Ready. Set. Chow down! An eating and feeding frenzy begins. Shovel massive amounts of food into your mouth while barely chewing. Swallow. Repeat. Speed-eating is in vogue. The winner is declared to be the person who eats the most and the fastest.
Eating contests are illogical in my opinion—whether professional or amateur. Who in their right mind came up with competitive eating? Bored frat boys? Hotdog manufacturers? Betty Crocker groupies with pie-baking talent?
Across the USA, extreme eating competitions legitimize the stuffing of excess food into human pie-holes. What a way to blast the belly. So gross. So disgusting. So primordial.
Are contestants allowed to vomit/puke/purge after the winner is announced? Both winners and losers lose when antacids are poured down the esophagus in route to the stomach. Wounds can include tongue bites and finger bites. Do eaters develop chronic constipation? Competitive eating is abusive to the human body.
Horsemen of the Esophagus, by Jason Fagone, is about competitive eating. Fagone follows three eaters around and writes about it. No, I haven’t read this book and I don’t plan to either.
America’s competitive eating officially kicked off in 1916 with Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest. The world’s top professional eaters in Major League Eating chew and swallow as quickly as a ravenous dog chomping on a bone.
Randy Santel, a competitive eater with over 400 titles to his name, launched the website FoodChallenges.com. Santel’s mother must be so proud or so disappointed. “This is my son, the glutton.” He lists food challenges (not contests) from the U.S. and various countries. Apparently an individual patron can visit a restaurant and eat a massive quantity of food in a short period of time.
Some call binge-eating contests a controversial sport. What? It’s not a sport. Sometimes I question the common sense of adults. Not all American traditions must continue—not the foolish ones. Food-eating contests need to decease. Folks, find another source of entertainment. Didn’t your mother tell you that there are starving children in the world?
When Eating Fast and Furious is Deadly
The family of a Sacred Heart University student who choked to death in 2017 during a pancake-eating contest is suing the university. An autopsy determined the female died of asphyxia due to obstruction of her airway by a lump of food. The lawsuit claims the university was at fault for allowing the competitive pancake-eating contest to occur, according to a 2018 story from the Tribune News Service.
On April 2, 2017 at Voodoo Doughnuts in Denver, Co., a 42 year-old man choked to death while engaged in the company’s popular doughnut-eating contest.
The Argue-Leader reported that a South Dakota man choked and lost consciousness in a hotdog eating contest in 2017. The hotdog got stuck in his throat. He later died.
A 32 year-old Florida man died in 2012 after participating in a roach-eating contest, according to USA Today. An autopsy revealed he choked to death.
Sympathy to the family and friends of these 4 individuals and to others who have died as a result of competitive eating.
Melissa Martin, Ph.D., is an author, columnist, educator, and therapist. She lives in Ohio. www.melissamartinchildrensauthor.com.