I READ with dismay the article “I’m eating my words” (Echo, May 30) where Chris Webber described his attempt to eat 10,000 calories at a sitting in the new Man v Food diner, in Darlington.

No doubt some think this is just a bit of fun, and I don’t want to seem a killjoy, but this is an American import we could do without.

The amount of good food wasted in such challenges is immense and hard to justify when perhaps a million people in this country are using food banks.

This culture of competitive overeating is widespread in the US and is thought to contribute to obesity and its serious consequences for health.

I hope the owners of this diner will make a success of their business based on good food, and that this gluttony-inducing gimmick will quietly fade away when the novelty wears off.

Dr Heather Smith, Evenwood

MONDAY’S article about wasting £40 to purchase food which is not going to be eaten was obscene.

Half the Third World is starving and thousands in this country rely on food banks, yet this “restaurant”, and your misguided reporter, think that wasting food in this way is a great idea.

D Farms, Bishop Auckland