Competitive eating

All Pro Eating Competitive Eaters include Molly Schuyler, Eric "Silo" Dahl, Jamie "The Bear" McDonald and Stephanie "Xanadu" Torres (who died).[3][4]

The International Federation of Competitive Eating (IFOCE) hosts nearly 50 "Major League Eating" events[5] across North America every year.

Other eating contests sponsored by restaurants can involve a challenge to eat large or extraordinarily spicy food items, including giant steaks, hamburgers and curries in a set amount of time. Those who finish the item are often rewarded by getting the item for free, a T-shirt and the addition of their name and/or photo on a wall of challenge victors. For example, Ward's House of Prime located in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, has a prime rib meat challenge. The current record is 360 ounces by Molly Schuyler in June 2017. Various challenges of this type are featured in the Travel Channel show Man v. Food.

The Great American Eat Off - a show that pits two average eaters against each other to see who can eat the fastest, while raising awareness for charity and then brings in a professional competitive eater to beat the winning time, raises the stakes for competitive eaters by incorporating various challenges and obstacles that would interfere with their speed. Obstacles may include eating with two spoons, eating with no hands, or Interval Eating where the competitive eater is permitted to eat for a limited time and then must rest for a specific time (i.e., eat 20 seconds, rest 40 seconds, eat 20 seconds, rest 40 seconds etc.) until they have completed the designated food. Interval Eating was created by Gail Kasper.

The type of food used in contests varies greatly, with each contest typically only using one type of food (e.g. a hot dog eating contest). Foods used in professional eating contests include hamburgers, hot dogs,[6] pies, pancakes, chicken wings, asparagus, pizza, ribs, whole turkeys, among many other types of food. There is also a vegan hot dog eating competition held in Austin, Texas.[7]

Competitive eating contests often adhere to an 8, 10, 12, or 15 minute time limit. Most contests are presided over by a master of ceremonies, whose job is to announce the competitors prior to the contest and keep the audience engaged throughout the contest with enthusiastic play-by-play commentary and amusing anecdotes. A countdown from 10 usually takes place at the end of the contest, with all eating coming to an end with the expiration of time.

Many professional contests also employ a series of judges, whose role is to enforce the contest rules and warn eaters about infractions. Judges will also be called upon to count or weigh each competitor's food and certify the results of the contest prior to the winner being announced.

Many eaters will attempt to put as much food in their mouths as possible during the final seconds of a contest, a practice known by professionals as "chipmunking."[8] If chipmunking is allowed in a contest, eaters are given a reasonable amount of time (typically less than two minutes) to swallow the food or risk a deduction from their final totals.

In many contests, eaters are allowed to dunk foods in water or other liquids in order to soften the food and make it easier to chew and swallow. Dunking typically takes place with foods involving a bun or other doughy parts. Professional contests often enforce a limit on the number of times competitors are allowed to dunk food.

Competitors are required to maintain a relatively clean eating surface throughout the contest. Excess debris after the contest results in a deduction from the eater's final totals.

If, at any point during or immediately after the contest, a competitor regurgitates any food, he or she will be disqualified. Vomiting, also known as a "reversal", or, as ESPN and the Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest call it, a "reversal of fortune", includes obvious signs of vomiting as well as any small amounts of food that may fall from the mouth deemed by judges to have come from the stomach. Small amounts of food already in the mouth prior to swallowing are excluded from this rule.

One criticism of competitive eating is the message that gluttonous sport sends as obesity levels rise among Americans,[14] and the example it sets for youth.[15] Actor Ryan Reynolds in an editorial on The Huffington Post, contended that competitive eating is another example of Western gluttony at a time when so many others around the world are starving.[16] In the same article, retired competitive eater Don "Moses" Lerman mentioned some of the dangers of competitive eating when he said he would "stretch my stomach until it causes internal bleeding."

Negative health effects of competitive eating include delayed stomach emptying, aspiration pneumonia, perforation of the stomach, Boerhaave syndrome, and obesity.[17]

Other medical professionals contend that binge eating can cause stomach perforations in those with ulcers and gulping large quantities of water during training can lead to water intoxication, a condition which dilutes electrolytes in the blood.[18] Long term effects of delayed stomach emptying include chronic indigestion, nausea and vomiting.[19]

Discomfort following an event is common with nausea, heartburn, abdominal cramping, and diarrhea.[20] People may also use laxatives or force themselves to vomit following the event with associated risks.[20]

Most deaths have occurred from choking.[20]

• In October 2012, a 32-year-old man died while competitively eating live roaches and worms. An autopsy revealed he choked to death.[21]
• In July 2013, a 64 year old Australian man, Bruce Holland, died in a pie eating contest.[22][23][24]
• On July 4, 2014, a 47-year-old competitive eater choked to death during a hot dog eating contest.[25]
• At a Sacred Heart University event on April 2, 2017, a 20-year-old female student died as a result of a pancake-eating contest.[26] She died by choking.[27]
• In 2017 a woman died from a water drinking competition due to water intoxication.[20]
• On August 13, 2019, a 41-year-old man choked to death after competing in an amateur taco eating competition at a Fresno Grizzlies baseball game.[28][29]
• January 26, 2020, a woman died in Hervey Bay, Queensland in a lamington-eating contest on Australia Day.[30][31][32][33]