Eating quickly
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Eating quickly is the act of consuming food with the sole purpose of doing so within a short period of time. As this generally leads to the adoption of ways of eating that are unpleasant to watch, it is sometimes considered bad manners. However, there are those in favour of eating quickly, as is shown by its adoption as a sporting event in the form of competitive eating contests. This article also discusses the related topic of eating large quantities.
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[edit] Overview
This method of eating is especially common among busy office workers, and has the following characteristics.
- Swallowing without chewing
- Not caring about the taste of food
- Also generally involves eating large quantities
It has long been said by Japanese salarymen that Eating quickly is a skill (or, is part of the job) too, and considered to have aesthetic value, but in recent years this way of thinking is changing, due to the fact that eating quickly puts a heavy burden on the stomach and intestines, and may cause disorders of the digestive system. However, there are still many busy people who are forced to cut down the time they devote to meals, and thus become habitual fast eaters.
[edit] Eating competitions
On one hand, from long ago the yearning for food has created a strong desire among people to eat until they are full, and there are many events and competitions held which involve acts sure to fill the stomachs of their participants. In Japan, the wanko soba event in Iwate Prefecture is famous, and there are also many other competitions, such as restaurants with special items on their menus, which are free to any customer who finishes eating within a fixed period of time (but which must be paid for if the customer fails to finish), television specials, or locally-held community events. In particular, recent improvements in farming production methods have led to an abundance of food, which is one of the factors involved in making these competitions possible.
On the other hand, as these events can lead to a large amount of leftover food in restaurants, and accidents have occurred at competitive eating events where competitors have choked to death on food stuck in their throat, causing these events to be cancelled. In fact, in January 2002, due to an accident in Aichi Prefecture in Japan where a junior high school student choked to death on a piece of bread during an eating contest during the lunch break, television stations including TBS and TV Tokyo cancelled their planned programmes on eating competitions. Three years later, in March 2005, TV Tokyo revived the eating competition genre with "The Original! Eating Championship (元祖！大食い王決定戦 Ganso! Ōgui Ketteisen?)", but there is still much criticism of such programmes.
[edit] Competitive eating as a sport
- For more information, see the article competitive eating.
In contrast to the general definition of eating quickly, competitive eating contests are often separated into two varieties, one focused on speed and one on the quantity eaten.
- Competitive eating - speed events: these are conducted in a short period of time (normally a few minutes), and there is not enough time to feel full during the competition
- Competitive eating - volume events: these are conducted over a longer period of time (normally between 30 and 60 minutes), so that there is enough time to feel full during the competition
Recently, there has been a tendency to avoid speed contests where competitions are aimed at members of the general public, as there is a high risk of accidents occurring, due to participants trying to eat too much in a short time and spitting on food. Yoshiyuki Kishi, the former chairman of the "Japanese Federation of Competitive Eating (日本大食い協会 Nihon Ōgui kyōkai?)" (now disbanded), has emphasised the principle of "safe competitive eating," saying that "unlike speed contests, in competitive eating (concentrating on volume) the risk of this kind of fatal accident occurring is extremely low."
There were signs that some competitors (known popularly as "food fighters") were planning to establish competitive eating as a sport, but this movement has stagnated due to the suspension of the television programmes discussed above.
[edit] Eating quickly and eating large quantities
As eating quickly means that the process of digestion, absorption and consequent rise in blood sugar levels which produces a sense of being full does not occur until more food than is normal has been eaten, in many cases, by the time the eater is full, a large quantity has been eaten. Accordingly, eating quickly often tends to imply eating a large quantity of food quickly, an act many talk of with a certain kind of awe.
This is likely to be related to the fact that, while enjoying food is one of the great pleasures of life, becoming full forces one to stop eating, however good the food may be. Gourmets around the globe, both ancient and modern, have sometimes spent large sums on advanced medicines for accelerating digestion, and some have engaged in such drastic acts as vomiting during a meal before continuing to eat.
[edit] Eating large amounts without gaining weight
It is sometimes observed that some people have the capacity to eat large quantities without gaining weight. There are the following two causes for this. The first is the shape of the stomach. If the stomach sags down towards the intestines, food does not remain in the stomach for long, instead flowing into the intestines. The other reason is the case where the person has a large number of brown fat cells. If these are active, the excess energy absorbed is given off as heat.
In an experiment on mice by Iichirō Shimomura (下村伊一郎?), a professor from a research department at the Osaka University Graduate School of Medicine, (reported in the U.S. magazine "Nature Medicine" in October 2004), it was found that reducing the level of a certain enzyme, PTEN, inside the structure of fat cells produced a state where the subjects could eat large amounts without gaining weight.
On May 19, 2005, it was reported in the media that this report was fradulent, and an application was made to withdraw the paper from "Nature Medicine". The mouse which could eat as much as it liked without gaining weight never existed.
[edit] Positive and negative aspects
Some say that when food they have made is eaten quickly or in large quantities, within the boundaries of common sense, "it makes cooking feel worthwhile", and some avid cooks are delighted by those with large appetites. Large eaters are sometimes praised for having "healthy appetites", and eating well and working well is seen as a sign of status.
However, this is when eating is within the boundaries of common sense, and eating abnormally large quantities, or abnorally quickly is sometimes criticised. This is often due to the question of good manners, and methods of eating that are unpleasant to see are especially prone to criticism.
[edit] Sources
Much of this article was translated from the eqivalent article in the Japanese Wikipedia, as accessed on September 10, 2006.
