New Delhi: Millionaire Bryan Johnson is experiencing a crisis of faith. He made headlines Thursday after tweeting that he had been thinking things over about his longevity project.
“Been thinking things over and wonder if i’ve taken this whole longevity thing too far,” he posted, prompting a flood of memes. In a quote retweet, a user compared him to Chinese emperor Qin Shi Huang Di, whose quest for immortality is speculated to have caused his death.
Now, Johnson has eaten what he calls “animal protein”. In a post Friday (IST), the longevity-obsessed 48-year-old said he was trying to fit in with Australian norms, which caused him to eat meat for over a week.
“I went off protocol and ate meat… While traveling in Australia, I tried to fit in with social norms and ate animal protein for the first time in six years,” he wrote.
Johnson claims that meat consumption affected his gut microbiome. According to him, it caused his “good bacteria”, the fibre-eating Roseburia and Agathobacter, to drop by 61 per cent. Meanwhile, the “fat-handling”, “bile-tolerant” bacteria increased by 154 per cent.
Bacteria that feed on fibre are known to create helpful compounds that protect the gut, while excessive fat-loving microbes are linked to metabolic stress.
“It made for a good experiment,” Johnson added.
I went off protocol and ate meat.
While traveling in Australia, I tried to fit in with social norms and ate animal protein for the first time in six years.
Here’s what happened…
It changed my gut microbiome:
+ good bacteria dropped 61% (the fiber-eating kind… Roseburia and… pic.twitter.com/CtWaY9giL1
— Bryan Johnson (@bryan_johnson) July 30, 2026
‘Eat what you want’
The millionaire clarified that his findings were specific to him and didn’t mean that all “omnivores” had unhealthy microbiomes.
“This only shows that in me, after six years of legumes, pea protein, hemp protein, vegetables, extra virgin olive oil, berries, nuts, seeds and collagen peptides, one week of animal food left this unfavorable signature,” he wrote.
To avoid any ambiguity, he clarified that he supports meat-eaters in their gastronomic preferences.
“TO BE CLEAR: you eat what you want. I support you. I am not trying to get you to eat what I eat. I’m sharing experiment results from measuring my body,” Johnson added.
What did the millionaire learn from his experiment? He mentioned that the “animal food sources” made his body generate more bile, which killed sensitive good bacteria and enabled tougher ones to take over.
“There’s some early evidence these shifts can happen within a day of eating animal food,” he wrote.
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