Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

How to get started in competitive eating

Dear Matthew Alice:

I've been wondering about the current, regular winner of those eat-as-much-as-you-can contests on Coney Island. He's a skinny Japanese guy. Yet year after year he stuffs away more hotdogs into his gullet. I'm wondering, does he "set up" his digestive system by first consuming any of various digestive enzymes? Bromelian? Papain, etc.? Are there any rules about this?

Sponsored
Sponsored

-- Envious and curious, San Diego

Rules? We don't need no stinkin' rules. Except the obvious: throw up, you're out. And digestive enzymes won't do you much good when what you'll have to do to beat the current record holder (Takeru Kobayashi) is cram 54 Nathan's dogs, with buns, into your gullet in 12 minutes. Not much digesting going on there. The International Federation of Competitive Eating doesn't word it this way, but best we can tell, it's a Zen thing. Gray matter over gut. The IFCE fancies itself the maitre d' of munch-offs; the outfit is basically a PR group that helps people organize and publicize eating contests to promote whatever they're promoting-- cereal competitions, meat meets, bagel battles, tomato tournaments. They oversee the Nathan's event every year.

So what's on the training table of gastronomic athletes? Lots of water and high-fiber veggies like celery. Anything that will stretch your stomach capacity for the day of the event. Normally, a stomach can hold about a quart. It will increase temporarily, but returns to its normal size fairly quickly. The big misconception is that skinny people have smaller stomachs, therefore can't eat as much. Not true. So the fact that Kobayashi weighs only 144 pounds just means that he doesn't eat 54 hot dogs every day. He can do it once a year if he does some stomach stretching and then, during the competition, finds whatever that head space is where he can keep his hands and jaw moving as fast as possible and can keep his throat from closing, Nature's way of telling us we're making pigs of ourselves.

A couple of years ago, Kobayashi went bun-to-bun with William "Refrigerator" Perry. Perry could barely eat 4 dogs, 48 fewer than Kobayashi. Not that he didn't have the gut, he just didn't have the mental toughness. It's Zen, baby, Zen.

Too Fat to Eat

From Jeff in the College Area:

Q: Re: your response about skinny people and eating contests. There is also something called the girdle, a ring of fat around the abdomen that heavy people have that restricts their stomachs from expanding. Skinny people, therefore, have some advantage in these contests.

If you follow the junk-food jock circuit, you may also notice that the serious competitors stand while they eat. The stomach expands forward and downward as it fills, so standing up gives you a little more room to grow.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Looking back at race relations in Coronado

A former football player recalls the good and the bad
Next Article

Looking back at race relations in Coronado

A former football player recalls the good and the bad

Dear Matthew Alice:

I've been wondering about the current, regular winner of those eat-as-much-as-you-can contests on Coney Island. He's a skinny Japanese guy. Yet year after year he stuffs away more hotdogs into his gullet. I'm wondering, does he "set up" his digestive system by first consuming any of various digestive enzymes? Bromelian? Papain, etc.? Are there any rules about this?

Sponsored
Sponsored

-- Envious and curious, San Diego

Rules? We don't need no stinkin' rules. Except the obvious: throw up, you're out. And digestive enzymes won't do you much good when what you'll have to do to beat the current record holder (Takeru Kobayashi) is cram 54 Nathan's dogs, with buns, into your gullet in 12 minutes. Not much digesting going on there. The International Federation of Competitive Eating doesn't word it this way, but best we can tell, it's a Zen thing. Gray matter over gut. The IFCE fancies itself the maitre d' of munch-offs; the outfit is basically a PR group that helps people organize and publicize eating contests to promote whatever they're promoting-- cereal competitions, meat meets, bagel battles, tomato tournaments. They oversee the Nathan's event every year.

So what's on the training table of gastronomic athletes? Lots of water and high-fiber veggies like celery. Anything that will stretch your stomach capacity for the day of the event. Normally, a stomach can hold about a quart. It will increase temporarily, but returns to its normal size fairly quickly. The big misconception is that skinny people have smaller stomachs, therefore can't eat as much. Not true. So the fact that Kobayashi weighs only 144 pounds just means that he doesn't eat 54 hot dogs every day. He can do it once a year if he does some stomach stretching and then, during the competition, finds whatever that head space is where he can keep his hands and jaw moving as fast as possible and can keep his throat from closing, Nature's way of telling us we're making pigs of ourselves.

A couple of years ago, Kobayashi went bun-to-bun with William "Refrigerator" Perry. Perry could barely eat 4 dogs, 48 fewer than Kobayashi. Not that he didn't have the gut, he just didn't have the mental toughness. It's Zen, baby, Zen.

Too Fat to Eat

From Jeff in the College Area:

Q: Re: your response about skinny people and eating contests. There is also something called the girdle, a ring of fat around the abdomen that heavy people have that restricts their stomachs from expanding. Skinny people, therefore, have some advantage in these contests.

If you follow the junk-food jock circuit, you may also notice that the serious competitors stand while they eat. The stomach expands forward and downward as it fills, so standing up gives you a little more room to grow.

Comments
Sponsored
Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

A poem for March by Joseph O’Brien

“March’s Lovely Asymptotes”
Next Article

Pet pig perches in pocket

Escondido doula gets a taste of celebrity
Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.