UNDER THE MICROSCOPE: Adventurer and TV host Bear Grylls, 48, takes our health quiz

Can you run up the stairs?

I can and I do!

The training is a habit built over many years and takes the form of a bodyweight routine (25 pull-ups, 50 push-ups, 75 squats, and 100 sit-ups) and then a weight session every other day. On alternate days, I swim or play tennis and do yoga weekly.

Get your five a day?

I do it in terms of fruits but not vegetables. I’m skeptical about the benefits, to be honest.

My diet was vegan/plant based for years, until I got pretty sick with Covid. I doubled the amount of greens and celery and all that stuff in the smoothies, but my kidneys hurt a lot.

So my eldest son [now 19]who had been struggling with his energy, skin, and stomach, was helped and restored to great health by eating red meat, butter, eggs, fruit, and honey, and cutting out bread, pasta, and vegetables.

I couldn’t believe the transformation, but the same thing happened to me and now I’ve taken an ancestral/carnivore approach: predominantly grass-fed red meat and liver, rice, eggs and dairy, with fruit and honey to finish.

If I want a strange gift, that’s okay: you have to live a little!

Have you ever dieted?

Yes, but he was skinny but losing strength and always hungry. Now I feel full every day, but I’m fitter and leaner than ever [at 6ft, he weighs 12st 4lb].

Any vice?

Piña colada and Dairy Milk chocolate (a square or two after meals). If I want a strange gift, that’s okay: you have to live a little!

Family ailments?

My father died a few days after he was fitted with a pacemaker. He was 66 years old. It was the worst moment of my life.

The truth is that I was probably not active enough and thought that eating margarine and no red meat was healthy, when in fact I needed natural foods.

Worst illness/injury?

When I was 22 years old, I broke my back when my parachute didn’t open.

I was lucky not to be paralyzed and spent a lot of time in military rehab. [he was in the 21 (Reserve) SAS].

It made me realize that life is so precious and I vowed to live it with full commitment, energy and gratitude.

Take any pill?

I take Ancestral Supplements [his own range] They include many of the organs that are more difficult to eat naturally, such as the heart, lungs, blood, and bone marrow.

They are like nature’s best multivitamin.

Have you ever been depressed?

When Shara and I got married [2000]we lost our parents after a few months.

I was feeling down, but simple things helped: sunshine, cold water, good friends, sharing struggles, being outdoors, training hard, and setting goals.

What keeps you awake?

I worry about my 82-year-old mother because I know movement is key to longevity, but now she is less mobile.

Any phobia?

To this day, I feel the fear before I skydive. But never run from fears or they will grow.

supplementsancestrales.com