Jim Gaffigan Reveals His Surprisingly Healthy Diet - Exclusive

There are many things to be loved about Jim Gaffigan. But his self-deprecation — often centered around his love of food — is what many fans find to be oh-so relatable about the comedian. (You may remember his hilarious bit about Hot Pockets from 2006.) Though he hasn't slowed down on delivering the quality food-related material we all crave, a seriously slimmed-down Gaffigan appeared (in the style of Tim Walz) on the Season 50 premiere of Saturday Night Live on September 28, 2024.

We actually got the chance to chat with Gaffigan back in 2020, when he was promoting his Grammy-nominated comedy series, "Jim Gaffigan, The Pale Tourist." He explained then that he maintained a pretty healthy diet when he wasn't eating for work, so to speak. In an exclusive interview with Mashed, Gaffigan told us how he was trying to structure his eating habits and why he typically tries to steer clear of sugar, though it was never far from his heart.

When we spoke to Jim Gaffigan in 2020, he said that he made it a point to avoid simple sugars and carbohydrates — most of the time. "I'm trying to not eat bread or sugar," Gaffigan said. "So it's rather depressing, but I would say I cheat, you know what I mean?" Rather than diving into America's best hits of chocolate cake, his idea of a cheat is a little more simple, however: just a bit of bread with dinner, when the recipe calls for it. "So whether it be bratwurst, or a hamburger, I'll have a bun, you know what I mean?"

For the most part, he tried to leave sugar behind, "except for, I'm eating a lot of fruit," he threw in. "A friend of mine made pickles, you know? Pickled things." He happened to have some pickled juice in a mason jar on hand. Further challenging any preconceptions we might have of the comedian as an all-you-can-eat-buffet dweller, Gaffigan shared that he had also taken up gardening. He held up an oversized vegetable and pretended to talk into it. 

"This is my zucchini phone, where I talk to people on the phone. It's a zucchini phone from the '80s!" Though he admitted that his seemingly infectious love of vegetables was, at least in part, an act for his children's benefit. "I definitely pretend to be more interested in vegetables than I would have otherwise," Gaffigan said.

Although he told us back in 2020 that he had largely cut them out of his diet, Jim Gaffigan also made it clear that sweets and snacks still held a special place in his heart. He even kept empty snack boxes in his home office, using them as props, or memorabilia, or both, perhaps. "So this Twinkies and Ding Dong box is what I'm supporting my computer on, because, to make it eye level, I guess? I don't know," he said, holding up an enormous box he'd had his laptop perched upon. Gaffigan said that he still got cravings for foods he was no longer eating, though. "I mean, I love chips. I wish I could eat chips. I'm trying to not eat chips. But [it's] a real guilty pleasure."

In case you're wondering whether he is more of a salty or a sweet kind of guy, the comic admits that ice cream is his go-to treat. "But I also, I've got kids, so there's candy. I went through my 20s and there was no candy around. And then I had kids, and there's suddenly candy bars," he explained. "So I love a candy bar, and then there's the fake candy bars — there's these KIND bars, which are supposedly healthy, but they're just sugar." Another food Gaffigan dreams about is a relic from his past: "I have a strange attachment to bologna," he shared. "I would say bologna ... feels like childhood."