Bad influencer

Brian Johnson is an influencer, an advocate for "primal living." Social media-ing under the nom of Liver King, Johnson - in just over a year - gained millions of followers across the big three influencer platforms: YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram.

What's "primal living?" 

It's living the "ancestral" lifestyle, which means relying on a diet that includes "beef brains, bull testicles and raw animal livers."

He urged his followers to lead a lifestyle supposedly modeled after that of our hunter-gatherer ancestors. He promoted nine “ancestral tenets” such as daily exercise, sun and cold exposure, proper sleep, social connection, and a controversial meat-heavy diet consisting largely of organ and muscle meats, “organic pastured egg yolks,” bone broth, raw full-fat milk and cheese, fermented vegetables and “wild caught fish eggs.” (Source: WaPo)

As a walker, I'm okay with the "ancestral tenets" of "daily exercise, sun and cold exposure." I'm sort of like the Post Office. I don't do gloom of night, but "neither snow nor rain nor heat" stays this walker from a not-always-swift but dogged completion of her appointed rounds. And I'm all in on proper sleep and as much social connection as an introvert can withstand. 

And, while I don't consume a ton of meat, I do eat some. And some of that - like chicken breast - is muscle meat

But organ meat?

Well, ugh.

I've tried brains, and sweetbreads, and liver. And they're not anything I gravitate toward. Mostly, organ-wise, I take a hard pass. Kidneys? Sorry, there's a bit of a pissy whiff. Heart? I don't like the idea of it. Eating heart seems, well, heartless.

But Liver King claimed that all this yucky eating helped him develop a physique that would be impressive if you're the type of person who's impressed by a physique like this. 

And it helped him bulk up a $100M empire by pushing protein supplements and dried animal organs under the brand Ancestral Supplements.

Turns out that there was more than bull testicles involved in Johnson's success as the Liver King. 

Turns out:

“I lied, and I misled a lot of people,” Johnson said to the camera. “Yes, I’ve done steroids and, yes, I’m on steroids.”

The admission of steroid use came after another fitness influencer posted a YouTube video exposing what he said were private emails in which Johnson described his steroid regimen. It included a litany of drugs and hormones, including regular injections of powerful anabolic steroids such as Winstrol, Deca-Durabolin and testosterone cypionate, as well as Omnitrope, a form of human growth hormone.

By the way, as it turns out, despite the cultish/faddish belief that our ancestors were exclusively meat eater. 

Archaeological evidence shows that humans evolved to eat a wide variety of foods, including many high-carbohydrate foods like fruits, vegetables, starchy plants and honey. 

So there! 

Which is not to say that it isn't a good thing to avoid overindulging in processed foods, junk foods, and M&Ms. 

And it would also be a good thing to avoid things like steroids. (Johnson supposedly spent over $10K a month on Omnitrope, a human growth hormone.)

Long-term steroid use can lead to an enlarged heart, kidney failure, liver damage and an increased risk of stroke or heart attack, as well as extreme mood swings, irritability and impaired judgment, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

Nothing ancestral about chomping on steroids and f-ing your body and brain up. 

Johnson supposedly is still taking steroids. No word on whether he's still gnawing on raw liver. 

In any case, he's exposed himself to be a pretty bad influencer.