Bear Grylls

Oscar winner Natalie Portman joins adventurer Bear Grylls on the premiere episode of Running Wild with Bear Grylls: The Challenge, debuting Monday on ...

"Perfect." As they search for drinking water, the two come across a shallow pool of sludgy water. But little did the Oscar winner know that her guide would teach her a new meaning to the phrase "going commando."

A chat with 48-year-old Bear Grylls before the premiere of "Running Wild with Bear Grylls: The Challenge” on National Geographic on July 25.

I eat a lot of meat, a lot of organs and a lot of liver. “Sometimes in the wild, it’s whatever it takes,” Grylls says. How you tackle the storms of life is a state of mind. Occasionally starstruck by the guests that join him in the wilderness, Grylls has learned over the years that being on the move in the wild is a great equalizer. Even without that show on his plate, the father-of-three still has his hands full filming in the United Kingdom, U.S. and other locations around the world for a number of different wilderness survival series. “Maybe that’s one to revisit, but I think it might have broken me,” Grylls says with a laugh.

GQ caught up with the adventurer about intermittent fasting, avoiding raw vegetables, and cutting out seed oils.

I was a massive advocate of the vegan lifestyle for years, and wrote a book on it, but my health tanked on it. My lunch is meat, eggs and dairy, a lot of butter, and fruit. Bear Grylls eats a little bit different at home than in the field.

The new season does have a little twist, though, which is why it is now called “Running Wild with Bear Grylls: The Challenge.”

I’ve been telling National Geographic and Bear Grylls for years that they need to invite a journalist on one of these expeditions for a firsthand perspective—and that I happen to know one who would jump at the opportunity (hint: it’s me)—but so far they haven’t taken me up on it. When I spoke to him about this season, he told me, “The world's getting ever smaller, and communications are getting ever better every year and that's a great thing. His father taught him to climb and sail as he grew up on a small island off the coast of the United Kingdom. Bear spent three years in the British Special Forces, where he learned and perfected many of the survival skills that keep him alive as he pits himself against Mother Nature. He is easily one of the most recognized names and faces in the world of survival and outdoor adventure. That has been the format of the “Running Wild with Bear Grylls” series from National Geographic. The new season does have a little twist, though, which is why it is now called “Running Wild with Bear Grylls: The Challenge.” A press release from National Geographic explains, “This season, guests will not only be pushed physically and mentally — like plunging into a frozen lake in the Canadian Rockies or foraging for food in the deserts of the Great Basin — but Bear will be testing each on their survival skills.