Bear Grylls has eaten a number of interesting things in the name of survival and our entertainment: insects, raw snakes, rat brains and yak eyeballs, to name a few. But what does he eat when he’s not out in the wild?
The Running Wild with Bear Grylls host followed a vegan diet for five years but has since returned to eating red meat, eggs and organ meat. He even launched a Survival Pack with Ancestral Supplements earlier this year, which included three bottles of supplements: Grass-Fed Beef Liver, Beef Heart and Beef Lung. The “potent blend” of nutrient-dense supplements was designed to help people thrive in stressful and challenging situations.
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“I’ve spent a lot of time searching, trialing and testing for the best supplements out there to help my body withstand stress and perform at the highest level. When it comes to survival and adventure you need to give yourself the best advantage when you’re in some extraordinarily demanding environments,” Grylls said in a press release. “The Bear Grylls Survival Pack contains the three ultimate supplements that have proven themselves to best help my body and mind function at their peak, whether trekking through jungles, scaling mountains or crossing deserts. Ancestral Supplements are here to support anyone facing life’s challenges and stresses, whether in the wild or simply getting through a stressful day at work. It’s about tackling life on your terms and on the front foot.” The Survival Pack is no longer available as of the publishing of this story, but the three supplements can be purchased separately.
Grylls has had an interesting eating journey that has most recently been characterized as a return to the way our ancestors ate, and it’s clear in speaking to him how passionate he is about moving away from processed foods and embracing nutritious foods in their natural form. I had the opportunity to connect with Grylls to learn more about what he eats when he’s not facing survival situations for TV. I’ll let him take it away from here.
Abigail Abesamis Demarest: Where are you calling in from today?
Bear Grylls: I’m in the mountains in Switzerland. The sun is just setting. I’ve just landed my parachute, packed it up, stripped off my wet gear, and made myself a cup of tea. The sun’s gone down and it’s getting cold, but it’s beautiful up here. We have a little cabin high in the mountains here that we spend a lot of time at as a family. It’s lovely to be here. We start filming Running Wild again next week in Wyoming.
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Demarest: You were vegan for five years and didn’t eat red meat for another five years, and you say this was a big mistake for your health. Can you tell me more about that?
Grylls: I had Covid pretty bad right at the beginning a few years back and doubled down on what I thought was good health: loads of veggies, raw broccoli, celery and all that stuff in smoothies. But my kidneys started to get really painful. Meanwhile, my eldest son, who had been struggling with his energy and skin and stomach got helped by a top nutritionist and was weaned back to great health and glowing skin very quickly by eating red meat, salted butter, eggs, fruit and honey, and cutting out bread, pasta and veggies. I couldn’t believe the transformation. I copied him and the same transformation happened to me. My kidneys started to clear up, my skin was so much better and I felt so much more energetic.
It was almost a bit like the scales fell from my eyes. Look at nature, look at what the lions do: they go for the soft organs, they go for the blood and the bone marrow first. Look at the killer whales, taking all the livers out of great white sharks. There are clues all around. We’ve had millions of years of evolution to show us how humans thrive. We are designed to be in the sun, get cold, have a great community, have good friends, laugh, lift weights, and nutrition is also part of it.
Demarest: You’ve built a career out of putting yourself in intense survival situations where you’re foraging for anything and everything that can provide sustenance. When you’re not in a survival situation, what is optimal eating for you?
Grylls: It’s really simple and really natural. I have a lot of red meat every day: a big steak, a lot of liver. Some people don’t like liver, and that’s one of the reasons Ancestral Supplements are doing so well. So many people are realizing there are benefits to nose-to-tail nutrition, we’re actually designed to be having heart, lungs, bone marrow, blood—all the things you’d never really want to eat, but Ancestral has them in capsule form.
We eat a lot of eggs, dairy, good butter, salt, fruit, honey and good natural yogurt; we eat like kings, truthfully. When I was vegan I was always hungry and ate salads to be fit and strong, and then I’d have cheat meals because I was really excited to have something delicious. Now I never need cheat meals because I’m always really satisfied. It’s so logical, isn’t it? It’s so natural, I just don’t have lots of processed stuff, like pasta or bread. I’m just having bacon and eggs like my grandpa did and he lived to be 95.
Demarest: How has the partnership with Ancestral Supplements been?
Grylls: It’s been a really powerful and beautiful partnership of like-minded people trying to do something good in the world and everybody there has had a similar journey and I love that connection. The whole thing has been an education and I’m very proud of the partnership.
Demarest: What is your go-to tea?
Grylls: I’m obsessed with tea and I drink a lot of it, but I’m not a tea snob. If it’s black tea with some milk, that’s great. For me it’s so ingrained from my military days—when you were cold and wet, a big cup of tea felt so healing and soothing. And for English people drinking a mug of tea is deeply ingrained in our DNA.