was exceptional. But everything in the cabinet looked exceptional too. If I lived anywhere near there Id die a death-by-baked-goods. And be happy about it.

David Seymour celebrating the All Blacks World Cup win with a beer in 2015 (Photo: Toby Manhire)

My campaign diets pretty bad Im down to 70kg. The two burgers Wisconsin and Fuel are fuelling my campaign. I regard that as a form of health food, given the quality of the vegetation on it. You get some really fresh lettuce on some of those burgers. And a lot of Red Bull.

The Spinoff Weekly compiles the best stories of the week an essential guide to modern life in New Zealand, emailed out on Monday evenings.

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Pies, kombucha, burgers and Red Bull: The party leaders reveal their campaign diets - The Spinoff

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Home » Diets that Work » Pies, kombucha, burgers and Red Bull: The party leaders reveal their campaign diets – The Spinoff