BRYAN JOHNSON IS frequently seen on our social feeds, and more recently during his Netflix documentary, Don’t Die: The Man Who Wants to Live Forever, showcasing his sometimes quirky attempts at achieving more time on this planet.
He recently revealed his daily diet when speaking to podcaster Jay Shetty on his show, On Purpose. The anti-ageing entrepreneur has long been plant-based, and has an extensive supplement programme in order to lower his biological age. Further details now explain that there is more to his diet than just smoothies and pills.
Bryan Johnson’s daily diet
Johnson can usually be seen starting his day with 54 supplements and an hour in the gym. He aims to eat roughly 2,500 calories per day, and all of his meals are between 6am and 11.30am. The NHS recommends that an average man needs 2,500kcal a day, however it’s important to factor in higher activity output when calculating energy needs.
Talking to Shetty, Johnson explained he never has cheat meals and that ‘Now the idea of eating a piece of pizza or a whole pizza or like a doughnut or something just makes me sick. Because if I’m going to do it, there’ll be like five seconds of maybe enjoyment and then you’ve got like an entire day of misery.’
Instead, he says, he eats ‘A lot of broccoli, cauliflower, lentils, hemp, pea protein, hemp protein, berries, nuts, seeds.’
Johnson eats three meals in under six hours. These include:
Meal 1
Johnson refers to his first meal of the day as ‘Super Veggie’, which consists of broccoli, cauliflower, black lentils, ginger, and garlic.
Meal 2
His second meal, called ‘Nutty Pudding’, is made with macadamia nuts, walnuts, flax seeds, pomegranate juice, and berries, combined with pea and hemp protein.
Meal 3
His third meal varies, but generally includes a mix of vegetables, berries, nuts, and seeds.
Additionally, he consumes a tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil with each meal and 6g of pure cocoa. ‘We’ve tried to construct a perfect diet, so every single calorie I consume has a specific objective,’ he explains. ‘We basically just tried to stack superfoods across the board.’
They also discussed how much protein Johnson eats: ‘Right now I’m probably doing like 80 grams of protein a day, and that’s good if I get there like realistically, and my gut can handle that. Whereas I saw my gut health struggling as I tried to get to 120 grams of protein.’
Johnson’s protein intake may seem to be a little on the lower side, as muscle gain protein goals tend to be set a little higher. Some evidence suggests that 1.2 to 1.6g/kg of high-quality protein could be the sweet spot when it comes to achieving optimal health. At 174 pounds, this would put Johnson’s goals at about 95 grams a day minimum. However, as he mentions, he struggles with GI issues when increasing his protein intake, perhaps due to increased fibre intake.
Johnson argues that ‘Some things just cannot be acquired through diet’, so he consumes a large quantity of supplements. ‘No diet, no vegan diet, no carnivore diet, can satisfy the body’s entire needs, so you have to supplement if you want to be ideal,’ says Johnson. ‘Then if you want to be on the frontier of really slowing down your aging and robustly addressing the body’s needs, you need to supplement. Some things just cannot be acquired through diet. This is just scientific fact.’
It isn’t entirely necessary to include supplements in your diet, and a modern diet which is ample in calories usually ensures malnutrition won’t occur. However, for some populations, particularly those who don’t eat meat or dairy, supplementation with vitamin B12 and heme iron can be beneficial.
It’s important to emphasise that while the basis of a whole food plant-based diet is incredibly healthy, we don’t recommend copying Johnson’s diet, and it is purely shared for entertainment purposes.
This article originally appeared on Men’s Health UK.
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