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Manchester Evening News
Manchester Evening News
Entertainment
Jessica Sansome

ITV This Morning fans fuming over 'absolutely vile' chicken nugget segment

This Morning fans flocked to social media after witnessing 'absolutely vile' scenes - with chicken nuggets. Alison Hammond and Dermot O'Leary were hosting Thursday's show when they were joined by Europe's top speed eater.

Leah Shutkever, from Birmingham, left behind a career in interior design after realising that she had a skill for eating large plates of food in no time at all after she broke a food challenge at a local restaurant hoping to beat her brother.

She told the hosts that she grew up overweight but overhauled her diet and got fit by learning about nutrition but now she has hundreds of thousands of subscribers on YouTube and 180,000 Instagram followers who follow her eating exploits. And not only that, she has broken 26 Guinness World Records.

READ MORE: Alison Hammond makes cheeky pillows quip leading Dermot O'Leary to ask This Morning guest 'not to sue'

"At the time that I was dieting for a bikini competition, my brother was going to a local restaurant attempting the food challenge. 10 weeks consecutively failed it," she explained. "I called him out as sisters do, I don't condone making fun of your siblings, however.

"He said 'look you think you're so good, come and show us how it's done'. I went to the restaurant, broke the record in 2013. Slowly word got around about the girl that eats the food."

After a brief chat with Alison and Dermot, Leah was challenged to eat 20 chicken nuggets in a minute to beat her record of 19. Leah hadn't eaten for 28 hours prior to her appearance on the show in order to take on the challenge.

Leah spoke to Alison and Dermot about her speed eating career (ITV)

As the time ticked on, Alison cheered their guest and told her: "Take your time babes, you've got 20 seconds left! She's almost finished, I've never seen anything like this, this is the best thing I've ever seen in my life!"

But This Morning viewers were left seriously unimpressed, claiming that it was 'inappropriate' as the cost of living crisis continues and that they'd even had to 'turn off'.

@Violet_Foxglove said: "The chicken nugget challenge is disgusting. There are so many families battling inflation who are going without. This is a totally insensitive and inappropriate segment. #thismorning."

"@thismorning OMG just had to pause that woman stuffing chicken nuggets absolutely vile," @AshdownAshdown tweeted.

@Crazier fumed: "#ThisMorning Speed eating is disgusting. And there are people who can barely afford to eat and they’re cheering on someone shoving chicken nuggets down her throat. Read the room."

"What a disgusting item on @thismorning. Ramming Chicken nuggets in her mouth. That does nothing to reduce awareness to eating disorders or obesity #ThisMorning," @tracyluv1962 added.

Dermot and Alison watched on as Leah completed the challenge (ITV)

Leah explained on the programme about how her eating habits and work in the gym go together. She said: "In terms of competitive eating, I can eat a lot and have always been able to eat a lot of food. I grew up an overweight child and had moments in my younger life where I didn't understand nutrition, so I just ate and ate.

"I didn't have that stop. Then suddenly I learnt about nutrition and thought I need to scale it back and do more exercise. This kind of became my life and I already had the knowledge to maintain who I am in this crazy world."

Leah also impressed Alison and Dermot when she told them: "I hold the record for the fastest time to eat a Terry's Chocolate Orange. The whole orange, in the box, timer starts before it's out of the box and I managed to do it in 57 seconds."

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