Most everyone has heard that breakfast is the most important meal of that day.
Adventurer Bear Grylls is not having it. Anything for breakfast, that is.
“Breakfast is out,” he told GQ. “I’ll start eating at 11 or 12. I’ve done 16-8 intermittent fasting for a few years [fasting 16 hours, and eating for eight]. Initially it was hard—my brain was going, “you need fuel for your workouts.”
“But that’s a dopamine hit, and I retrained my brain and now I really like it. It gives your system time to clear out. I’m not one of those people that fasts for ages, just the daily 16-hour fast.”
He has made many changes to his diet in recent years. Once an author of a vegan lifestyle book, Grylls has spun around in the other direction. He called it a ‘revolution‘ that includes a lot of meat, milk, and eggs. While eggs are a staple of breakfast for many it does not fit in to how he lives his life.
The 48-year-old survivalist told the magazine that a battle with COVID-19 made him make the changes. He said that when he first was fighting the virus he doubled down on his veganism – eating a lot of raw veggies and lots of juice. The decision negatively impacted his kidneys to the point that it prompted him to change.
He said that it is not just eating breakfast that does not rank for him.
In the same interview, he added a couple of other foods are simply not part of his routine.
“Super against nuts,” he said. “And against grains, wheat, and vegetables. They affected my health negatively.”
“Seed oils is a big one (too). But I’m not militant about it. Sometimes I’ll have a pizza or a fried whatever, once or twice a week. Though I’m learning they’re the real killer. This stuff is not in our evolutionary diet. It’s designed for lubricating engines.”
It is all part of a circle that keeps Grylls going. He uses the food to feed a very specific workout routine that he says helps him stay fit and energized for his explorations. Collectively, it has changed the way he looks at a lot of foods. Even those he previously advised in favor of.