“Naked and Afraid” contestant Sarah Burnett bravely munched on a bloody leech on Sunday’s episode of the hit Discovery Channel show.
Teasing video clip that will make your stomach flip TMZ, showed Burnett munching on a leech filled with her blood. She admitted this is not the kind of feast she would seek upon her return, but food shortages in South Africa’s Black Hills are becoming intolerable.
The camera zooms in as she touches the leech and blood oozes from it. She popped it into her mouth, chewed it, and swallowed it. “There was blood all over the middle,” she told her partner Sam Strong. “It’s my blood, so I don’t think it’s that bad.”
Barnett offered Strong the bloodsucking animal he had just caught, but despite his hunger, Strong refused to munch on the bug.
The video clip shows the moments leading up to the leech, and it was clear that Barnett had to work on a new menu item he had never tried before.
Barnett was wading through the murky water when he felt something on his foot. She looked down and began desperately trying to dislodge the leech that was painfully wrapped around her and already beginning to suck her blood. She struggled with it for a while and finally released the leech from her leg. Then she found another, and another. She put the slimy leech into the bundle of grass and mud she had in her hand, and held it tightly.
“I think we’ll have leeches for dinner tonight,” she said.
The reality TV contestant then appeared to try to convince himself to take the drastic step of actually ingesting the creature that had been sucking blood from his leg moments before.
“Basically, they’re like slugs,” she said.
“It’s a protein. It’s like people all over the world eat snails. It’s escargot.”
Barnett continued: “I never thought I’d be looking for leeches to eat. This is something new.”
“It’s like a brutwurst sausage,” she said. (Related: Video of reality show contestant with ticks on genitals)
She later explained what inspired her to eat leeches.
“I’m in full survival mode and feed-me mode,” Barnett said.
