UNDER THE MICROSCOPE: Adventurer and TV presenter Bear Grylls (48) takes our health quiz

can you walk up the stairs

I can and I do!

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

you get five a day

I make fruits, but no vegetables. I’m skeptical of the benefits to be honest.

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

Then my eldest son [now 19]struggled with his energy, skin and stomach, got help and recovered by eating red meat, butter, eggs, fruit and honey and giving up bread, pasta and vegetables.

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

If I want the odd treat, that’s fine: you have to live a little!

Have you ever been on a diet?

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

Any vices?

Pina coladas and milk chocolate (a square or two after meals). If I want the odd treat, that’s fine: you have to live a little!

family problems?

My father died a few days after getting a pacemaker. He was 66. It was the worst moment of my life.

The truth is that he probably wasn’t active enough and thought it was healthy to eat margarine and not red meat, when in fact he needed natural food.

Worst illness/injury?

When I was 22, I broke my back when my parachute failed to deploy.

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

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

swallow pills?

I take Ancestral supplements [his own range] including many organs that are more difficult to eat in their natural form, 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 fathers within a few months.

I felt discouraged, but simple things helped: sunlight, cold water, good friends, sharing the fight, being outside, training hard and setting goals.

that keeps you awake

I worry about my 82-year-old mother, knowing that exercise is so important for longevity, but she is now less mobile.

Any phobias?

To this day, I feel the fear of skydiving. But never run away from fears or they will grow.

ancestral supplements. com