I’d give up a year of my life to eat what I like

Warren Buffett said he’s happiest when eating desert and drinking Coke — and would give up a year of his life to keep doing so.

“I always tell people: I found everything I like to eat by the time I was six,” Buffett said in an interview with Becky Quick on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” in Tokyo. “I mean, why should I fool around with all these other foods?”

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The 92-year-old, with a diet that famously consists of junk food and sugary beverages, said it would hypothetically be better to lose a year in his life than to eat foods considered healthier. The Berkshire Hathaway chairman and CEO is known for, among other habits, stopping at McDonald’s each day on the way to work for breakfast. And Buffett said he had Hershey kisses before the interview.

“I know all these people eat all these green things and everything,” he said. “But if somebody told me I would live an extra year if I ate nothing but broccoli and a few other things all my life instead of eating what I like to eat, I would say take the year off the end of my life and … let me eat what I like to eat.”

Buffett said he’s gotten to his age with the habits of a six-year-old, and has been lucky to mostly be in good health.

“I think happiness makes an enormous amount of difference … in terms of longevity,” he said. “I’m happier when I’m eating hot fudge sundaes or drinking Coke.”

The 92-year-old billionaire’s dietary habits are well-known. Coca-Cola used Buffett’s likeness on Cherry Coke cans in China when the drink launched there in 2017.

The discussion of Buffett’s diet came near the end of a three-hour interview with CNBC, where he discussed topics such as last month’s bank crisis and his decision to boost his stakes in five Japanese trading houses.