The Habit Michelle Obama Gave Up For Her Daughter Malia

Michelle Obama made waves by providing nutritious meal and snack options for kids across the United States while Barack Obama was in office. What many don't know; however, is the former first lady's own eating habits.

She sat down with NPR's Michele Norris in 2023 for the first episode of the "Your Mama's Kitchen" podcast when she revealed a few of her more obscure palate preferences. She detailed growing up with an athlete, her older brother Craig, in the house. "We had big breakfasts," she said, "so it was everything — cereal followed by scrambled or fried eggs followed by lots of toast and bacon and link sausage." While that may sound like the breakfast of champions for some, Michelle had a different attitude about the feast. She admitted that she didn't particularly enjoy breakfast, but she couldn't avoid the meal as a whole, so she proceeded to eat peanut butter and jelly sandwiches every morning until she went to college.

Michelle had to officially put the scheduled sandwich to bed as her oldest daughter Malia Sasha has a peanut allergy. Keeping peanut butter out of the house was a small sacrifice to make, as Michelle mentioned she had grown tired of the three-ingredient meal. Not to mention her culinary partiality had widened significantly. "I'm big into all of it now," she said. "Give me eggs Benedict. Any eggs, any way."

When it was time for their family to move into the White House after the 2008 election, Michelle and Barack Obama did what they could to make sure Malia and Sasha Obama felt supported — and we're not only talking about passing on the peanut butter. The former president and first lady made several sacrifices to ensure their daughters lived an as-normal-as-possible lifestyle, which included forgoing a few of the luxuries the White House had to offer. In doing so, Sasha and Malia did chores around the White House to earn their allowance; they worked normal jobs when their father was in office. 

Other factors added to keeping Malia and Sasha firmly grounded while surrounded by luxury. In a 2013 Amazon Kindle Singles interview, Barack Obama sat down with David Blum and expressed the multitude of things that not only kept his daughters feeling as ordinary as possible, but helped shape their work ethic. "Malia and Sasha have cousins who know what it's like to struggle and know what it's like to have to scrape by," he said. "They know that those kids are just as worthy as they are, they just haven't had as much luck." Their methods seemed to have worked, as Malia has gone on to have a successful career in the film industry, and Sasha graduated with a sociology degree from the University of Southern California.