Bryan Johnson’s strict food and supplement regimen prompted a massive security response at the Los Angeles airport, which saw the bomb squad search the controversial biohacker’s suitcases.
Longevity entrepreneur Mr Johnson, who is 47 but has the body of a man in his 30s, is on a mission to spread his ‘Don’t Die’ philosophy and wants to break the 120-year ceiling of human life expectancy.
As part of his mission, which he reportedly spends millions of dollars a year on, Mr Johnson follows a strict vegan diet full of nuts, fruits, vegetables and plant-based proteins, and he avoids ultra-processed foods.
However, sitting down exclusively with DailyMail.com, HE said he and his team have ‘uncovered a pretty uncomfortable observation that most food is pretty toxic’ and it can be difficult to stay on track with his diet between countries and time zones.
So, Mr Johnson takes ‘as many calories as I can with me on the road.’ This means at least one of his suitcases is full of food, including the powders, purees and butters from his company Blueprint, as well as the 40 supplements he takes daily.
However, he learned the hard way that powders and pills – though of the legal kind – raise red flags when going through airport security.
He told DailyMail.com: ‘I learned a really valuable lesson. I was traveling to New Zealand and I took everything with me in the form of powders and LAX [Los Angeles International Airport] got pretty excited about it and they called in the bomb squad.
‘They brought all the executives and had multiple dogs there and I learned that you can’t take a lot of powders in a carry on bag and so I learned to check it.’
Bryan Johnson follows a strict vegan diet, eating nuts, plant-based protein, fruits and vegetables
Mr Johnson told this website he travels with as many calories as he can to avoid straying too far from his diet
As part of Mr Johnson’s longevity routine, he avoids ultra-processed foods (UPFs) and fast foods and steers clear of foods with excess sugar and preservatives or additives.
Experts say these types of foods can be dangerous to human health, yet about 70 percent of Americans’ diets are made up of UPFs, considered to be those with more than five ingredients.
A 2024 study found UPFs are linked to 32 diseases that affect every major organ in the body. Experts also believe the rise in UPFs and preservatives and food dyes in America’s food is fueling a rise in colon cancer and ADHD in children.
A simple rule of thumb is to stick to products with fewer than five ingredients and avoid items with ingredients that are hard to pronounce.
Mr Johnson told DailyMail.com it has been four years since he last ate any UPFs, and when he did he almost instantly was sick.
He told this website: ‘I had chili cheese fries I think four years ago. My son, he was like, “Dad, I don’t believe you when you tell me that you’re going to get sick or that you don’t like them.
“So let’s do an experiment. We’ll get them, you have some and we’ll see how you do.”
‘So we did get them and I ate, I forget how many, maybe like 15 to 20 of them. I got sick.’
He said he was sick for hours and his resting heart rate rose. Later that night he experienced ‘sleep hell.’
In his pursuit of longevity, not only does Mr Johnson follow a healthy diet, he undergoes hundreds of medical tests a year, including MRIs, CT scans, blood tests and nighttime erection tracking.
Mr Johnson avoids ultra-processed foods, fast foods, sugary foods or those with preservatives or additives
To cheat death he receives transfusions of his son’s blood, takes about 40 supplements a day and undergoes penile shock therapy.
He also gets Botox in his penis, adheres to a rigid his sleep schedule and has even undergone experimental gene therapy.
However, he also travels a lot, and he recognizes it can be easy to ‘fall off the bandwagon.’
He said: ‘What I’ve learned is that when you’re out and about, typically most people struggle when they travel to eat well.
‘So when they’re at home they have their systems and then when they travel, if you start to fall off the bandwagon by day two or three, it’s just disastrous.
‘And so I tried to build my systems into my travel. So when I go, I have all my same foods and and routines.’
A major part of his routine, even when traveling, is following a strict sleep schedule.
Mr Johnson, who claims to have the ‘perfect sleep score,’ goes to bed and wakes up at the same time every day.
When he travels, he tries to slowly adjust those times to fit whatever time zone he is in.
Mr Johnson’s company, Blueprint, has a line of powders, supplements and olive oil
While he normally heads to bed around 8:30 pm in Los Angeles, he ‘split the difference’ of the three-hour time change between the coasts.
When sitting down with DailyMail.com in New York, the California resident said he went to bed at 10 pm East Coast time the previous night – what was 7 pm on the West Coast.
Mr Johnson said sleep is the ‘most fundamental part of being human’ – and it’s not just how long you sleep, it’s how well you sleep.
While it was once ‘in vogue’ to brag about how little you slept, sleep has now become ‘cool.’
It is crucial for nearly every bodily function, like regulating hormones, repairing tissues and maintaining a healthy weight – all important factors when a person is trying to live forever.
A lack of sleep could lead to a higher risk of cancer, Mr Johnson said, as the body ‘shuts down [the] critical functions’ of your natural killers – or NK – cells, which play a crucial role in fighting off disease.
However, he continued, good sleep is making a comeback: ‘We really have seen a shift in the perspectives of health and wellness, where before it was a badge of honor to skip sleep and now it’s seen as foolish.
‘And I’d say that’s been probably the most significant accomplishment of this project. I think there’s been remarkable progress in a very short period of time.’
