Who is Liver King the influencer who eats raw organs everyday

Chances of you've heard about the Liver King, the man who received worldwide fame for eating raw organs.

He aims to "teach, preach, and model the Ancestral message so that it becomes mainstream" and famously made headlines when he became a topic of discussion for podcaster Joe Rogan.

During an episode, Rogan put the Liver King's eating habits down to being a "gimmick," adding: "he has got an ass filled with steroids, is what that guy’s got."

The influencer has since shot down claims, saying, "I don’t touch the stuff", and that he's grateful to Rogan for "bringing me into his ecosystem" and would like to appear on his podcast in the future.

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Who is the Liver King?

Brian Johnson, famously known as the Liver King online, is a 45-year-old influencer and self-titled "CEO of the ancestral lifestyle".

He joined social media in August 2021 and has since amassed over 1.5 million Instagram followers and 2.5 million on TikTok due to his raw-organ meat diet and physique. His main goal is "to honour our ancestors".

Many of his viral clips show his workouts, podcast appearances and him chowing into raw flesh, with one encouraging people to "eat like our early ancestors."

"If you're ever struggling with a weak heart, eating the heart of a healthy, strong animal is gonna do it for you," he said in one of his videos.

What does he believe?

The Liver King recommends his nine "ancestral tenets" (sleep, eat, move, shield, connect, cold, sun, fight, bond), along with intense workouts and eating raw liver favoured by some wild animals ("lions, great whites, and other wild alpha organisms").

In an interview with GQ, he said he eats around a pound of raw liver every day – though he says people should start with three ounces, two times a week.

"I'm not a hospital, I'm not a doctor, and this is not medical advice. I do, however, have a degree in biochemistry," he explains on his website.

What have people said?

Molecular biologist Jonathan Jarry expressed how the peculiar 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."

He added: "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’s diet can create deficiencies in micronutrients, phytochemicals, and fibre."

Marion Nestle, the Paulette Goddard Professor of Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health at New York University (NYU), saidconsuming a pound of raw liver is dangerous due to Vitamin A toxicity.

Meanwhile, MyProtein said: "While the Liver King promotes his diet, it is not a diet recommended for anyone. There are many high-protein, high-iron foods that can be included in a more balanced diet, and many of the practices he claims to follow are not realistic for most people."

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