I Tried Bryan Johnson’s Full Blueprint Stack

“Bryan Johnson is the most measured person in history and a professional rejuvenation athlete.” At least, that’s what it says on the back of the 58.2-ounce bag of “Nutty Pudding,” a protein and chocolate-based formula concocted by Johnson, from which I just pulled two scoops to mix with milk for breakfast. For the past few days I’ve been mimicking Johnson’s morning breakfast routine, and Nutty Pudding isn’t all I’m having this morning; there’s dried blueberries, macadamia nuts, and walnuts to garnish my pudding and an electric pink beverage to pair, plus four pills and a spoonful of extra virgin olive oil to take down.

Normally I’d be eating a bowl of muesli, oatmeal, or yogurt, but these aren’t part of the Blueprint Stack, a simplified piece of Johnson’s rigorously developed longevity-focused nutrition program, commercialized and released for general purchase and consumption.

Blueprint isn’t self-explanatory, and that’s only partially because the website could use a little work. To understand what Blueprint is—and how or why one might want to use it—requires an understanding of who Johnson is. He’s the founder and former owner of the payment processing company Braintree, he’s a multi-millionaire, he’s a YouTuber. These days, above all, Johnson is a man who believes death is optional. But can his $361 “stack” make you immortal?

About the Experts

Neda Akhavan, Ph.D., RD, is an Assistant Professor at the University of Las Vegas, Nevada, whose research focuses on understanding the role of functional foods in improving or preventing chronic diseases.

Brittany Michels, MS RDN LDN CPT, is a registered dietitian with The Vitamin Shoppe whose expertise lies in holistic health, functional foods, and sports nutrition.

Blueprint Blueprint Stack

Pros

• Simplifies Johnson's lengthy nutritional guidelines
• Fills diet holes many people have
• Many components with huge potential

Cons

• Expensive
• Incomplete
• Huge undertaking for many people

BLUEPRINT ($361)

What Is Blueprint?

In 2020, Johnson initiated Project Blueprint, a $2 million-per-year experiment to optimize every aspect of his life to reverse aging. With a team of specialists, he set out to track every health marker imaginable—from bone density to nighttime erections—and fine-tune every aspect of his life, including nutrition, sleep, and exercise. He constantly tests his biomarkers and tweaks his protocols, with data driving every move.

Some of Johnson’s anti-aging remedies have been radical—like exchanging plasma with his son and father and receiving unapproved gene therapy in Honduras. But most come down to exercise, sleep, diet, and taking a lot of pills. Over the past three-plus years Johnson has documented all of it as the Blueprint Protocol, a sort of open-source code physiological perfection, and now, with Blueprint, he’s selling it. (The part that can be sold, at least.)

Nutrition is a big pillar holding up Johnson’s complex routine, and Blueprint is a way for the rest of us to get in on that, or so the pitch goes. Johnson has long claimed that his efforts are for the betterment not just of himself but of the human race and the planet. He also acknowledges that his routine is unapproachable; Johnson has a very specific meal program and takes more than 100 supplements per day. 

Blueprint simplifies all that down to the meal I described earlier; the full Stack—a word taken from coding lingo—is whittled down to a few pouches of powder, a few jars of pills, and a bottle of olive oil. The collection amounts to 400 calories, and you’ll often hear Johnson say that every one of those has had to “fight for its life.” Meaning, every calorie has a purpose beyond simple burnable body energy, from battling inflammation to improving cognition.

There’s a lot going on in Blueprint and the ingredient list is long. Some substances are recognizable (Vitamins D, E, and B12, Calcium, Zinc, Manganese, Magnesium) and others require some research (N-Acetyl-Cysteine, Curcumin, Lycopene, Astaxanthin). It’s impossible to know after a few weeks of testing whether or not Blueprint works the way Johnson and his team say it does. Still, we—and a few experts—have thoughts.

Is the Blueprint Stack Worth It?

As compelling as it is, Blueprint Stack is just another supplement product, albeit one with a very interesting individual and story behind its creation. Johnson’s driving notion—that the perfect nutrition and lifestyle program can help us live better and longer—seems genuine and perhaps even, as he puts it, revolutionary. But even in the context of that story, the Blueprint Stack doesn’t stack up. Maybe in the future, it will. For more specifics on what it’s like to take, read on.

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What Its Like to Be on the Blueprint Stack

It simplifies a complex nutrition program

Johnson has referred to the Blueprint Protocol as an “algorithm,” a way for him to remove his impulsive human brain from the decision-making process when it comes to nutrition. But the meals the program came up with are pretty specific, as is keeping track of more than 100 supplements. Blueprint the product greatly simplifies all this, condensing all those pills into Blueprint Longevity Mix and… more pills (but only eight per day). This, however, is assuming that you should be consuming all of these supplements in the first place.

There are some good things in Blueprint

“A focus on whole foods have been shown to be the most efficacious when we look at healthful living and even aging,” says Neda Akhavan, Ph.D., RD. While Johnson’s diet does consist of mostly whole foods, the Blueprint Stack does not. But there are a few things in it that have plenty of literature backing up their healthfulness.

Like the blueberries, macadamia nuts, and walnuts that make up the Blueberry Nut Mix. And the high-grade olive oil that Johnson has branded (dubiously) Snake Oil, and the cocoa powder in Nutty Pudding. All of these foods are rich in polyphenols (1), which are helpful for inflammation and have antioxidant properties that fight free radicals and help with conditions like cancer, autoimmune diseases, heart disease, and even aging skin.

Many ingredients have potential

Many of the things on Blueprint nutrition labels have a cross under % Daily Value. “That means there’s no established dietary guidelines or references to the amounts we should take,” explains Akhavan. The science backing many of these ingredients is limited and inconclusive; “may” is a frequently used word as in “may benefit cognitive function.”

Still, there’s evidence for the benefit of some that’s worth noting. There’s evidence that ashwagandha and the amino acid L-Theanine (both in Longevity Mix) may reduce stress and help sleep, which is beneficial for overall health and longevity (2, 3) 

One of the pills in the regimen also has curcumin, the beneficial bioactive component in turmeric, which is associated with anti-inflammatory, anticancer, antidiabetic, antidiarrheal, antimicrobial, antiviral, and antioxidant properties. There’s also some evidence that it can “prevent/weaken pathological processes leading to age‐related dementia, cognitive decline, or depression.” (4)

Longevity Mix also contains a small amount (2,500 milligrams) of creatine. “Creatine is a compound made from three amino acids—methionine, glycine & arginine—and is naturally stored in the muscles,” explains Brittany Michels, MS RDN LDN CPT, a registered dietitian at The Vitamin Shoppe.

“Creatine is essential for ATP (adenosine triphosphate) production—our body’s energy source. Simply put, the more available energy we have the easier it is for our muscles to perform, repair and build.” Typically used as a performance aid, creatine has recently been studied for potential applications in cardiovascular health. Michels also notes that creatine might have benefits for people looking to improve blood sugar levels and cognitive function. (5) (The Blueprint website categorizes creatine as beneficial for muscles, energy, cognition, anti-aging, and the heart.) 

The taste is… fine

A few pills are easy enough to take down. So is a spoonful of olive oil (though it’d be better soaked into a piece of fresh bread). The Longevity Mix goes down like Emergen-C or Nuun, pretty good! But Nutty Pudding is the meal here and any routine that requires meal replacement has a higher bar to clear in terms of edibility. Nutty Pudding passes more because it’s inoffensive than good; it looks and smells chocolatey but “nutty” is the operating descriptor. 

The two-scoop serving makes a generous portion of paste that calls to mind thick natural nut butter. The bag instructions say to mix it with two to three ounces of liquid, but in a how-to video Johnson mixes it with six to eight ounces. To get it to be more pudding than paste, six is the right amount. It only took a few days for this breakfast to be boring but again, it’s not bad, just not good. If the goal is a revolution in our fundamental concept of existence, as Johnson, not bad will work.

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It’s expensive

The full Blueprint Stack currently costs $361 for a month’s supply, roughly $12 per day. That’s more than I typically spend on groceries in a month, but less than what I spend on groceries and eating out combined. Currently, the full stack only accounts for breakfast, and only 400 calories of your daily intake, too. Johnson has stated that his intention is to create a whole nutrition program including some of his other go-to meals, but expect the price to go up when those come out. Everybody has different budgets, but Blueprint is definitely a premium product.

It’s incomplete on its own

The Blueprint Stack is only part of Bryan Johnson’s nutrition regimen, and nutrition is only part of his “algorithm” so don’t fool yourself into thinking that simply by taking these products you’re following his (still-unproven) complete health and longevity formula. If achieving results similar to Johnson’s is your goal, you’ll need to follow the rest of the strict Blueprint Protocol he’s laid out, which includes exercise, eating your last meal around 11 AM, adopting a specific sleep protocol, and more.

Even if you aren’t attempting to copy Johnson’s program to the T, know that nutrition is only part of living healthfully with a mind toward longevity. Akhavan stresses the importance of regular exercise and lifestyle interventions like not smoking in improving one’s healthspan. “And of course, genetics is something very important to look into when we talk about aging as well,” she says.

Also, as previously mentioned, the Blueprint Stack only accounts for 400 calories of your daily total. You’ll have to source the rest of those calories from healthy sources (Akhavan recommends as many fruits and vegetables as possible and, if you eat meat, opt for ones lower in saturated fat.)

You’ll also have to figure out how many calories per day you should be consuming. Johnson aims for a 10 percent deficit based on research that has shown calorie deficits increase longevity, though we should note that almost all calorie restriction longevity research has been conducted with animal subjects, and scientists still aren’t sure why the effect takes place (6).

Taking so many supplements might not be healthy

When you buy the Blueprint Stack, you’ll receive an email advising you to begin slowly, integrating the products into your lifestyle one at a time so your body can get used to it. If you don’t, you might find yourself with gastrointestinal issues similar to taking a multivitamin on an empty stomach. 

But you also might not need to be taking some of what’s in the Blueprint Stack. “Unless you’re deficient,” says Akhavan, “overdosing on it isn’t going to give you any further benefits, and things like minerals or fat-soluble vitamins actually can be quite harmful if you’re taking too much.” She notes that too much vitamin A can cause liver toxicity and birth defects, and too much vitamin D can lead to hypercalcemia (high blood calcium levels), which can have adverse effects.

“If a customer is unfamiliar with specific supplement products and ingredients then it’s recommended to schedule a one-on-one consultation with a nutrition expert to best navigate their personalized needs,” recommends Michels.

Blueprint Stack was made for Bryan Johnson

The Blueprint website says that its products are backed by thousands of clinical trials, but the trials it’s referring to are those that have been conducted to study the various individual components. The only trial that’s been conducted using the full stack only had one test subject: Bryan Johnson.

“It’s very hard to say that one person’s supplement is going to be a one-size-fits-all with how incredibly different each one of us is,” says Akhavan.

The ingredients were selected with Johnson in mind, as were the dosages; there’s no real way of knowing what the effects and results will be for any individual who takes it. There’s no such thing as a one-size-fits-all diet, and the best nutrition guidance is highly individualized.