He is one of the world’s biggest diet influencers, famous for advocating a diet of raw meat and offal. Over the past few years Brian Johnson – better known as the Liver King – has amassed a combined nine million followers on Instagram, TikTok and YouTube with his often stomach-churning videos.
In one clip, extraordinarily muscular Johnson, 47, is seen topless while tearing into uncooked animal testicles – which he says he washes down with scotch whisky – for breakfast. In others, he eats alligator tail, raw bull lungs and a foetal duck egg (including its feathers, bone and beak). The idea is that by following his ‘primal’ way of living, you too could achieve his eye-popping physique.
However, all may not be quite as it seems. In December 2022 Johnson admitted in a six-minute YouTube clip to taking anabolic steroids to bulk up, despite having previously claimed that his body was ‘all natural’ and the result of following a caveman lifestyle.
Brian Johnson – better known as the Liver King – has amassed a combined nine million followers on Instagram, TikTok and YouTube with his often stomach-churning videos
Yet, far from being a fall from grace, the admission has barely made a dent in his empire. The former pharmaceutical rep now lives in an 8,300-square foot mansion on a ranch in Texas with his wife, a retired dentist, and their two sons.
His branded Liver King protein powders, supplements and bars often appear in his videos and his estimated net worth is £250million (US $310million).
Next month, a new Netflix documentary will reveal the behind-the-scenes story of how the Liver King rose to fame – and the controversy that followed.
Premiering on May 13, Untold: The Liver King features interviews with the millionaire influencer as well as his family and business partners.
But how do his claims about diet stack up? We spoke to Britain’s top experts to find out, and discovered that following the Liver King’s advice could have some extremely unpleasant consequences.
EATING LIVER EVERY DAY IS CRUCIAL
Johnson’s catchphrase, and where his moniker comes from, is ‘liver is king’.
He claims to eat it, raw, for breakfast lunch and dinner. According to the meal plan on his website, he consumes more than a pound of liver a day alongside a protein shake and other raw or cooked meat.
He says it provides ‘crucial nourishment missing in modernity, like real bioavailable vitamin A’.
Liver is, indeed, a very rich source of Vitamin A, which is essential for maintaining the body’s vision, cell division, reproduction and immune system, supporting skin health and cell growth.
But if you eat too much liver, it can lead to Vitamin A toxicity, says Gunter Kuhnle, Professor of Nutrition and Food Science at University of Reading.
This is because, unlike other vitamins, the body stores Vitamin A in the liver.
‘If you ate too much vitamin C, your body would just excrete it in your urine,’ says Clare Thornton Wood, a registered dietician and spokesperson for the Association of UK Dieticians. ‘But if you eat large amounts of liver, it could actually be potentially dangerous.’
Brian Johnson with his wife the ‘Liver Queen’
The recommended intake of vitamin A for adults is 600 to 700 micrograms (mcg) per day and Professor Kuhnle says a single ounce of beef liver contains over 2,100mcg.
Studies have shown that Vitamin A toxicity can occur if you consume over 8,000mcg a day for a sustained period, which is only about four ounces of liver.
‘Don’t do it would be my advice,’ says Prof Kuhnle.
Symptoms of Vitamin A toxicity include dry, cracked skin, hair loss, brittle nails, fatigue, loss of appetite and bone and joint pain, and it can affect your bone health, leading to osteoporosis and hip fractures. ‘There is no known benefit to consuming vast quantities of Vitamin A, and a lot of known risks,’ adds Prof Kuhnle.
The Liver King website states that liver is a good source of other nutrients too, such as vitamin B12, folate and iron.
‘I don’t disagree that liver is a source of many nutrients,’ says Ms Thornton-Wood. ‘But you only need small amounts of those nutrients every day and eating liver every day in large quantities is still dangerous.’
CAVEMEN ATE MEAT RAW, AND SO SHOULD WE
Johnson is particularly fond of eating raw organs and testicles, and recommends everyone incorporate liver, heart, blood, bone marrow and bone broth into their diet
The Liver King regularly eats raw meat and consumes raw eggs. ‘We evolved early on with raw animal foods,’ he says in one video. ‘Brain and bone marrow was probably our first food and it was all raw.’
He thinks that, since ancient humans used to eat both cooked and raw food, modern humans should, too.
Johnson is particularly fond of eating raw organs and testicles, and recommends everyone incorporate liver, heart, blood, bone marrow, heart and bone broth into their diet. ‘No dinner is ever complete without raw liver, raw testicle and raw bone marrow,’ he said in a TikTok video where he sits at a table surrounded by raw testicles. He once bit off the head of a wriggling fish he had just grabbed from the sea, on camera.
Stanley Ulijaszek, Emeritus Professor of Human Ecology at the University of Oxford, says The Liver King is right about the origins of our diet.
While the majority of primate species lived off a diet mainly consisting of fruit, early humans evolved to consume meat which was eaten raw.
Modern-day humans can also digest uncooked animal flesh – as anyone who has enjoyed steak tartar or sushi will know.
However, experts say that some meats are more likely to contain dangerous bacteria – for instance, pork can contain certain parasites such a roundworm and tapeworm (although this isn’t thought to be an issue in the UK there have been cases of infections from undercooked pork in other countries) and chicken may harbour campylobacter. Heat renders these pathogens harmless.
‘When you cook food, you kill bugs like E. coli which can cause infections like salmonella and campylobacter,’ says Dr Duane Mellor of the Aston Medical School for Nutrition and Evidence Based Medicine. Such infections can cause diarrhoea, nausea, vomiting, cramps and even temporary paralysis.
There is also a small risk of contracting tapeworm infections from eating raw beef or pork.
Dr Mellor thinks there is a good reason humans prefer cooked food: ‘Cooking has extended human life expectancy. We get fewer nasty diseases now.’
In one TikTok video, the Liver King picks meat off the head of a cow, without appearing to notice it has a fly crawling over it. ‘With raw meat, there’s always this risk that it’s contaminated with bacteria,’ 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, despite having previously claimed that his body was ‘all natural’ and the result of following a caveman lifestyle
‘Do we need vegetables? Hell no,’ says the Liver King in a recent video interview. ‘Why eat vegetables when you can eat testicles?’
He adds: ‘Anything that you’re trying to get from a vegetable you can get from nose to tail nourishment.’
Red meat is known a good source of iron and zinc, as well as Vitamin B12, and animal testicles are commonly eaten in many parts of the world: in India, goat testicles are often boiled in water with sesame, in Spain, bulls’ testicles are served covered in breadcrumbs, while in the UK lamb testicles were historically eaten fried in butter.
Dietician Ms Thornton-Wood, disagrees, however, that vegetables should be sacrificed in favour of testicles, because she says it is impossible that get all the necessary nutrients needed to stay healthy from meat alone.
‘Vegetables contain a lot of things that we need such as vitamins and minerals but also fibre,’ she says.
‘These nutrients are absolutely essential for gut health,’.
Many studies have shown an association between increased dietary fibre intake and reduced risk of cardiovascular disease and obesity.
Moreover, research show that eating a high protein diet, stripped of any vegetables, can damage the kidneys.
One Chinese study, published in 2020, found that, long-term, a high-protein diet increases the chance of chronic kidney disease – which can eventually lead to total kidney failure and death.
‘Your body can only metabolise a certain amount of protein in one sitting’, says Ms Thornton-Wood,
‘Your kidneys can’t process it quickly enough.’
In one popular video, the Liver King discovers a plate of salad on his table, throws it onto the floor and upends the entire table in disgust.
This approach to vegetables appears to be in direct conflict with his suggestion that we should eat the diet of our ancestors. Professor Kuhnle points out that ancient humans did not always have access to meat and would often have eaten root vegetables and berries. ‘Hunting big animals was not easy without a gun.’
Meat was also by no means the only source of proteins early humans had.
Evidence of fishing and seafood consumption has been found in archaeological sites all over the world.
Moreover, most primate species closely related to humans regularly eat plants and insects.
‘It’s not as straightforward as: humans were just carnivores,’ says Professor Kuhnle.
‘That’s just not true. People ate a much wider diet.’
YOU NEED TO UP YOUR CHOLESTEROL INTAKE
Professor Ulijaszek says the Liver King is right to suggest that eating a high-cholesterol diet doesn’t necessarily translate into having high cholesterol
‘Cholesterol-rich organs or glands give us the vital nourishment that we need,’ the Liver King wrote on Instagram next to a video where he eats two steaks at once. ‘Our early ancestors ate it… modern day primitive culture tribes do… they don’t have chronic disease. That includes heart disease.’
Professor Ulijaszek says the Liver King is right to suggest that eating a high-cholesterol diet doesn’t necessarily translate into having high cholesterol. ‘It does for some people, it doesn’t for others. It’s not a straight one-to-one relationship.’
The Liver King may be among the lucky people who, for genetic reasons, doesn’t need to worry, he says. ‘But he’s suggesting levels of intake that would overload some people.’
Cholesterol is a fatty substances that is vital for many bodily functions – however the body makes it’s own, in the liver. The same process happens in animals.
This is the reason that liver is naturally high in cholesterol. This is fine to eat, according to guidelines, as part of a balanced diet. But we do not need to consume cholesterol to produce it.
Meanwhile, a recent systematic review of large-scale studies by Oxford University linked eating red and processed meat to an increased risk of heart disease.
While it is true that many indigenous populations living traditional lifestyles have lower cholesterol than other people, ‘that is more about general lifestyle and their overall dietary pattern,’ says Dr Mellor, pointing out that humans have very varied diets and levels of physical activity around the world.
As for our ancestors, ‘they only lived to about 30,’ he says. ‘So they didn’t really live to the peak time for heart attacks. Other things killed people before they got to that age.’
EAT EGGS RAW TOO, INCLUDING THE SHELL
The Liver King says he typically eats six to eight raw eggs after a workout, and often films himself eating the eggs whole, including the shells
The Liver King says he typically eats six to eight raw eggs after a workout, and often films himself eating the eggs whole, including the shells.
Eggshell is mostly made of calcium powder and is used as a natural calcium supplement to support bone health, often for dogs and cats. A recent study suggested that chicken eggshell powder has the potential to reduce the risk of osteoporosis in the elderly.
And we can digest egg shell, should we so wish. However, the external surface of raw eggs may become contaminated with salmonella, either during the laying process or through contamination with bird faeces. In the UK, the British Lion mark on eggs means that they have been laid by hens vaccinated against salmonella. This reduces the risk, but doesn’t eliminate it completely.
There are also concerns that consuming raw eggs on a regular basis over a long period of time can cause biotin deficiency, which is characterised by alopecia, dermatitis, hear and vision problems and developmental delay in children.
This is because the antimicrobial protein avidin that is present in raw eggs tightly binds biotin, also known as Vitamin B7, and prevents it from being absorbed by humans.
‘An egg white is trying to hold on to its nutrients so it goes to the developing chicken,’ says Dr Mellor. Avidin effectively stops Vitamin B7 becoming available to the person eating it, he says. ‘But because avidin is a protein, it breaks down when you cook it.’
Eating fresh food like eggs is a good idea, says Ms Thornton-Wood, but as part of a balanced diet. ‘A good diet should include vegetables, carbohydrates and protein – a mix of everything.’
DITCH PROCESSED FOOD AND EAT NATURAL
The Liver King strongly recommends dropping processed foods on his website: ‘Ditch the processed poison. Get on the liver train and dominate life!’
The Liver King strongly recommends dropping processed foods on his website: ‘Ditch the processed poison. Get on the liver train and dominate life!’
Instead of fizzy drinks, in one video, he collects a cup of blood streaming out of a dying animal ‘straight from the tap’ and drinks it.
In another, he creates a ‘nutrient dense protein shake’ by blending raw liver, kidney, testicle, bone marrow, heart, fresh cream and almost half a bottle of maple syrup.
Like the Liver King, many dieticians are concerned about diets that are very high in ultra-processed foods (UPF) and low in unprocessed, fresh foods which research links to a higher risk of cancer, type 2 diabetes, heart disease and even poor mental health.
However the Liver King’s diet doesn’t include vegetables or carbohydrates.
‘Our ancestors ate many different kinds of diets,’ says Professor Ulijaszek. ‘To pick on a particularly high meat intake diet from one particular period in our evolutionary history is misrepresenting the past.
‘We have evolved to eat a diversity of foods – many different things – and we should rejoice in that possibility, while always remembering that some foods are healthier than others.’