When the Office star was a student, he was forced to eat baked beans on Shredded Wheat.
The 49-year-old told Live magazine: 'I was down to my last 50 pence. The last remnants of my student grant. The water meter in my flat had reached zero and I had no clean clothes to wear.
'Also, I needed a wash. So I decided to wash myself and my clothes at the same time. But I had a dilemma, 'Do I put the shirts in with me and use the last bit of shampoo, thereby compromising the shirts? Or do I put the last bit of Daz in and compromise my skin?''
He added: 'In the end I went for the Daz option. Let's get my shirts looking good, that's the priority. It was a big mistake because I felt all gritty and itchy.'
While at University College London, studying philosophy, the Extras star invented a horrible snack.
Gervais added: 'I was starving and had nothing at all to eat so decided to raid one of the kitchens in the halls of residence, but all I could find was some stale Shredded Wheat and a tin of baked beans.
'Then I found out that the oven didn't work, so I just poured the cold beans on top of it. It was pretty grim.'