Competitive eating

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Sonya Thomas and Tim Janus at the 2005 Midway Slots Crabcake Eating Competition

Competitive eating involves the consumption of large quantities of food in a short time period – typically 15 minutes or less. The type of food varies, although contests are primarily focused on fast food or dessert; items are almost always a single type of food, such as hot dogs, pie, or mayonnaise, among many others.

This article focuses on competitive eating as a sport. For a more general discussion of the topic, refer to eating quickly.

1 Competitions
2 Famous competitive eaters
3 Training
4 Publicity
5 Criticism
6 Competitive eating in popular culture
7 See also
8 Bibliography
9 References
10 External links

[edit] Competitions

Competitive eating is most popular in the USA. Traditionally, eating contests were often held as part of a county fair. The recent surge in the popularity of competitive eating is due in large part to televised coverage of the Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest, an annual holiday tradition that has run on July 4 virtually every year since 1916 at Coney Island. Recently this contest has been dominated by IFOCE eater Takeru Kobayashi, who has won it every year since 2001.

Competitive eaters, sometimes known as "gurgitators", compete in more than 100 Major League Eating events annually worldwide that are governed by the International Federation of Competitive Eating (IFOCE). The IFOCE has recently launched Major League Eating to serve as an umbrella for competitive eating worldwide while also providing a recognized brand for licensing of t-shirts and other products. The Major League Eating website, www.majorleagueeating.com, is considered the most dynamic website in this sport. It features videos of contests and eaters and offers a complete online community similar to MySpace, for eating fans. A smaller organization, the Association of Independent Competitive Eaters (AICE), established by Coondog O'Karma and Arnie "Chowhound" Chapman, also sanctions contests. The IFOCE awarded nearly $350,000 in prize money in 2006. In addition to a one-hour live broadcast of the Nathan's Famous contest for ESPN, IFOCE has produced a three-hour elimination tournament on ESPN called the Alka-Seltzer US Open of Competitive Eating and additional hours of ESPN programming on eating for Johnsonville Brats and Krystal hamburgers. The IFOCE also recently produced a series of 30-minute television shows, Eats of Strength, for the high-definition network, InHD.

Other open-ended eating contests sponsored by restaurants can involve a challenge to eat a huge amount of foods such as a giant steak or hamburger, in a set amount of time, typically an hour. Often the prize is that the winner does not have to pay for the large amount of food they just consumed.

Outside of the professional realm of eating challenges, amateur eating contests between friends and strangers have found their way into popular culture. Loose associations such as the Federation of Amateur Eating Contests have formed to provide spontaneous challenges to patrons of restaurants at any given time. Members enter into an agreement, often set up so that the loser of the contest pays the bill. From there, onlookers to the challenge are openly invited to enter the contest and "out eat" the competition. Several competitions have seen upwards of 20 contestants competing.

[edit] Famous competitive eaters

Crazy Legs Conti, while not among the top ten IFOCE gurgitators, is among the most recognizable and has become a minor celebrity. He has been featured in magazines such as Maxim and FHM. Other top IFOCE gurgitators include the hot dog eating world record holder and champion Takeru Kobayashi, Ron Koch, Rich LeFevre, Joey Chestnut, "Humble" Bob Shoudt and Eric "Badlands" Booker. Although most competitive eaters are men, a handful of female competitors, notably IFOCE eaters Sonya Thomas and Carlene LeFevre, compete among the world's best. Natsuko "Gal" Sone has recently demonstrated prodigious feats of eating in Japan, where she is a popular figure.

[edit] Training

Being overweight is not necessarily an advantage. In fact, the "fat belt" theory holds that any excess body fat is a disadvantage in that it prevents the stomach from expanding as much as it otherwise could.^[1]^[2] Stomach elasticity is usually considered the key to eating success, and competitors commonly train by drinking large amounts of water over a short time to stretch out the stomach. The IFOCE actively discourages training of any sort.

[edit] Publicity

The culture of competitive eating is portrayed in the documentary film Crazy Legs Conti: Zen And The Art Of Competitive Eating, directed by Danielle Franco and Chris Kenneally.

A 2005 Channel 4 documentary called "The Big Eat" produced by Twofour, followed the search for and training of a British Champion to compete in the Competitive Eating World Championships in New York.

The 2002 program, "Gut Busters," on the Discovery Channel, followed several competitive eaters' roads to the Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest as well as explained some of the scientific aspects of competitive eating.

In 2006 MTV aired "True Life: I'm a Competitive Eater." It featured Tim "Eater X" Janus and Kobayashi.

On March 17, 2007, Spike TV hosted a broadcast live a competitive eating competition, "St. Patrick's Day Chowdown".

[edit] Criticism

Physicians advise that the intake of vast amounts of food over a small time should not be attempted without safety measures beyond the training that competitive eaters undergo to prepare for the events.

It is possible that competitive eating could lead to stomach pains, obesity and diabetes, although no long term studies have documented any serious injury related to the sport. Many competitors such as Takeru Kobayashi are actually quite thin. As long as competitors undereat while not competing, the total caloric intake need not be enough to promote fat gain. Many competitive eaters train by stretching the stomach with water drinking, which produces zero calories.

Some doctors worry that repeatedly stretching the stomach may diminish its ability to function. Vomiting, though rare among gurgitators, can lead to espohageal tearing and possible infection.^[3]

Competitive eating game shows were very popular in Japan in the 1990s but were pulled from the air following a few choking deaths. Sanctioned eating competitions contests take precautions to prevent choking injuries.

Competitive eating may be seen to glorify overeating and gluttony, practices disapproved of by many religions.^[4]

[edit] Competitive eating in popular culture

A competitive eating event was the opening vignette of the episode of The Simpsons entitled Maximum Homerdrive, in which Homer Simpson's opponent, a truck driver, died after consuming the last bite of a monstrous steak, leaving Homer the responsibility of completing the man's cross-country delivery assignment.
An IFOCE King of the Hill episode, "The Fat and the Furious," had Bill Dauterive and eventually Dale Gribble participate in eating competitions.
An eating competition at a county fair was featured prominently in the film Beethoven's 2nd.
The music video of Far East Movement's Round Round features a headband wearing male and several scantily clad women engaging in a hot dog eating competition.[1]
A competitive pie-eating contest featured in the Stephen King novella The Body, later filmed as Stand by Me.
The movie Meatballs features a hot dog-eating competition.
A segment of the Hungarian/French/Austrian movie Taxidermia is set in the Communist period of Hungary and features several professional competitive eaters in a rather surreal way. (The movie is based on three short stories written by Hungarian author Lajos Parti Nagy).[2]
In an episode of Hey Arnold!, Arnold and other characters participate in a competitive eating contest.
In an episode of Hi Hi Puffy Ami Yumi, Yumi competes against a golden-toothed boy in a hot dog-eating conest.
In an episode of Without a trace, the FBI missing persons unit investigates the disappearance of a competitive eater.
In Malcolm in the Middle, the father is in a competitive eating contest at a town fair in the park.
MTV recently aired "I'm a competitive eater" as part of their "True Life" series
In an episode of SNL, a TV Funhouse animated clip parodied Takeru Kobayashi and Dragonball Z, making him out to be a superhero who saves the day by powering up and eating walls made of hot dogs.
In an episode of Samurai Champloo; Mugen, Jin, and Fuu all participate in a competitive eating contest to win money. Fuu was about to win; however, she accidentally forfeited while killing a fly.