British adventurer Bear Grylls has come up with an unusual excuse for his decision to consume animal products, saying that a broccoli “can’t defend itself.”
During an appearance on BBC show Louis Theroux Interviews… last month, Grylls discussed his diet. He said that he eats “steak and liver with honey and a whole bunch of eggs.”
When pressed by Theroux if he really eats that every night, Grylls claimed to eat steak “twice a day.”
“But I don’t have a lot of vegetables,” he added. “I always think if you’re in nature, you’re a broccoli growing in the ground, how do you defend yourself? You haven’t got claws, you have all these things that don’t want you to eat it. Defence chemicals.”
Grylls is known for his wilderness survival television programs, and he has in the past sparked huge controversy for killing animals on his show The Island. It is highly unlikely, however, that he’s hunting and killing the animals he consumes each day – despite farmed animals being unable to “defend themselves.”
Bear Grylls and veganism
During the Theroux interview, Grylls also opened up about his decision to ditch veganism. He said: “I was also vegan for a long time. I wrote a book on how I thought it was great, but my health really tanked. And I certainly couldn’t do 25 pull-ups.”
The book that Grylls referred to was likely Fuel for Life, which was released in 2015. The book, which he co-wrote with a nutritionist, isn’t entirely vegan, and does include meat recipes.
Grylls’ bizarre claims came a few months after he publicly denounced plant-based eating in an interview with GQ magazine, implying that the diet nearly gave him kidney stones.
“The more research I’ve done, I’ve noticed raw vegetables are really not good for you,” he said at the time. “So I’ve started incorporating quality grass-fed steak and liver. My lunch is meat, eggs and dairy, a lot of butter, and fruit. I have liver probably every other day. I started to get strong again.”
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“Broccoli can’t defend itself.” Neither can the billions of hens, chickens, pigs, cows, calves, that are at the mercy of man and are being dragged to the slaughter against their will everyday by bullies.
It’s just ‘all about me’. How do you ‘nearly’ get kidney stones?
You might get strong but you won’t live long on a meat-based diet. Our palaeolithic ancestors who were on a high-meat died in their 30s with cardiovascular disease. Bear in mind that meat was a lot healthier then, with less saturated fat, and no toxic pesticides or antibiotics in their fat cells.
And animal protein knocks the hell out of your kidneys.
So none of this makes much sense, which is sad considering how much influence this man probably has in the world. A world with no future if people continue to eat the way he does.
Yeah, so eating vegan crap that made of god knows what is better way to live , not to mention live on the carbohydrates and get fat for the rest of your life ?Oh please, like ya know a single thing who can actually cause a kidney failure…its the carbs, not meat or dairy. If you are so frustrated about that animal products might contain pesticides or antibiotics, then you’ll know that literally every vegetable and fruit is being sprayed with pesticides as well…If you want clean, lean meat, either go hunting, or grow animals yourself, instead of finding an excuse to not eat it as if it was “unsafe” to do so, animals kill animals, thats okay, but when we kill them to survive thats morally wrong, how? Yeah by that logic its better to pay money to the companies who make supplements and live on them for the rest of your misarable life…
Partric Barbourman may question the veracity of Mr Grylls statement along with many other sports people. It is entirely Mr Grylls choice to be vegan or not but it seems some what disingenuous to make claims about strength when there are many vegan athletes including a couple of UFC fighters and I believe Mike Tyson may beg to differ.
Omg what an idiot he is , brocilli can’t defend itself wth nor can the poor animals he eats who may I add don’t have claws
Yeah neither can a lone hyena against the lion, whats your point, use your emotions to justify plant based eating?
Broccoli can’t defend itself. Well no shit. But neither can domesticated animals that are literally genetically bred to not defend themselves while being taken to a slaughterhouse. Also, if we take it one step further and say, well, what about killing wild animals that aren’t domestic? It’s the same story. The use of guns to hunt wild animals is just as unethical as their technological prowess literally leaves zero room for any wild animal to “defend” themselves.
What a shit show bear Grylls is for even considering this as a valid reason for arguing against a vegetarian diet.
Oh yeah…like plants never been genetically modified…Hunting with guns unethical?Ya mean, slaughter an animal and leave there to die or to rot, oh wait, thats what the animals do to other animals, and we aint punishing them arent we?Thats right, we have laws and rules, to prevent poaching or any kind of disgraceful towards the wild game, while animals have hunting instincts and they can do whatever they can to their prey and we are the worst?Hunting with a gun is and will always be the most ethical way to hunt down an animal, since you cannot neither poach it neither let the animal suffer neither leave them to rot, know your facts.
Bear is spot on. A meat based diet is clearly the proper human diet.
In true yes, no food in the world would ever going to replace the animal based food and its products, since in one bite you get a lot of nutrients that no plant would offer, since plants dont contain b12, neither something like lots of calcium which is pretty hard to get if you decided to give up animal based food, your best is the supplements then, which are actually not the best idea either, since they are the ones who should not be consumed unless you have a chronics conditions, not mention they do produce like lot pollution as well, to manufacturer, receive, grow and deliver the products to your doorstep…Also, if you do your math correctly, you would find out that plants are actually among the most toxic things for a human to consume…
⁹I have all ways thought the man has problems but now I know his is a that.
Iv been vegan for over 35 year’s I love being vegan 🌱
Doubt it you survived withought the proper supplementation…Remove the supplements, do a weekly blood work and then you’ll now whats really going on…