Eesha Kulkarni

Let’s face it, it feels like Tom Cruise, aka the Anil Kapoor of Hollywood, has made a deal with the devil to never age, and we’re on a ‘mission’ to obtain some of that juice from his fountain of youth! Cruise is 60 years old and has barely aged since the original Mission Impossible film came out in 1996.

The seventh instalment in the smash-hit blockbuster franchise will see the Top Gun: Maverick star reprise his role as Impossible Missions Force (IMF) agent Ethan Hunt to take on a dangerous new threat. And a death-defying promo stunt, which was first shown during CinemaCon 2022 prior to the screening of Top Gun: Maverick, shows Cruise sitting on top of a biplane which is in flight.

A trailer was also released by Paramount Pictures a few months ago, showing Hunt in various action scenes across the globe including desert locations and scenes in Venice. The footage showed returning characters Luther Stickell (Ving Rhames), Benji Dunn (Simon Pegg) and Ilsa Faust (Rebecca Ferguson) helping Cruise once again.

Meanwhile, the actor was also spotted with Prince William and Kate Middleton for Top Gun: Maverick in May looking better than ever. So how has 60-year-old Cruise barely aged since the original Top Gun film in 1986? Well, he has a few healthy tricks that help him out. While some of his eating habits may seem intense, you certainly can’t jump out of a flying plane or climb a cliff without a strict diet and discipline.

The celeb has famously performed all of his own stunts in his movies, including Top Gun: Maverick and the upcoming Mission: Impossible 7 – Dead Reckoning Part 1. Not only does Cruise look young, but he clearly has maintained his fit body as well.

Diet Rules That Keep Tom Cruise Young

Read on to find out the eating habits that are keeping the superstar forever young.

Skipping Carbs

Definitely a little controversial, but hey, you won’t catch Cruise eating a huge bowl of pasta these days—he has sworn off carbs. The star is currently following a 1200-calorie diet that cuts out carbs, because these sugar molecules can speed up ageing by creating insulin, an ageing hormone.

Studies recommend avoiding high glycemic index carbs, which are found in foods like bagels, pretzels, pasta, and cereal, since they are known to cause ageing and contain higher amounts of sugar.

The actor wasn’t always on a no-carb diet though. In fact, the celeb once shared his Spaghetti Carbonara recipe, christening himself the “King of Carbonara.” The Tom Cruise diet has certainly been dynamic over the years.

Eating Grilled Foods

This movie star stays away from anything fried. According to reports, Cruise swears by foods cooked at low temperatures—mainly grilled. That’s because foods cooked at high temperatures have a tendency to cause chronic tissue inflammation and speed up ageing. Various studies show that one of the best dietary habits for people over 50 is to consume anti-inflammatory foods, such as salmon, dark chocolate, raw oats, blueberries, ginger, beets, broccoli, olive oil, tomatoes, and spinach.

Being A Healthy Snacker

With such a busy schedule on-set, Cruise maintains his high energy levels even at an age when most tend to start dozing off at 7:30 pm. The secret? Healthy snacks! The star nibbles on loads of small snacks throughout the day, including freeze-dried organic blueberries and nuts. His co-star for Mission: Impossible: Rogue Nation Simon Pegg also revealed that Cruise generously offered his chef services to the entire cast while they filmed.

Simon shared that the chefs would prepare “these lovely little dates filled with peanut butter and sprinkled with coconut for snacks, and these little balls of truffle that were great.” No wonder Cruise can climb cliffs, jump off them, fly jets, helicopters, drives race cars, and do anything that allows him to live life to the fullest.

Avoiding Sugar

Sugar is strictly off-limits for Cruise, especially when he has a movie coming up. Research shows that sugar can speed up ageing by causing inflammation and damaging collagen and elastin. Consuming too much sugar can also make your skin look older and wrinklier. The irresistible sweetener is a dehydrating agent as well, leading to increased oil production. It also affects water binding so your skin looks less perky and bouncy, and doesn’t appear as oxygenated.

But just because the Top Gun star can’t enjoy sugar himself, he doesn’t deprive the people around him of it. Cruise often sends his co-stars decadent cakes: “I love sugar, but I can’t eat it because when I’m training, I’m doing all these movies—so I send it to everyone,” he said on The Late Late Show With James Corden.

“I wait for the calls…Like, tell me about it.” So the celebrity basically lives vicariously through his friends and colleagues for his (imaginary) sugar high fix. It’s giving that one episode from Keeping Up With The Kardashians in which Kourtney smells donuts and says, “I can’t eat this, but how exciting is it to smell it?” Couldn’t be us, but hey, this is showbiz after all.