Former Man Utd player claims ‘being broke is no excuse to be fat’ in controversial post

He then fought back at angry fans in the comments

Demetri Mitchell, who currently plays for League One side Exeter City, posted the message on X and unsurprisingly received plenty of criticism.

Mitchell has previously described himself as "a footballer with a personality" and the winger, who made just one senior appearance for United, posted his controversial thoughts.

He said: "Being broke is no excuse to be fat.

"Water is cheaper than coke. Broccoli is cheaper than chocolate. [A] packet of Rice is cheaper than chips. Cooking at home is cheaper than McDonald's.

"It also doesn’t cost anything to go on a run."

One user in the comments pointed out that some people may find it more difficult to eat healthier due to busy schedules, to which Mitchell replied: "[Yeah] you’re right but even if you eat bad food just don’t overeat it and you won’t get fat.

"It’s overeating too many calories that makes you fat not actually the bad food."

Other comments have hit out at the winger, who joined Exter from Hibernian in January.

"You try being a single parent who is exhausted from work, and offering a chunk of broccoli to a kid as a treat, and see how well that goes, lmao, absolutely ridiculous take," said one user.

A second commented: "What an extremely uninformed and frankly dangerous opinion to spread. Processed foods and their cost/availability are a big contributing factor to weight gain and having a poor diet. Many people do not have the time to prepare healthy food, it’s a far deeper issue.

"This is something where it’s very easy to say when you’re a professional athlete, but it isn’t as easy as you’d think for most of the population who are overweight. This doesn’t really help."

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