The 2-Ingredient Drink Marilyn Monroe Always Had For Breakfast

Think back to the most iconic stars of the previous century, and Marilyn Monroe is sure to figure in most lists. While this bombshell was known for her smoldering looks and highly-rated acting chops, the thing you may not know about her is that she was also a domestic goddess and thoroughly enjoyed cooking. However, busy girls on the go rarely have time to cook elaborate dishes, so when it came to her own daily eats, she survived on quick and easy-to-make high-protein meals that helped her maintain her energy levels.

The two-ingredient drink Marilyn Monroe always had for breakfast was, perhaps, unexpected — it consisted of two raw eggs and hot milk. This mixture may sound surprising to you, but eggs in drinks aren't shocking. For example, many traditional recipes for the tasty Christmas drink eggnog contain raw eggs. In fact, raw eggs can also seriously elevate an average cocktail. So, maybe Monroe was on to something big!

In a tell-all piece about her dietary habits and exercise regime published in Pageant magazine in 1952 (via Into the Gloss), Monroe shared, "Before I take my morning shower, I start warming a cup of milk on the hot plate I keep in my hotel room. When it's hot, I break two raw eggs into the milk, whip them up with a fork, and drink them while I'm dressing." She supplemented this interesting mixture with one multivitamin pill, and rounded off by saying, "I doubt if any doctor could recommend a more nourishing breakfast for a working girl in a hurry."

It seemed she skipped lunch as there is no mention of that meal. For dinner, she would pick some kind of meat — steak, lamb chops, and liver being her preferred choices — from the local market. She would broil these in her electric oven and eat them with a few raw carrots every night. Her one indulgence in terms of meals was a hot fudge sundae from Wil Wright's ice cream parlor in California.

While people may worry about falling ill if they eat raw eggs due to potential salmonella bacteria, a concoction of raw eggs and protein shakes has been consumed by bodybuilders for ages. Why? It's believed to aid with muscular strength. There is undoubtedly a risk of exposure to salmonella, however, as per data collected in the 1990s, only one in 20,000 eggs contains that risk (per Slate).

Even so, there are other things to keep in mind before you try this breakfast drink for yourself. The first is that it may taste quite bland restricted to just the two ingredients. So, you could spruce it up by cooking the eggs and milk with nutmeg and vanilla extract (thereby also reducing the risk of exposure to salmonella). Interestingly, followers of the ancient Indian system of medicine of Ayurveda should avoid it as the discipline does not promote the mixture of two proteins together in a meal. Whether you like the idea of raw egg in the morning, or would rather have yours scrambled in an omelet, it's a fascinating glance into Marilyn Monroe's daily life.