Ask Mike: Competitive eating
Hey Guys,
Competitive eating is an odd pastime. But whether you find it entertaining, inspiring, or just plain disgusting, there’s no arguing that it is growing in popularity. A Yahoo! Answers community member wanted to know a bit more about competitive eating, so I strapped on the feed bag and went looking for answers.
These days, most competitive eating contests are dominated by guys like Kobayashi and Joey Chestnut. But the sport (if you want to call it that) actually dates back hundreds of years. Time magazine hosts a brief history of competitive eating and notes that “face-stuffing has been around for centuries.” A collection of 13th-century Norse myths called the Edda “tells of an eating contest between the god Loki and his servant.” I haven’t had the pleasure of reading this page-turner, but apparently the servant was declared the victor after eating his plate.
Things have gotten (just a little) more civilized in recent times. According to the official site from the International Federation of Competitive Eating, “the Fourth of July Hot Dog Eating Contest was first held in 1916.” For those who don’t know, the Nathan’s Hot Dog eating contest is sort of like the Super Bowl of competitive eating. In 2001, Kobayashi managed to scarf down 50 hot dogs and buns in just 12 minutes. Joey Chestnut would later smash the record by eating 66 hot dogs and buns in 12 minutes in 2007. As far as I can tell, that’s the current world record.
If you’d like to learn more about the practice, check out the official site for Major League Eating. You can watch videos and learn about the safety measures used to ensure the “athletes” don’t choke or explode. There’s even a form you can fill out to become a Major League eater. Only those with iron-lined stomachs and a love of hot dogs need apply.
What do you guys think about competitive eating? Is it a sport or a joke? Leave a comment below.
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Competitive eating is disgusting and incredibly wasteful. You may as well be throwing the food in the garbage, except this is a grosser way of throwing it out.
I think I’m getting indigestion just thinking about that many “spare parts” of meat being ingested in 12 minutes!
My 2nd cousin is a competitive eater… he got like 2nd in the country or something… part of my family is proud of him or whatever but I find it disgusting but kind of funny…
What usually amazes me about these is that the winners always seem to be these tiny, thin people.
How the heck can they shovel in all the food “training”, and not look like the StayPuft Marshmallow man?
It’s an American tradition we embrace every 4th of July. I know if I still had cable I would watch that stuff.
They got those burger contests all over the place too. Big burgers you got to eat up in a certain amount of time…I couldn’t do that though. I’d be like “Can I get a doggie bag for this?”
It’s kinda fascinating, but at the same time, disgusting. I can barely eat two hotdogs in 30 minutes!
What about that guy in Pennsylvania who ate the 20 pound hamburger? Does he get included in the Nathan’s contest for eating or is it like the wrestling, with the WWC and the WWF and the ECW, they all have different leagues? (the World Hot Dog Federation, Extreme Hamburger Championship or maybe the Ultimate Lasagna League?)
I would think its popularity would be shrinking, not growing!
how are they not even fat?
I kind of find Competitive Eating disgusting. I mean, after eating all of that food, your going to have indigestion for sure, and your going to have to work off all the extra food.
HAHAHAHA! This is hilarious. I have always wanted to do a rant on this subject myself. Glad to see you did such a great one here. I could not have done better. Good job Mike!
As far as my opinion, I find it gross! I would never enter an eating contest but that’s just me. If people want to pack away tons of extra calories and risk having their organs rupture, good for them. If it makes them happy, they should do whatever silly contest they want! So long as the people involved are adults and fully aware of what they are doing, uh “power” to them. Something tells me though, the only thing powerful will be the smell of their dump the next day!
On the bright side, I happen to be a personal trainer! LOL! So if any of these eating “athletes” decide they want to lose the extra chub later, they can join me at the gym! I’ll charge them 70$ per hour to whip them into shape! That’s what I call a win-win situation! Come to think of it, maybe I should go to these events and pass out my card! BWAHAHAHAHA!
Watching them doesn’t make me hungry anymore.
It’s horrible and wasteful. Think of all the people who don’t have any food while others gorge themselves to bursting point and probably don’t even enjoy it.
ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww
Competitive eating = awesome.
So *is* it a joke, or do the participants really think it is a sport? I can’t work it out.
It’s an Ameican tradition! I would never be able to that though.
fast is bad
go with it
I love the comment on the website where one of the slim lady champions says she swims and does ballet in her spare time- I am suprised she can manage to swim and dance- I’d be too bloated!!
I ounce saw a hotdog eating competition and this tiny 110 pound women ate like 50 something hotdogs in ten minutes. Woah….
Where’d she put them all?
I find it rather sickening to watch. My wife watches food network and sometimes they show it. Watching the pickle eating contest was vulgar. Of course I’m the type who can take well over a half hour to eat my meal.
As for the skinny people winning, have you not heard of the skinny folks with high metabolisms that can eat and eat and eat and never gain an ounce?
Yuk – I’ll agree it’s a sport when they have the Olympic eat-offs. The pie-eating scene in ‘Stand by Me’ – and the account on King’s book ‘The Body’ – was pretty funny though.
its disgusting and wasteful. there are little kids who die from starvation each day and were over here stuffing our faces?? itd be more okay with it if it was just pie or something but then you have to go and drag meat in the equation too. just think of how many innocent chickens and cows died for entertainment!?!? it sickens me.
its a joke and it can be life threatnening and its pretty kool if you love competition
I dont’ care much for it, I guess because I find it very entertaining and amusuing. Nothing wrong w/ having a “sport” that you love. If that “sport” is eating food, then so be it. This is America, right, home of the free because of the brave.
I just find it sickening to watch…I mean there are people out there who have nothing, and then there are those who just eat all that food? No thanks, too disturbing for me.
In my opinion, competitive eating is useless, unless it’s fruit. I love fruit and if they had a contest I’d be in it for sure. I just think that with other, junky foods such as competitive burger eating is ridiculous. I like burgers, but there is no point in eating a ton of food, which you know you cant eat, but you just eat it to get it over with and win is stupid. It would be better if the food was healthy. I know I would’nt enter a contest like that because I would get sick after the 3rd or 4th burger……… But if it was fruit, I’d be in it for sure!
In this day and age where there are people starving and dying from malnutrition by the millions, competitive eating contests are an absolute disgrace and make me ashamed of this country. Americans show complete insensitivity to those who have nothing to eat by holding contests like these, especially in these terrible economic times. They should STOP IMMEDIATELY.
Ew. How do those people not weigh 3000 pounds?
Ok, eating isn’t a sport! It’s something you do to survive… I can’t believe people would consider gorging yourself with food in small amounts of time a “sport.” And it’s disgusting.
It’s an American tradition, those that don’t like it can go to Russia.
i think competitive eating is gross my brother does that all the time one time he fixed a sandwich and ate it under 2 min and there was mayonnaise all over his mouth it was so disgusting i threw up
I think its gross and not a joke or a sport. It makes you fat and unattractive.
Major league eating: possibly the coolest thing I’ve heard of
I’d do it if there were any nearby. I’ve done it with friends before, it’s not that bad or hard. And yes, I am one of those skinny people who shovel it back. But regardless it _is_ improper etiquette, but fun nonetheless!
MTV had a great documentary about competive eating very interesting how they train there bodies and stomachs. They usually eat pounds of lettuce before competitions and while training to expand there stomach lining.
It’s not a sport, it’s a waste. Rather than using the resources to make such contests in the first place, it should be used toward feeding people who don’t have food.
I don’t know if this is somekind of record but I drank about 30 cups of coffee in one hour. (Not recomended)
Man vs. Food vs. toilet vs. heart attack! It can’t be healthy. How do they do it? Why would you want to? Enjoy your food, don’t kill yourself with it!
I honestly find it kind of odd. But if people want to compete by eating hotdogs, be my guest. I’m just not sure WHY someone would want to compete by eating hotdogs. Huh…
I don’t like competitive eating. It’s extremely wasteful. That good could go to the hungry who want it to survive, not win some sort of stupid trophy.
It’s not right.
Those who say it is American tradition- no wonder Americans are all so obese!
It is wasteful. They waste money, and food trying to expand their stomachs, and food eating it, and food after because there stomachs are still huge.
Besides, hot dogs are made of parts no one wants.
Many are dieing. People are dieing of malnutrition and starvation, and animals die for meat.
It’s gross.
The grossest part is the way they eat all those hot dogs! Before they try to take down each hot dog they dip it in water so the bun is wet and will go down faster. EWWW. Soggy hot dogs make me wanna gag.
Yeah, not for me.
Why, on earth, do we encourage, even glorify gluttony.
In the words of George Carlin:
It’s not a sport. It’s a deadly sin!
That.. I find gross.
I mean, there you are, eating 50 hotdogs, and you have an audience watching you.
Woooow, watching people eat; how fun.
And all that fat must not be good for them.
a “sport” based entirely on gluttony and it WASN’T invented by Americans? news to me…
certainly not the strangest thing in the world; next year my family is going to time our 4th of July dinner to not be at the same time the Nathan’s is on TV
Is it going to be an event at the olympics ?
Competitive eating is gross, but in like pie, hot dog, or etc. foods eating contests. Those are just for fun. So I wouldn’t like competitive eating.
P.S, Competitive eating is only used for eating contests only. People think that, me too.
gluttony is bad
I’m with the people who find it horrifying. Yes, let’s actually eat so much we risk organ rupture in order to, uh, senselessly waste resources. Another example of American cultural brilliance.
it is ever greater in populace accademy to be contributor to americn distain among the few remaining intellengent beings of americ
They don’t become fat because they probably have a naturally high metabolism and they exercise a lot.
I think it’s awesome and wish I could eat that much. Oh my god, sloppy joe contest, I’d enter just for free food!
Barney: HAHAHAHA! Friend drank 4 giant monsters in 20 minutes, just about died after being crazy for 10 minutes.
First off, I am not into it, but have watched it a couple of times. I have a 17 yr son who I think would stand a chance at winning, and yes he is one of those skinny people. He has eating contests with his friends .
As for those people that are ” starving” like in Ethiopia they have food, they just dont want to eat it. They have cows, they think are gods. Personally if my child was starving, god or not, that cow would become dinner.
There is nothing wrong with having a hotdog eating contest.. its a few hundred hotdogs that do get eaten, so its not really a waste, now is it?
I think it takes a ton of skill. I respect the people that can do this because of who difficult it is. I could eat about 10 hotdogs or so if I really tried, but these people put away roughly 60, that’s amazing. And to all the people who say it’s a waste I know for sure that you have probably thrown away much more for in your life time than these people waste at an eating contest. It’s a little hypocritical to say it’s a waste when we waste food everyday. We throw away a half eaten burger cause we’re full, now do you think any of these competitive eaters are throwing away any half eaten burgers?
What is Competitive eating
Its sinful. willfullly sinful in everyway. gluttony and idolatry
Gluttony, which is what competitive eating amounts to, is neither a sport nor a joke. It’s an obscenity! Have the people who take part in these events, or watch an denjoy them, never seen pictures of people in distant countries, weak with hunger and looking like skeletons with skin?
i am a human garbage disposal i can eat a ton of food and not get full
(For those interested) the myth in the Edda – it wasn’t Loki’s servant but a servant of the giants (enamies of the Gods), And it was actually fire in disguise. They ate at the same speed, but fire at the plate as well as the food, so was declared winner. A small part of an excellent myth.
Yeah nothing says “we are a gluttonous, overweight society that cares nothing about millions of starving children all over the world” quite like competitive eating. I just don’t see the greatness in being able to eat tons of food. That just means you are fat and need a life. I’m yearning for the day when food is something you eat because you are hungry, not because the guy next to you can eat 34 cheeseburgers and you want to eat 35 to prove you are more of a slob than he is.
It is amazing how they manage to eat so much, surely it can’t be good for your health.
As far as a sport goes, I am not sure sure as really there surely can’t be a lot of skill involved, but then what is the definition of a sport?
its actually not that wasteful when you look at it in perspective. Less than 1% of the country is involved in rigorous competitve eating. While on the other hand, over 30% of the nation is OBESE. By definition, this means that they eat more calories than they need too, meaning that it is all wasted. Just look at all the buffets that are peppered with fat people eating 3 times more than they should. Frankly, THAT is disgusting, not what the competitive eaters do.I just hope that nobody who said competitive eating is a waste of food is fat, because that would just be the most hippocritical thing.
wow, you really got tons of comments, kinda like eating pounds of hot dog food in an hour.
Has anyone come across the sport of slurping? Something about drinking a Slurpee quickly. Must hurt the brain. There’s a website. Something like sportsslurping.com
I’ve seen a heap of stuff about sports slurping. There’s an official organisation behind it. They are lobbying all the sporting ministers around the world at sportsslurping.com
Hey, there’s a FB page with updates on O.S.O.S too http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/pages/OSOS-Official-Sport-of-Slurping/64079818663?ref=ts