The celebrities who take part in I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! know they are in for weeks of living off rice and beans.
The celebrities have the opportunity to get extra food, usually meat and vegetables, if they win stars in the Bushtucker Trials, but anyone watching the ITV show over the last few days will know that stars have been few and far between. For the third time in a row, radio star Dean McCullough, from Northern Ireland, failed to secure all stars on offer in his Bushtucker Trial.
When the celebs fail to win any stars at all, which was the case when Dean and social media star GK Barry took part in the Drown in the Dumps trial recently, they simply have to survive off their daily portion of rice and beans. But fans of the reality show, which is filmed in Springbrook National Park in Murwillumbah, New South Wales, Australia, were gobsmacked to learn how tiny the portion of food they actually get is.
In a clip uploaded to their TikTok account, I'm a Celeb hosts Ant McPartlin, 49, and Declan Donnelly, also 49, answered the question: How much rice and beans do the campmates get each? Holding back laughter, the presenters held up the "exact amount they get each" - and viewers were gobsmacked.
Ant held up two tiny brown paper bags, and said: "This is per person, per day. That's it. If they don't do very well in the trials this is all they get." The dynamic duo then opened both bags, and poured the contents into two boxes, demonstrating how little food it actually is.
Dec added: "They really do rely on what they win in the trials because [...]," and Ant said: "That's not a lot." Social media followers were shocked after seeing the portion. One person commented: "Per day??? Omg", while another said: "That's just ridiculous." And a third added: "Wait…. Why so little per day."
However, not everyone thought the portion size was too bad. "That's actually not a bad ration tbh.. Not saying it's yummy but you could survive for years on it," said one person. "That'll fill you up for a good while though once it's cooked," said another.
Back in 2019, Dr Martin Kinsella, who runs face and body aesthetics clinic Re-enhance, told Daily Star Online eating the small portion for the short period the celebs are on the show should not be a problem. He even suggested short periods of low calorie intake could be good for your gut health.
The doctor elaborated: “While it is important over a long term period to have a balanced diet, and not eradicate many food types, short periods of a few weeks of calorie and food restriction are really good to help improve gut health, improve insulin sensitivity and reduce body fat.
“Most essential nutrients can be generally obtained through pulses and beans etc.”
However, Kiran Jones, clinical pharmacist at Oxford Online Pharmacy, recently warned it's not a healthy weight loss method. He told Daily Record: "We need to remember that, as well as not being a safe way to lose weight (the safe amount to lose is one to two pounds per week), it's not a nutritionally healthy diet to follow. That's because the 'basic' 700-calorie diet consists of rice and beans, which, while not necessarily bad for you, as together they make a meal full of carbohydrates, fibre, essential amino acids and protein, they're lacking in several key vitamins and minerals."
I'm A Celebrity…Get Me Out Of Here! airs every night at 9pm on ITV1 and ITVX.
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