Buy Walking VideosWhy Is Hot Dog Eating A Sport?
As stated on AOL’s Sports Blog, Joey Chestnut beat the hot dog eating record last week.
Why was this on AOL’s Sports Blog? Why is eating too much food too quickly considered a sport? What is the matter with the world where something like this is NEWS?! There are people starving on the other side of the world. There are people starving in the United States. There are people who are overweight and cannot fathom why Joey Chestnut is thinner than they are.
Sometimes it feels like the world has gone crazy.
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June 7th, 2007 at 8:17 am
I saw this on the news & read about it on the internet & they treat this story like it was the top news story of the day. And I am always amazed at how most of these “athletes” are so thin! Why doesn’t it catch up to them like it does to me? Especially, when I don’t overeat (anymore). Great post, Laura!
June 7th, 2007 at 8:25 am
I doubt Joey Chestnut is eating like that every day, but still, this is really unhealthy and pretty darn gross, in addition to being offensive to the world’s starving masses. And think of all the processed meat and chemicals he ingested by eating all those hot dogs. I wonder how he felt the day after!
June 7th, 2007 at 11:55 am
I did the Fuddrucker’s Challenge once, and I’ll never do anything like that again. I think its just silly that anyone would consider this a ‘sport’.
June 7th, 2007 at 12:14 pm
Some people burn more some people exercise and some might have an eating disorder at the competitions make their binges acceptable.
June 7th, 2007 at 6:40 pm
I was just looking at his picture again & he looks like he is about to hurl!
June 8th, 2007 at 8:33 am
A Japanese television show a couple of weeks back, in which Tomoko Miyake was given an MRI before and after an eating competition and examined by doctors, concluded that she was somehow able to throttle down her hepatic portal vein (Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hepaticportalvein ).
This is what transports the nutrients from the intestines to the liver. Cutting that off prevents the food from being metabolized.
Their stomachs temporarily distend during the competitions, and then shrink back. To give you an idea, here’s an MRI of Miyake after a televised curry eating stunt:
http://calorielab.com/news/2007/05/14/nibbles-calgary-hospitals-to-pay-for-lap-band-surgeries/
The right is Miyake post-meal, the left a “normal” woman after stuffing herself. Miyake pre-meal had a stomach that was just a sliver, very small.
Unlike many U.S. eating champions, the Japanese champs are uniformly thin.
June 8th, 2007 at 3:26 pm
The reason these (athletes) can take in this much food, is extreme trainging including drinking gallons of liquids a day, usually water, let me advise people, not to try this at home and to leave it to the proffesionals.
June 9th, 2007 at 12:41 am
For more info than you’ll probably ever want to have about this topic read “Horsemen of the Esophagus” by Jason Fagone.
http://www.amazon.com/Horsemen-Esophagus-Competitive-Eating-American/dp/0307237389
June 28th, 2007 at 7:43 pm
I just fear for the lives of these eaters. The esophagus cannot possibly take that kind of beating on a continual basis. It’s a pretty sensitive organ that’s prone to damage. It’s also not easily repairable. How much time passes before we start reading of competitive eaters dying of digestive organ diseases? It is a dire prediction, surely….but one that is surely coming.