The Dangers of Competitive Eating

By Kelly Turner on August 14th, 2009

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The usual question that pops into people’s heads when talking about competitive eating is How are those people not 500 pounds? And then Why!?

Competitive eating is simple: eat the most in the least amount of time. While an extra slice of cake may cause us to unbutton our pants, these trained eaters can consume upwards of 50 hot dogs (plus buns), chicken wings or whatever else the challenge may be in just minutes. Most competitive eaters remain at a relatively healthy weight because they workout consistently at a high intensity to burn off those extra thousands of calories they shovel into their bellies. They are athletes, and they have to keep their money maker in tip-top shape to be able to perform (don’t laugh.)

Aside from the copious calories, what are the other health consequences to competitive eating? In truth, its just glorified binging for prize money, and normally binging is considered a health issue, if not an eating disorder. But, as humans often do, we find it entertaining and mesmerizing to see effectively “normal” people stuff their stomachs to inhuman excess, but it does have it’s dangers.

In order to eat such a large volume of food, the stomach must be trained to stretch beyond its limits. This is usually done by drinking lots of water or milk, sometimes gallons worth in a day to continually stretch the stomach (without tons of excess calories- that’s usually saved for competition.) This puts eaters at risk of stomach rupture, which can result in death, or in irreparably disrupted digestion, as stomach muscles must be able to contract to effectively breakdown food. When these muscles are stretched over and over again, they become deformed and are unable to shrink back down to break up your food, causing undigested pieces to enter the rest of your digestive tract causing blockages.

Other complications include choking, and more chronic conditions such as obesity, diabetes and stroke from the stress on the body.

Arguably the most famous competitive eater, Takeru Kobayashi of Japan, recently contracted perhaps the most athletic of competitive eating injuries: an arthritic jaw. From shere overuse, Kobayashi’s golden jaw seized on him, making it painful to chew and taking him out of the race for a bit. He trained through it however, and continues to compete today. My question is, when will Tyra Banks suffer the same fate? (Dear lord, please make it soon.)

Injuries are part of any sport. Gymnasts seal growth plates doing irreparable damage to their joints and bone strength from the repeated pounding of the sport on their bones. Football players suffer severe head trauma from the constant tackling. Marathon runners often can’t keep enough body fat on their bodies to be able to keep their body functioning properly, causing Amenorrhea in women, stopping their menstruation and weakening their bones.

Competitive eating isn’t going away anytime soon. With the ever increasing prize money due to the popularty of weird and gluttonous entertainment we spectators just eat up (ha) interest in the sport is still rising. The long term effects of competitive eating are still relatively unknown, but knowing human nature, no one really cares. Sports are about pushing your body to its limits, and then some, and competitive eating fits the bill. Whether you think its a true sport or not, I wouldn’t be suprised to see competitive eating in the Olympics within the next few years.