Blowing up a bed using a tank is certainly a choice. The bed explodes in slow motion. First, we see the dirt raised from the ground behind the bed. Then, a ball of fire erupts, tossing pillows in the air and leaving behind a wooden carcass. It鈥檚 not an episode of Mythbusters; rather, it鈥檚, who encourages his one million followers to do away with modern bedding because of the chemicals it contains.
In his last comedy album, Robin Williams said the definition of pornography was simple. 鈥淓rotic is using a feather; pornography is using the entire chicken.鈥� Destroying a bed with a tank? It鈥檚 starting to sound like pornography.
We often yearn for simple answers to life鈥檚 pressing questions: what should I eat? how should I exercise? what dangers should I avoid? The Liver King鈥攔eal name Brian Johnson, a muscly, meaty man with the bushy beard of a castaway鈥攗ses eye-catching, theatrical excess to hammer home his solution: ancestral living. The human body, he claims, is adapted to its distant past. Modernity is poisoning us. In order to thrive, we need to live like cavepeople. Expect him on The Joe Rogan Experience any day now.
There is a grain of truth to the Liver King鈥檚 lifestyle鈥攅xercising is good, very refined food products are often less good, and getting some fresh air is beneficial鈥攂ut that grain gets lost in his impressive bowls of organ meat, bone marrow, and the titular liver, which he encourages his viewers to consume daily in order to find strength and happiness.
The meat of the matter
The Liver King鈥檚 precepts are boiled down to simple words: sleep, eat, move, shield, connect, cold, sun, fight, and bond. Each is represented by a primal-looking sigil, as if he travelled to Lascaux to find a graphic designer.
Our ancestors, he repeatedly tells us without ever specifying which era of our history he鈥檚 referring to, were very healthy and they lived long. We should thus turn to their wisdom if we want to be healthy.
It may sound like complete rubbish, because we have this idea that our ancestors, specifically hunter-gatherers of the Paleolithic, all died young and were terribly unhealthy, but there is quite a bit of debate over this question. Their average life expectancy is easily dragged down by the fact that. But even if ancestral hunters who survived childhood used to live until about the age of 70, it would be a mistake to assume that our bodies adapted to their lifestyle and then stopped evolving. We have to help us deal with our changing diets, which include starches and the consumption of cow milk after childhood, although how much adaptation has occurred is still up for debate.
By modelling himself after his idea of a hunter-gatherer, the Liver King espouses an extreme version of the Paleo diet, a fad diet that was itself similar to Dr. Robert Atkins鈥� low-carbohydrate weight loss program. This diet suffers from a core assumption: that we know that all of our ancestors ate the same food. It lumps together populations that had highly varied intake of animal meat and it is based on incomplete knowledge we have of their eating habits. Moreover, there is accumulating evidence that high consumption of red meat predisposes to cancer, and the apparent absence of fruits and vegetables from the Liver King鈥檚 diet can create deficiencies in micronutrients, phytochemicals, and fibre. There is a reason why the Paleo diet is typically ranked as by dietitians, whereas the more diverse Mediterranean diet stays at the top. Also, in terms of sustainability and affordability, the Paleo diet isn鈥檛 great. Meat is expensive.
But if you really believe that the only way to achieve Brian Johnson鈥檚 physique is to go all-in on real meat (because of his videos in which he and), two observations. A recurring comment on his videos involves accusations of pharmaceutical assistance, with the funniest being a comment on: 鈥淲here do you grow your steroids?鈥� Second, there are plenty of vegetarian and vegan athletes. Consuming meat is.
The tenet behind the Liver King鈥檚 eating philosophy goes beyond a simple Paleo diet, though: he believes that eating an organ will strengthen the corresponding organ in his body, a concept he calls Does your brain need a boost? Eat a cow鈥檚 brain! This is not true. Organs are made of tissues, themselves made of cells, and they are all broken down into their basic building blocks in our gut. There is no essence of pancreas that will revitalize our own pancreas when ingested. 鈥淟ike supports like鈥� isn鈥檛 all that different from homoeopathy鈥檚 鈥渓ike cures like鈥� motto. It鈥檚 magical thinking.
Feasting on all these organs, however, means consuming a lot of raw food. The Liver King cooks the occasional steak, but you can see him on Instagram. Raw meat can contain that can make you sick or even kill you. I don鈥檛 think there were many hospitals in the Stone Age.
De-liver us from modernity
Glorifying the past comes at the expense of the present. The Liver King warns of, like cell phone signals and Wi-Fi, even though the weight of the evidence indicates they pose no threat to human health. Shirtless in the baking sun, Brian Johnson explains to the camera that his family doesn鈥檛 use sunscreen because nutrient-dense foods are sufficient, before. Food does not shield us from skin cancer. This is pure chemophobia, which he extends to.
That bed he blew up with a tank? His worry was over those infamous hormone-disrupting chemicals and flame retardants. 鈥淭here might be some flame retardants, or fluorinated chemicals called PFAS, or phthalates in the mattress that, when pumped into animals at a high dose, create havoc,鈥� Dr. Joe Schwarcz, the director of our Office, told me. 鈥淏ut it is hard to imagine that they would pose a significant risk in bedding.鈥� Certainly not a risk worth confronting with a 42-tonne war vehicle.
Armed with a degree in biochemistry, Brian Johnson boldly claims on that 90% of Americans are deficient in magnesium and in vitamins A, D, and K. I don鈥檛 know where these sensational numbers come from. About than they should, although symptoms related to a magnesium deficiency are reported as being rare. Vitamin D status is. Most Americans get, and.
But if you are convinced that most Americans are 鈥渃ritically deficient鈥� in many vitamins and minerals and you are a bit sniffy about hunting game, the Liver King offers no fewer than, from beef thyroid to beef eye to 鈥渉is鈥� and 鈥渉er鈥� organ mixtures. The content of each bottle is said to 鈥渟upport鈥� this or that organ鈥檚 health, in keeping with Johnson鈥檚 philosophy and the legal requirement that none of these products are intended to 鈥渄iagnose, prevent, treat, or cure any disease.鈥�
The flavour of the month on Instagram
In the realm of the Liver King, health is a personal choice. On this point, he is indistinguishable from most wellness influencers. In he states, 鈥渨e can choose susceptibility to disease, allergies, depression, anxiety, loneliness, and low ambition鈥� or we can choose to change and be healthy. Choice does play a role, yes: if I choose to consume processed meat at every meal, I expose myself to a higher risk of developing cancer. But health is decided by more than just personal responsibility. Socioeconomic status, genetic variants, and the choices of others have a direct influence on the physical and mental fitness Brian Johnson wants us to achieve. By excising these factors from the equation, he is blaming ill health on its victims. And that, unfortunately, plays well in the wellness space he inhabits.
I won鈥檛 lie: it is draining to watch our pop-cultural kitchen churn out health influencers by following the same recipe over and over again. The steps are simple and lucrative. Separate food groups into angels and demons. Pit the inherent goodness of Mother Nature against the toxicity of man-made materials. Exalt the merits of an ancient tradition, sadly forgotten but now rediscovered. Look the part. Make sure your phone鈥檚 camera is always pointed at you. Repeat your catchphrase. Importantly, sell your own line of supplements.
The next step is to progress from influencer to guru, a step which the Liver King has thankfully not completed yet. It involves becoming an expert at everything, developing unhealthy social dynamics, undermining trust in any other source of information, and a few other characteristics.
If watching the Liver King simulate a hunt by motivates you to exercise more, that鈥檚 outstanding. Motivation can be hard to find these days, and exercise is the closest thing to a miracle drug we have. But if the message you take to heart is that health can only be found by stripping your life of all traces of modernity鈥攅xcept, in the case of the Liver King, for the videography equipment constantly around him, the baseball cap he is rarely seen without, the laptop he uses, the ceiling fan in his bedroom, and the鈥攜ou鈥檝e fallen prey to another influencer whose philosophy is backed more by wishful thinking than science.
And that鈥檚 a raw deal.
Take-home message:
-The Liver King is a social media influencer who claims that healthy living comes from eating mostly meat (including a lot of liver) and simulating hunts, because our bodies evolved for the Stone Age
-His eating habits resemble an extreme version of the Paleo diet, consistently ranked as one of the worst diets, because of its health risks and potential nutritional deficiencies
-The Liver King has many similarities to other health influencers: dividing food into good and bad categories, portraying health solely as an individual choice, and using stunts to garner attention
