--- title: Obama Wants Us to Know That He's Flexible With His Snacks description: President Obama sets the record straight about his late-night snack of choice (and no, it's not exactly seven almonds every night). canonical: https://time.com/4429210/president-obama-seven-almonds/ author: Raisa Bruner article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-07-28T19:26:32.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:34:54.717Z og:title: Obama Wants Us to Know That He's Flexible With His Snacks og:description: President Obama sets the record straight about those almonds og:url: https://time.com/4429210/president-obama-seven-almonds/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blteff477ca00d77027/6988a02bcf40a8815fc4440e/obama-dnc-smiling.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4711 og:image:height: 2650 og:image:alt: Democratic National Convention: Day Three og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Obama Wants Us to Know That He's Flexible With His Snacks twitter:description: President Obama sets the record straight about those almonds twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blteff477ca00d77027/6988a02bcf40a8815fc4440e/obama-dnc-smiling.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # President Obama Wants Us to Know He Sometimes Eats More Than 7 Almonds > Sponsored content. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=14d14f51-1f5a-41c9-8029-f9dc8ff2320b&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1)  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Jul 28, 2016 7:26 PM UTC  PHILADELPHIA, PA - JULY 27: US President Barack Obama delivers remarks on the third day of the Democratic National Convention at the Wells Fargo Center, July 27, 2016 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton received the number of votes needed to secure the party's nomination. An estimated 50,000 people are expected in Philadelphia, including hundreds of protesters and members of the media. The four-day Democratic National Convention kicked off July 25\. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images) PHILADELPHIA, PA - JULY 27: US President Barack Obama delivers remarks on the third day of the Democratic National Convention at the Wells Fargo Center, July 27, 2016 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton received the number of votes needed to secure the party's nomination. An estimated 50,000 people are expected in Philadelphia, including hundreds of protesters and members of the media. The four-day Democratic National Convention kicked off July 25\. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images) Alex Wong—Getty Images  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Jul 28, 2016 7:26 PM UTC President Obama is a disciplined man. So disciplined, in fact, that it didn’t surprise many when a recent [_New York Times_ article](http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/03/us/politics/obama-after-dark-the-precious-hours-alone.html?%5Fr=0) reported that his late-night snack of choice was [exactly seven “lightly salted” almonds.](http://time.com/4392169/barack-obama-late-night-routine/?iid=sr-link1) “Not six, not eight,” White House chef Sam Kass told the [_Times_.](http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/03/us/politics/obama-after-dark-the-precious-hours-alone.html?%5Fr=0) But on the [TODAY Show](http://www.today.com/news/no-president-obama-doesn-t-eat-exactly-7-almonds-every-t101245) Thursday, Obama was happy to have the chance to set the record straight about this oddly specific habit. Spoiler alert: it’s inaccurate. “This is an example of the weird way that the press works,” Mr. Obama told host Savannah Guthrie. “Michelle and Sam Kass, who was our chef here, one night they were talking about me and teasing me about how disciplined I was, that I didn’t have potato chips or I didn’t have a piece of cake. And this is when Michelle said, ‘Yes, and he just has seven almonds. That’s it.’ To really drive home the point that I needed to loosen up a little bit. And Sam relayed this joke to the _New York Times_ in the article and somehow it was relayed as if I was counting out the seven almonds. All my friends were calling up to say, ‘This seems a little anal. This is a little weird.'” “After the White House, are you going to let yourself go and have, like, 10 or 11 almonds?” Guthrie asked. “Absolutely. But, you know, almonds are a good snack. I strongly recommend them,” Obama added. And then: “I am so glad I had this opportunity… This has been really weighing on me.” > [](https://twitter.com/SavannahGuthrie/status/758677432190824448) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4429210/president-obama-seven-almonds/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4429210/president-obama-seven-almonds/"},"headline":"President Obama Wants Us to Know He Sometimes Eats More Than 7 Almonds","datePublished":"2016-07-28T19:26:32.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:34:54.717Z","description":"No, he doesn't count out exactly seven almonds every evening","url":"https://time.com/4429210/president-obama-seven-almonds/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Barack Obama","Food & Drink","White House"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blteff477ca00d77027/6988a02bcf40a8815fc4440e/obama-dnc-smiling.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Raisa Bruner","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blteff477ca00d77027/6988a02bcf40a8815fc4440e/obama-dnc-smiling.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Democratic National Convention: Day Three","caption":"Democratic National Convention: Day Three","creditText":"Alex Wong—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4429210/president-obama-seven-almonds/","name":"President Obama Wants Us to Know He Sometimes Eats More Than 7 Almonds"}}]}] ```