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Jeffrey Epstein had the diet of a sick man

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21.02.2026

Comb through Jeffrey Epstein’s emails and you find frequent correspondence with his private chef Francis Derby about “beef jerky.” Online sleuths have speculated that it is a code word for something more sinister. We know Epstein was a sexual predator, but what if he literally preyed on human flesh? After all, Derby cooked at a restaurant called the Cannibal. Make of that what you will.

I can’t quite bring myself to believe Epstein was devouring the teenagers he trafficked, but he did seem to have the eating habits of one. He was picky, entitled and equally fond of fad diets and junk food. He substituted Sweet’N Low for sugar in his morning coffee, while eating takeout pasta from Caravaggio and burgers from J.G. Melon for dinner. He yo-yoed between organic butter and spray-bottle “I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter.” He placed Amazon orders for boxes of Twinkies, Tootsie Pops, Ring Dings and Baby Ruths.

Epstein and his staff were plowing through the jerky equivalent of 70 pounds of steak in two weeks

Epstein and his staff were plowing through the jerky equivalent of 70 pounds of steak in two weeks

An estate manual for Epstein’s private island notes some of the food he liked: hamburgers, pasta, seafood, steak, Chinese food, Italian food. “His palate [was] medium for spice,” apparently. Freshly baked Nestlé Toll House chocolate chip cookies were “daily to be left in the refrigerator or in a plastic container on the counter” for him. He had his favorite Oreo ice cream flown to Paris with him. “He does not eat berries,” according to one girlfriend, Karyna Shuliak.

Epstein also had a penchant for pizza, which gets mentioned around 900 times in the files. “Jeffrey........

© The Spectator