Grace Dent's health battles and worrying comments about relationship with food

27 November 2023 , 16:25

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Restaurant critic, Grace Dent, has quit I'm A Celebrity...Get Me Out Of Here! (Image: Dave Benett/Getty Images for Fortnum & Mason)

Grace Dent spoke openly about her complicated relationship with food before she signed up for I'm A Celebrity...Get Me Out Of Here!

The restaurant critic, 50, who quit the show today after seven days in the Australian jungle, admitted she treated herself to a number of "five-course dinners" and "all the wonderful foods that London has to offer" before the series started, conceding the food - or lack of - in camp would be a "shock to the system".

Before entering the jungle, Grace, who once confessed she 'eats like a wild animal', spoke about her diet in an interview, admitting she is very “careful about what I eat because I put on weight really easily.” She shared: "I do have to monitor every day how much food I have to eat for work, how many restaurants I have to go to, just trying to keep a balanced diet. I don’t think it’s easy in this day and age.”

Grace Dent enjoyed luxury meals as part of her job as a food critic before flying down under (Dave Benett/Getty Images)

Fans were concerned for the food critic, who appeared withdrawn as the days went by (ITV)

The change in diet was one of her worries prior to signing up for the show, with Grace admitting she was "dreading being really hungry." She confessed: "Everything is filling me with a real sense of dread, but I am especially dreading being really hungry because I tend to eat four or five posh meals out a week because I am a restaurant critic."

Opening up about her diet as a Masterchef judge in an interview with the Guardian last year, she said: "I have a job which often requires me to eat more than a human being probably should; 2,000 calories in one meal is quite normal – lots of butter, sugar, fat, cream – all the things that make things taste delicious."

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However, while the star of the BBC's culinary crown is used to eating the best food money can buy, in her book, Comfort Food, Grace admits she's no stranger to putting some McCain chips in the oven, which she enjoys with Saxa salt and Sarson’s malt vinegar. The chips are reportedly nestled in the freezer next to Birds Eye potato waffles, Magnums and a Warburtons Toastie white loaf in what she and her fiancé Charlie call ‘the Drawer of Deliciousness’.

She admitted to treating herself to luxury food before she entered the camp (Instagram/@gracedent)

Grace was glowing before she entered the I'm A Celeb jungle... (Tim Merry/Mirror Express)

The respected columnist, who revealed she became teetotal last year after drinking "in a very British way" from the age of 14, also speaks about the tragic loss of her mother, who died in 2021, in her book. Recording her mum's health deterioration in heart-breaking detail, Grace said her parent almost stopped talking and comfort food slowly became their only connection.

Taking solace in food such as flapjacks, which are 'full of refined carbs', Grace says they hit the spot but 'settled like an extra layer of padding on her behind'.

Speaking to WalesOnline in the weeks before she entered the jungle, the star opened up about how her health is directly affected by her weight, saying: "I don't think I suit skinny. I look ill right away. I'm quite a curvy, busty type of person. I have to be very careful about what I eat because I put on weight really easily. My family are just those types of people who come from an entire background of women who naturally fit about a size 16-18. Every woman in my family looked like that.'

"But I know that when I get bigger, I then stop exercising. Once I stop exercising, I start feeling sadder. And then my health goes and I haven't got enough energy. So, I've always been on a health kick since I was nine years old, like almost all women. I have to be very conscious of what I'm eating."

After a matter of days in the jungle, Grace threatened to quit after viewers took to social media saying they were worried about the star. After a week, she officially pulled out of the show, with reports suggesting the decision had been made mutually between Grace and ITV, who were said to be concerned about her 'health deterioration.'

*I'm A Celebrity...Get Me Out Of Here! continues on ITV on Monday at 9pm

Victoria Johns