7 health secrets from the founder of Russian social network VK

The founder of the popular Russian social network VK.com and Telegram messenger app Pavel Durov - who turns 33 on Oct. 10 - has posted a list of seven things he’s given up for health’s sake. He recommends the same for anyone “involved in the creative process.”

So here are is the list:

1. Alcohol

2. Meat

3. Pills and any other pharma drug

4. Nicotine and other drugs

5. Coffee, black and green tea, energy drinks

6. Fast food, sugar, sodas

7. TV and its analogs

Durov writes that all these things “are addictive and affect the mind.” He promised to one day explain why he gave them up in more detail. Durov urges people to follow a healthy lifestyle. 

"Society built on the traditions of self-poisoning has no future. We can build our lives and our world on the other values – values of creativity, self-development, and hard work,” he wrote. 

Most readers commented on his post rather skeptically asking “Isn’t the Telegram app addictive?” and how to cure illnesses without pills – “Maybe we should use water charged from a spiritual source?” one online user commented. People also advised Durov to stop using social media. 

In 2012 during an interview with Russian magazine Snob he said: “Those who would like to trade places with me will have to completely give up alcohol, meat, and expensive clothes.”

One of his old employees, former VK technical director Anton Rozenberg - who is currently trying to sue Telegram - claims Durov never sticks to his principles in real life: He used to own several luxurious apartments in St. Petersburg premises, stayed at posh hotels and drove an expensive Mercedes-Benz S600 Pullman.

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