Eating Contests to Avoid

The following is an article from Uncle John's Endlessly Engrossing Bathroom Reader.

You'd think that with all the donut, hot dog, and pie eating contests there are in the world, there'd be no call for the competitions listed below. Try telling that to the International Federation of Competitive Eating (IFOCE), which has certified all of the following contests.

CRANBERRY SAUCE


Titleholder: Juliet Lee, who polished off 13.24 pounds of the sauce in eight minutes in November 2007.

Additional Accomplishments: Lee, who once taught chemistry at the University of Nanjing in China, also won first prize at the 2008 Ultimate Eating Tournament after she downed seven chicken wings, one pound of nachos, three hot dogs, two personal pizzas, and three Italian ices in 7 minutes, 13 seconds.

HAGGIS



(image credit: Flicker user CasaDeQueso)

Description: For the uninitiated, haggis is a traditional Scottish dish that consists of sheep's lungs, liver, and heart that are combined with oatmeal, onion, spices, and other ingredients, then stuffed into a sheep's stomach and boiled for three hours.

Titleholder: Eric Livingston, who ate three pounds of haggis in 8 minutes in 2008.

RAMEN NOODLES


Titleholder: Timothy Janus, who slurped down 10.5 pounds of noodles in 8 minutes in October 2007.

Additional Accomplishments: Janus, a day trader who uses the name "Eater X" and wears makeup to disguise his true identity, currently holds six eating records, including nigiri sushi (141 pieces in 6 minutes), tamales (71 in 12 minutes), and burritos (11.81 pounds in 10 minutes).

CHILI SPAGHETTI



(image credit: Dane Thomas/KICentral.com)

Titleholder: "Humble" Bob Shoudt put away 13.5 pounds of "Cincinnati Chili" (a thin, meaty chili flavored with oregano, cinnamon, and cloves, served over spaghetti) in 10 minutes in September 2008.

Additional Accomplishments: Shoudt also holds the record for beef brisket BBQ sandwiches (34.75 sandwiches in 10 minutes), and the miniature-hamburger two-minute speed-eating record-39 burgers. When he isn't competing, he's a vegetarian.

PICKLED BEEF TONGUE (WHOLE)


Titleholder: Dominic "The Doginator" Cardo, who consumed an entire 3-pound tongue, plus "a few bites" of a second tongue, in 12 minutes on Fox TV's prime-time Glutton Bowl in 2002.

BUTTER (1/4-pound sticks)


Titleholder: Don Lerman, who goes by the name "Moses" and is another Glutton Bowl winner, downed seven 1/4 -pound sticks of salted butter in 5 minutes.

Additional Accomplishments: Lerman, an IFOCE Lifetime Achievement Award Winner, also holds records in baked beans (6 pounds in 1 minute, 46 seconds), bologna (2.76 pounds in 6 minutes), quarter-pound hamburgers (111/4 in 10 minutes), and other categories. He placed third in the Glutton Bowl's cow brain eating finals, losing to Takeru Kobayashi-the Tiger Woods of "gurgitation," as it's known in the trade. Kobayashi, who is most famous for winning the Nathan's Famous 4th of July hot dog eating contest six years in a row (2001-06), consumed 57 entire cow brains, or 17.7 pounds' worth, in 15 minutes to win first prize.

HARD-BOILED EGGS


Titleholder: In 2003 Sonya "The Black Widow" Thomas downed 65 eggs-more than five dozen-in 6 minutes, 40 seconds, smashing the old record of 38 eggs in 8 minutes. Thomas swallowed the eggs whole. So why'd she stop at 65? The organizers ran out of eggs.

Additional Accomplishments: Thomas, one of the biggest stars of the competitive eating world, holds 29 different world titles in foods as diverse as cheesecake (11 pounds in 9 minutes), chicken nuggets (80 nuggets in 5 minutes), crawfish jambalaya (9 pounds in 10 minutes), and oysters (46 dozen in 10 minutes). To keep her stomach in top form, Thomas eats one very large meal per day. When she worked as an assistant manager at Burger King, a typical daily meal consisted of one chicken Whopper, 20 chicken nuggets, three large orders of fries, and 64 ounces of diet soda, consumed over the course of a couple of hours. You might assume that Thomas is overweight, maybe even obese, but she's not. She exercises two hours a day, five days a week, to maintain her competitive edge. Her weight typically fluctuates between 98 and 105 pounds.

PICKLED JALAPENO PEPPERS



(image credit: Flicker user cjmartin)

Titleholder: Richard "The Locust: LeFevre, a retired accountant, popped 247 pickled peppers at the Texas State Fair in 2006. (No word on who picked the peck of pickled peppers.)

Additional Accomplishments: Another living legend in the world of competitive eating, LeFevre, 63, has held records in 24-inch-diameter pizza slices (7 ½ extra-large slices in 15 minutes), birthday cake (5 pounds in 11 minutes, 26 seconds), chili (1 ½ gallons in 10 minutes), SPAM (6 pounds in 12 minutes), huevos rancheros (7 ¾ pounds in 10 minutes), and other categories. He weighs 132 pounds.

GURGITATION SECRETS OF THE PROS


Some tips we've collected from current and former IFOCE champs:

* Eat healthy in your daily diet. Avoid junk food.
* Eat fewer meals, but make each one larger to get your stomach used to accommodating large quantities of food. As a contest date approaches, eat larger and larger quantities of food.
* Exercise regularly, and lose weight! Belly fat surrounding your stomach can impair its ability to stretch out as needed when stuffed with hot dogs, beef tongue, hard-boiled eggs, etc. (This theory is especially popular with those weighing over 300 pounds.)
* Don't eat the night before an eating contest.
* If you start to feel sick during the contest, slow down! Gurgitators who regurgitate are disqualified on the spot.
* Kids, don't try this at home.

__________

The article above is reprinted with permission from Uncle John's Endlessly Engrossing Bathroom Reader.

Since 1988, the Bathroom Reader Institute had published a series of popular books containing irresistible bits of trivia and obscure yet fascinating facts.

If you like Neatorama, you'll love the Bathroom Reader Institute's books - go ahead and check 'em out!




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mochicha, these eating contests do not have anything to do with world hunger. The simple fact is that world hunger is caused by the governments (or the lack there of) of the countries where the people don't have enough food. Because of these corrupt or non existent governments, food sets rotting on the seaport docks or the food is simply not allowed to be sent in because it is in the best interest of the thugs who rule these countries, whoever they may be, to keep their populations starving. There is plenty of food to feed everyone on the planet, it's polotics that preven it.
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I ate haggis for the first time last Easter and it was really delicious. The problem with the article is lack of information. The ingredients are minced, so you don't get their texture. It's some kind of grainy foie gras and you don't eat the stomach it's been cooked in. I was a little afraid first (lungs, heart and stomach sounded yucky to me then), but since I was in Edinburgh and haggis is a classic there, I wanted to try it. And didn't regret it.
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Good god, is no one going to mention the number of hungry people all over the world. Each of those competitors eat the amount of food which could be fed to around 4-5 children. geez
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