Competitive eating

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.

Competitions

Competitive eating is most popular in the USA and Japan. 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 had won it every year from 2001 through 2006. Kobayashi was dethroned in 2007 by Joey Chestnut.

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, which first established eating as a sport in the 1990s, 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. It features videos of contests and eaters and offers a complete online community similar to MySpace, for eating fans. The website features a video of Joey Chestnut's recent record-breaking performance, when he ate 59.5 hot dogs and buns in 12 minutes to top Kobayashi's previous record of 53.75. Major League Eating, as overseen by the IFOCE, is the only organization that has established extensive safety regulations for events. 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. Spike TV is also running a series of one-hour Major League Eating events featuring the top eaters of the IFOCE.

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.

Famous competitive eaters

Peter Dowdeswell topped many Guinness Book of World Records eating contests until they stopped accepting new records.

Daniel Jankelow may be known as one of the most competitive eaters to have ever competed. He has been awarded numerous awards including two for a pie eating contest and donut eating contest. He has also set records in numerous competitions like burger, pepper and roast beef to name some of his biggest accomplishments. Although most competitive eaters are men, a handful of female competitors, notably IFOCE eaters Sonya Thomas and Carlene LeFevre, and a newer competitor, Juliet Lee, compete among the world's best. Natsuko "Gal" Sone, weighing only 43kgs, has recently demonstrated prodigious feats of eating in Japan, where she is a popular singer in the band Gyaruru.

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.

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".

The Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest on July 4, 2007 got reasonably large coverage on ESPN, partly due to the lack of sporting events that day ^{[citation needed]}, and partly because of Joey Chestnut's victory, the first by an American in 9 years. ^{[citation needed]}

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] Some cultures and countries might look down on wasting food in general.