He is without doubt one of the international’s largest vitamin influencers, well-known for advocating a vitamin of uncooked meat and offal. Over the last few years Brian Johnson – higher referred to as the Liver King – has gathered a mixed 9 million fans on Instagram, TikTok and YouTube along with his regularly stomach-churning movies.In a single clip, extremely muscular Johnson, 47, is observed topless whilst tearing into raw animal testicles – which he says he washes down with scotch whiskey – for breakfast. In others, he eats alligator tail, uncooked bull lungs and a foetal duck egg (together with its feathers, bone and beak). The speculation is that via following his ‘primal’ way of life, you too may just succeed in his eye-popping body.On the other hand, all will not be fairly as it kind of feels. In December 2022 Johnson admitted in a six-minute YouTube clip to taking anabolic steroids to bulk up, in spite of having up to now claimed that his frame used to be ‘all herbal’ and the results of following a caveman way of life. 
Brian Johnson – higher referred to as the Liver King – has gathered a mixed 9 million fans on Instagram, TikTok and YouTube along with his regularly stomach-churning videosYet, a ways from being a fall from grace, the admission has slightly made a dent in his empire. The previous pharmaceutical rep now lives in an 8,300-square foot mansion on a ranch in Texas along with his spouse, a retired dentist, and their two sons.His branded Liver King protein powders, dietary supplements and bars regularly seem in his movies and his estimated internet price is £250million (US $310million).However how do his claims about vitamin stack up? We spoke to Britain’s best mavens to determine, and came upon that following the Liver King’s recommendation will have some extraordinarily ugly penalties.EATING LIVER EVERY DAY IS CRUCIALJohnson’s catchphrase, and the place his moniker comes from, is ‘liver is king’.He claims to devour it, uncooked, for breakfast lunch and dinner. Consistent with the meal plan on his web page, he consumes greater than a pound of liver an afternoon along a protein shake and different uncooked or cooked meat.He says it supplies ‘a very powerful nourishment lacking in modernity, like actual bioavailable nutrition A’.Liver is, certainly, an excessively wealthy supply of Diet A, which is very important for keeping up the frame’s imaginative and prescient, mobile department, copy and immune gadget, supporting pores and skin well being and mobile expansion.However in case you devour an excessive amount of liver, it may end up in Diet A toxicity, says Gunter Kuhnle, Professor of Vitamin and Meals Science at College of Studying.It’s because, in contrast to different nutrients, the frame shops Diet A within the liver.‘For those who ate an excessive amount of nutrition C, your frame would simply excrete it for your urine,’ says Clare Thornton Wooden, a registered dietician and spokesperson for the Affiliation of UK Dieticians. ‘However in case you devour massive quantities of liver, it will in truth be probably bad.’ 
Brian Johnson along with his female friend the ‘Liver Queen’The really useful consumption of nutrition A for adults is 600 to 700 micrograms (mcg) in step with day and Professor Kuhnle says a unmarried ounce of red meat liver comprises over 2,100mcg.Research have proven that Diet A toxicity can happen in case you eat over 8,000mcg an afternoon for a sustained duration, which is simplest about 4 oz. of liver.‘Don’t do it will be my recommendation,’ says Prof Kuhnle.Signs of Diet A toxicity come with dry, cracked pores and skin, hair loss, brittle nails, fatigue, lack of urge for food and bone and joint ache, and it might probably have an effect on your bone well being, resulting in osteoporosis and hip fractures. ‘There’s no recognized receive advantages to eating huge amounts of Diet A, and a large number of recognized dangers,’ provides Prof Kuhnle.The Liver King web page states that liver is a superb supply of alternative vitamins too, equivalent to nutrition B12, folate and iron.‘I don’t disagree that liver is a supply of many vitamins,’ says Ms Thornton-Wooden. ‘However you simplest want small quantities of the ones vitamins on a daily basis and consuming liver on a daily basis in massive amounts continues to be bad.’CAVEMEN ATE MEAT RAW, AND SO SHOULD WE 
Johnson is especially keen on consuming uncooked organs and testicles, and recommends everybody incorporate liver, center, blood, bone marrow and bone broth into their dietThe Liver King continuously eats uncooked meat and consumes uncooked eggs. ‘We developed early on with uncooked animal meals,’ he says in a single video. ‘Mind and bone marrow used to be almost definitely our first meals and it used to be all uncooked.’He thinks that, since historical people used to devour each cooked and uncooked meals, trendy people will have to, too.Johnson is especially keen on consuming uncooked organs and testicles, and recommends everybody incorporate liver, center, blood, bone marrow, center and bone broth into their vitamin. ‘No dinner is ever entire with out uncooked liver, uncooked testicle and uncooked bone marrow,’ he mentioned in a TikTok video the place he sits at a desk surrounded via uncooked testicles. He as soon as bit off the pinnacle of a wriggling fish he had simply grabbed from the ocean, on digicam.Stanley Ulijaszek, Emeritus Professor of Human Ecology on the College of Oxford, says The Liver King is correct in regards to the origins of our vitamin.Whilst nearly all of primate species lived off a vitamin basically consisting of fruit, early people developed to eat meat which used to be eaten uncooked.Modern day people too can digest raw animal flesh – as somebody who has loved steak tartar or sushi will know.On the other hand, mavens say that some meats are much more likely to include bad micro organism – for example, beef can include sure parasites the sort of roundworm and tapeworm (even if this isn’t regarded as a subject in the United Kingdom there were instances of infections from undercooked beef in different international locations) and rooster might harbour campylobacter. Warmth renders those pathogens risk free.‘Whilst you prepare dinner meals, you kill insects like E. coli which is able to motive infections like salmonella and campylobacter,’ says Dr Duane Mellor of the Aston Clinical College for Vitamin and Proof Based totally Drugs. Such infections could cause diarrhoea, nausea, vomiting, cramps or even transient paralysis.There could also be a small possibility of contracting tapeworm infections from consuming uncooked red meat or beef.Dr Mellor thinks there’s a excellent reason why people want cooked meals: ‘Cooking has prolonged human existence expectancy. We get fewer nasty sicknesses now.’In a single TikTok video, the Liver King choices meat off the pinnacle of a cow, with out showing to note it has a fly crawling over it. ‘With uncooked meat, there’s all the time this possibility that it’s infected with micro organism,’ says Professor Kuhnle.EAT TESTICLES… NOT VEGETABLES 
In December 2022 Johnson admitted in a six-minute YouTube clip to taking anabolic steroids to bulk up, in spite of having up to now claimed that his frame used to be ‘all herbal’ and the results of following a caveman way of life‘Do we’d like greens? Hell no,’ says the Liver King in a up to date video interview. ‘Why devour greens when you’ll be able to devour testicles?’He provides: ‘Anything else that you simply’re seeking to get from a vegetable you’ll be able to get from nostril to tail nourishment.’Pink meat is understood a excellent supply of iron and zinc, in addition to Diet B12, and animal testicles are usually eaten in lots of portions of the arena: in India, goat testicles are regularly boiled in water with sesame, in Spain, bulls’ testicles are served lined in breadcrumbs, whilst in the United Kingdom lamb testicles had been traditionally eaten fried in butter.Dietician Ms Thornton-Wooden, disagrees, on the other hand, that greens will have to be sacrificed in favour of testicles, as a result of she says it’s unattainable that get the entire important vitamins had to keep wholesome from meat on my own.‘Greens include a large number of issues that we’d like equivalent to nutrients and minerals but additionally fibre,’ she says.‘Those vitamins are completely very important for intestine well being,’.Many research have proven an affiliation between higher nutritional fibre consumption and decreased possibility of heart problems and weight problems.Additionally, analysis display that consuming a excessive protein vitamin, stripped of any greens, can injury the kidneys.One Chinese language learn about, revealed in 2020, discovered that, long-term, a high-protein vitamin will increase the risk of power kidney illness – which is able to in the end result in general kidney failure and dying.‘Your frame can simplest metabolise a specific amount of protein in a single sitting’, says Ms Thornton-Wooden,‘Your kidneys can’t procedure it briefly sufficient.’In a single fashionable video, the Liver King discovers a plate of salad on his desk, throws it onto the ground and upends all of the desk in disgust.This way to greens seems to be in direct struggle along with his recommendation that we will have to devour the vitamin of our ancestors. Professor Kuhnle issues out that historical people didn’t all the time have get entry to to meat and would regularly have eaten root greens and berries. ‘Searching giant animals used to be no longer simple and not using a gun.’Meat used to be additionally on no account the one supply of proteins early people had.Proof of fishing and seafood intake has been present in archaeological websites far and wide the arena.Additionally, maximum primate species intently associated with people continuously devour crops and bugs.‘It’s no longer as simple as: people had been simply carnivores,’ says Professor Kuhnle.‘That’s simply no longer true. Other folks ate a wider vitamin.’YOU NEED TO UP YOUR CHOLESTEROL INTAKE 
Professor Ulijaszek says the Liver King is correct to indicate that consuming a high-cholesterol vitamin doesn’t essentially translate into having excessive ldl cholesterol‘Ldl cholesterol-rich organs or glands give us the necessary nourishment that we’d like,’ the Liver King wrote on Instagram subsequent to a video the place he eats two steaks immediately. ‘Our early ancestors ate it… modern-day primitive tradition tribes do… they don’t have power illness. That incorporates center illness.’Professor Ulijaszek says the Liver King is correct to indicate that consuming a high-cholesterol vitamin doesn’t essentially translate into having excessive ldl cholesterol. ‘It does for some folks, it doesn’t for others. It’s no longer a instantly one-to-one dating.’The Liver King is also a number of the fortunate individuals who, for genetic causes, doesn’t want to fear, he says. ‘However he’s suggesting ranges of consumption that might overload some folks.’Ldl cholesterol is a fatty components this is necessary for plenty of physically purposes – on the other hand the frame makes it’s personal, within the liver. The similar procedure occurs in animals.For this reason that liver is of course excessive in ldl cholesterol. That is advantageous to devour, in keeping with tips, as a part of a balanced vitamin. However we don’t want to eat ldl cholesterol to provide it.In the meantime, a up to date systematic evaluate of enormous scale research via Oxford College connected consuming crimson and processed meat to an higher possibility of center illness.Whilst it’s true that many indigenous populations residing conventional life have decrease ldl cholesterol than folks, ‘this is extra about common way of life and their total nutritional development,’ says Dr Mellor, declaring that people have very numerous diets and ranges of bodily job all over the world.As for our ancestors, ‘they simply lived to about 30,’ he says. ‘So that they didn’t actually are living to the height time for center assaults. Different issues killed folks earlier than they were given to that age.’EAT EGGS RAW TOO, INCLUDING THE SHELL 
The Liver King says he usually eats six to 8 uncooked eggs after a exercise, and regularly motion pictures himself consuming the eggs entire, together with the shellsThe Liver King says he usually eats six to 8 uncooked eggs after a exercise, and regularly motion pictures himself consuming the eggs entire, together with the shells.Eggshell is most commonly manufactured from calcium powder and is used as a herbal calcium complement to enhance bone well being, regularly for canine and cats. A up to date learn about instructed that rooster eggshell powder has the prospective to cut back the chance of osteoporosis within the aged.And we will be able to digest egg shell, will have to we so want. On the other hand, the exterior floor of uncooked eggs might change into infected with salmonella, both all the way through the laying procedure or via contamination with chicken faeces. In the United Kingdom, the British Lion mark on eggs manner that they have got been laid via hens vaccinated in opposition to salmonella. This reduces the chance, however doesn’t get rid of it utterly.There also are issues that eating uncooked eggs regularly over an extended time frame could cause biotin deficiency, which is characterized via alopecia, dermatitis, listen and imaginative and prescient issues and developmental lengthen in youngsters.It’s because the antimicrobial protein avidin this is found in uncooked eggs tightly binds biotin, sometimes called Diet B7, and forestalls it from being absorbed via people.‘An egg white is making an attempt to carry directly to its vitamins so it is going to the growing rooster,’ says Dr Mellor. Avidin successfully stops Diet B7 changing into to be had to the individual consuming it, he says. ‘However as a result of avidin is a protein, it breaks down whilst you prepare dinner it.’Consuming recent meals like eggs is a good suggestion, says Ms Thornton-Wooden, however as a part of a balanced vitamin. ‘A excellent vitamin will have to come with greens, carbohydrates and protein – a mixture of the whole thing.’DITCH PROCESSED FOOD AND EAT NATURAL 
The Liver King strongly recommends losing processed meals on his web page: ‘Ditch the processed poison. Get at the liver teach and dominate existence!’The Liver King strongly recommends losing processed meals on his web page: ‘Ditch the processed poison. Get at the liver teach and dominate existence!’As a substitute of fizzy beverages, in a single video, he collects a cup of blood streaming out of a death animal ‘instantly from the faucet’ and beverages it.In any other, he creates a ‘nutrient dense protein shake’ via mixing uncooked liver, kidney, testicle, bone marrow, center, recent cream and virtually part a bottle of maple syrup.Just like the Liver King, many dieticians are inquisitive about diets which can be very excessive in ultra-processed meals (UPF) and occasional in unprocessed, recent meals which analysis hyperlinks to a better possibility of most cancers, kind 2 diabetes, center illness or even deficient psychological well being.On the other hand the Liver King’s vitamin doesn’t come with greens or carbohydrates.‘Our ancestors ate many various varieties of diets,’ says Professor Ulijaszek. ‘To pick out on a in particular excessive meat consumption vitamin from one specific duration in our evolutionary historical past is misrepresenting the previous.‘We now have developed to devour a variety of meals – many various issues – and we will have to have fun in that chance, whilst all the time remembering that some meals are more healthy than others.’ LIVER KING PROTEIN BARS ‘DEFINITELY ULTRA-PROCESSED’ The Liver King sells Liver King branded protein bars and powders, showcasing them in lots of his movies and making it transparent that he makes use of ‘all naturally sourced elements’ in his merchandise.However Professor Kuhnle says those merchandise are ‘certainly ultra-processed’.Advocates of low-UPF diets usually categorise meals into 4 classes. Class one is recent meals elements, and class two are cooking elements equivalent to sugar, salt and vinegar, herbs and spices, that may be mixed in recipes to make class 3 meals, which might be processed meals.Class 4 are ultra-processed elements equivalent to extracts, preservatives and components integrated in some manufactured meals to increase shelf-life, reinforce flavour and make stronger texture.One of the elements within the Liver King bars, equivalent to stevia leaf extract and steviol glycosides, fall into the ultra-processed class.Those are the elements that some have connected to higher possibility of power sickness or even most cancers, even if there may be at the moment little cast proof for this.It’s simply ‘unexpected’, says Prof Kuhnle, that the Liver King says he’s in opposition to processed meals after which sells UPF merchandise.
