I'm A Celebrity fans stunned after Ant and Dec show rice and beans portion celebs live off

The stars of I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! are well aware that their diet in the jungle will largely consist of rice and beans. The celebs can earn extra grub, typically meat and veggies, by bagging stars during the Bushtucker Trials.

However, anyone tuning into the ITV series recently would have noticed that stars are becoming increasingly scarce. For the third consecutive time, Northern Ireland's radio personality Dean McCullough failed to nab all the stars up for grabs in his trial.

When the celebs come back empty-handed, as happened when Dean and influencer GK Barry faced the Drown in the Dumps challenge, they're left with just their basic rice and beans ration. But viewers of the show, which is fi;med in Springbrook National Park in Murwillumbah, New South Wales, were left stunned after discovering just how small these portions really are.

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In a TikTok video, show hosts Ant McPartlin and Declan Donnelly, both 49, responded to queries about the campmates' food allowance. Trying not to chuckle, the duo displayed the "exact amount they get each" - leaving fans astonished.

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. She 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.