As much as I love to eat, I can't imagine being in the contest. I have enjoyed watching ( and listening to ) the coverage in years past. One of the more amazing things to me is that Joey Chestnut and most of contestants ( women too) are average to small sized.

I didn't see it this year, but in the past ( pre-Covid) I saw it covered as true sport and the commentary was hysterically funny.

Now if they had an ice cream eating contest, I doubt I would win but I would not be a slouch.

We saw a documentary on chili pepper eating. It’s just weird to me. And once there was a ”wife swap” episode where the husband was a competitive eater, first I’d heard of that kind of thing, and the ”new wife” was kind of grossed out by it. After all, he had to train. Ugh.

When we go out to dinner, i’m as likely to order an appetizer as my entree. Anything else is just too much.

People have died during these events. A uconn female student and a tufts student are two more recent causalties.

I can eat one if I am really, really in the mood. Those contests almost make me sick just

watching them. How on earth could you do that without getting sick and throwing them

all back up?

I'm more of a grazer than a big, all-at-once eater, so these contests always amaze me.

What a claim to fame, huh! Not to put too harsh a point on it, but when I contrast these "entertainment gorge fests" with the fact that we have children going hungry and food deserts in many communities, it's just extra gross and self-indulgent to me. I wouldn't care to watch.

I can eat one hot dog with chili, cheese and onions....but it has probably been five or more years since I had one. I am not a big hot dog eater. My husband loved chili dogs and we used to have them from time to time. I don't eat much any more....usually one meal a day, and I don't think to make it hot dogs.

I find these contests disgusting!! And as stated above, people going hungry! What is the point?

One with a bun, two if I force myself without the bun.

I choose not to compete.

I can eat one, max. Like many of you, though, the thought of gorging on as many as possible, let alone watching someone do that, is totally disgusting to me! Ugh!

Jinx, a jalapeno eating contest?!? Oh. My. Gosh!

Lynn, some of the past winners ate over 250 of them! 😬

"Different strokes for different folks".

Hotdogs are not something I chose to eat, but I will eat one, depending on circumstances.

As for 'competitive eating' of any kind of food, I think it is just plain disgusting to watch, so I don't.

Rusty

It's medically interesting how much volume a person can stuff in -- and repulsive.

Since I have not had a hot dog in 35 years even the thought of one gags me but 67...vomit time.

🤮🤮🤮

I usually have 2 - with coleslaw, no buns.

And years ago I recall listening to a podcast from howstuffworks.com explaining how these guys train. They prepare and have special techniques too.

https://entertainment.howstuffworks.com/competitive-eating.htm?srch_tag=4khmbda4j2y2ghsorl47yfdusoqqq35i

I’m not a hot dog fan. Unfortunately, it’s the season and it seems they’re everywhere now.

I don‘t think I’m particuarly squeamish, but those competitive eating contests literally turn my stomach. I can‘t even think about them without gagging.

Why would anyone think this was a good idea?

A GI I know said it was super important to take small bites and chew your food, the other day. I was like, seriously, this is something an MD has to tell people? He said he sees people who get into trouble during holidays like these all the time. Wow, folks, just wow.

Competitive eating is just not something I'm interested in watching. That said, I imagine training is the answer to how people do it. They practice eating huge quantities of food quickly in order to be competitive. They stretch their stomachs and practice eating barely chewed food as quickly as possible. Hot dogs seem particularly dangerous in my mind considering the choking hazard.

I am quite a slow eater in general. I like to take my time and enjoy what I'm eating and (hopefully) be more aware of how full I feel. My husband is former military and in basic training, the recruits were taught to quickly scarf as much food as absolutely possible. While he's much better at eating at a normal pace now than he was when he first got out of the military, he still eats so much faster than I do. Essentially during basic training, the recruits would only get a small amount of time allotted to eating and depending on where you were in the "chow line", you'd either have a reasonable amount of time or almost no time to consume the food you needed to fuel the intense physical activities for the day. Recruits were basically forced to learn to consume as much as possible in as little time as possible. I don't how how necessary this is anymore for real combat, but maybe it is. Sure seems a very unhealthy practice to teach young people who then carry this training with them for the rest of their lives.

It's totally disgusting. Why not how many beans they can stick up their noses?

Even as a habitual over-eater, I find these contests repulsive. It's too much. It's abusive of food. It's unmannerly to an extreme.

I knew a woman who, as a child in Germany in World War II, frequently did not get enough to eat. When I met her, she was working in early childhood education. She had a hard time with giving preschoolers macaroni to paint & glue and make pictures with, or dry beans as counters or objects to pour & measure and otherwise play with. To her, it was a profligate misuse of precious food. In a way, I think eating contests strike me that way.

But, I'll have two hot dogs, please. A touch of mustard or ketchup (but not both) with a couple teaspoons of sweet pickle relish.

The regular American diet is wasteful of resources and wasteful of the person consuming its health. Exhibitions like this are incomprehensible.

Obesity destroys lives, crippling people young, making them dependent on life saving heart and diabetes medication, making joints deteriorate and need replacing. All this because we live in the land of milk and honey and have no self discipline.

(Do not come at me with genetics, poverty or anything else. Genetics do not shift in 30 to 50 years and overeating is not a symptom of poverty.)

I literally did not know one obese or even a slightly fat person, relative, or friend growing up.

I decided to learn more about Joey Chestnut and what he earns for this contest.

Here is the breakdown and more about Chestnut himself.

As you can see he does other things as well and has a net worth of over 2 million.

I get being repulsed by these, but no need to cry over wasted food. ”Food deserts” are places where good quality, fresh food is hard to come by. Hot dogs don’t qualify and if there’s a shortage anywhwre it’s probably dong more good than harm in the community.

It's like when I was a young child and left food on my plate, one of my older relatives would tsk tsk and remind me that children were starving in Korea. I came back with, well, send my leftovers to them. But I missed the point, didn't I?

I was sick as a dog from about dusk last night until 4am when I finally fell asleep.

I blame hot dogs, which I never ever eat. I had 1. And no bun. It was really good but shall probably never have one again.

I am so sorry, Mtn. Yuk.

They do train, and the page I linked describes how competitive eating works.

Unfortunately mtnrdredux, food borne illness can often take more than a few hours to manifest - sometimes it's days - so people can't always pinpoint the source accurately.

There's been a recall of ice cream and other products recently because of Listeria contamination. Articles I read stated it can take up to several days for symptoms to emerge.

Oh no, mtn! I'm so sorry you were sick with potential food poisoning. That is absolutely the worst. I've only had that once and to this day I really struggle to eat what I'm fairly certain made me sick.

Mtn, I hope that the illness is gone, and that it was not, as Carol points out, something besides the hot dog. What an awful end to your lovely celebration.

Carolb, so true about the time it can take for food-borne illness to manifest. Most of us think it's the last meal we ate and can't get it out of our head. I used to work for the county health department and part of what our division did was inspect restaurants. I had a particularly miserable night after eating at a nice local bistro. One of our inspectors took my report. I didn't want to get anyone in trouble, just alert them to what happened. He said it often takes longer than a few hours for things to go south. Nevertheless, that last meal stands accused.

I often wonder about the long-term health consequences for competitive eaters. Yuck.

This just came to me via Twitter. Looks interesting. Is definitely a tangent for our discussion, but just in case anyone is interested.

Stephan Guyenet is a neuroscientist focused on the neuroscience of obesity and energy homeostasis. He is the author of the book, The Hungry Brain and founder/ director of Red Pen Reviews. In this episode, Stephan explains how obesity has changed phenotypically over the course of human history as well as what might explain the dramatic increase in prevalence of obesity in the last few decades. He talks in depth about the role of genetics, the brain, and hormones like leptin play in the regulation of fat mass. He dives deep into two common theories of obesity—the carbohydrate-insulin model and the energy balance model and provides his take on which theory has stronger evidence. Additionally, he provides insights on how we’re hard-wired to think about food and the consequences of modern foods designed for maximal pleasure. Finally, he goes through the factors that affect body weight, set points, and provides takeaways for people wanting to take advantage of what we know about the brain’s role in regulating our body weight.

https://peterattiamd.com/stephanguyenet/

Zalco, looks interesting.

I am all better, thanks; I was not clear but it was indigestion. The hotdogs had more fat in them than what I usually eat. But OMG I cannot believe how bad it was! I was afraid to eat at all today. Bananas and rice krispies!

Zalco, Dr. Jason Fung has similar insights about obesity. I for one, do not agree with a comment above that obesity has increased only because people have no self discipline. It is a much more complex issue and these recent insights I hope will bring answers. I do agree that the American diet and the frequency of meals/snacking is somehow connected to the problem, Dr. Fung has interesting theories about insulin and its role in obesity.

Lucille, while I can appreciate there are many challenges involved, obesity is about self discipline at the core, otherwise we would have no control over our weight. Understanding the complex dynamics which make over eating easier to do in today's environment is one thing, declaring ourselves helpless in the face of the challenges is another.

How many people eat a balanced diet and find themselves obese?

If you read Dr. Fung as he discusses weight loss, he points out that traditional diets almost never work long term and he specifically says that difficulties with traditional weight loss are not a self discipline issues, that it is rather a hormonal (insulin) issue.

My point is that if you eat properly you do not find yourself in this bind. Yes, I can see how it is possible to break your metabolism, but that did not happen by eating a proper diet.

Losing weight is a huge pain for me, a person who is not technically over weight. I can well imagine all the damage done to multiple systems by years of abuse. And I fully understand that losing weight requires more effort than a simple matter of calorie restriction for the obese, however, nobody became obese by eating a balanced diet. That is the self discipline issue.

Self discipline is what keeps you from getting into trouble. I am fully aware that once you are in trouble, you need a lot more help than that.

PS I think it is a travesty we do not pay for weight loss surgery and medications better than we do. The toll obesity has on people is absolutely devastating. Not doing everything medically possible to help people is unconscionable. And what makes even less sense, is that in the end all the disease and disability obesity contributes is way more expensive than the few interventions we have to solve it.

I've occasionally seen the hotdog eating contests. I get tense not so much over the amount they're shoving down their throats but how do they keep from choking?

I absolutely hate feeling overstufffed and never understood people gleefully talking about their Thanksgiving "food coma." What adds even more grossness to the hotdog eating contest is the technique of eating the buns separately after they have been dipped in water. That's right, water-soaked hotdog buns. Mmmmmm...mmmm!

I hate feeling overstuffed, too, it’s miserable. I’m another who grazes during the day, and I usually fast between 7pm to 11am. Not on purpose, it just feels best.

I have severe GI issues, so can’t even fathom these contests.

I have no desire to watch people waste food on something like this. Most of them vomit it when they're done, just to get their name in a book. Really? There's easier ways that aren't disgusting to do that.

^^^ they also get their name on a $10,000 check if they win.

@LoneJack Zn 6a, KC still not worth it

By definition it is worth it to them, since they entered the contest presumably hoping to win. I wouldn't do it, though.

I'm on the high end of 70 and grew up on a farm. We grew and raised most everything we ate. I don't ever remember snacking, maybe an apple or peach in season. And we only had dessert when the uncles came to visit.

And I do think that weight control has to do with self control. I would love to munch on Cheesits all day!