Competitive Eaters Face Increased Risk of Chronic Disease

24 hot dogs? A 120 jalapenoes? It's astonishing sometimes how much competitive eaters can eat. An occassional bout of competitive eating is OK, but professional eaters face an increased risk of diseases lie heart disease, obesity, and diabetes.

It's a Fourth of July tradition every year in New York City, the Nathan's Hot Dog eating contest. Contestants try to gobble down as many Nathan's all-beef hot dogs in one sitting as they possibly can to win the competition. The champion eater this year downed 36 hot dogs before he stopped. That number has been as high as 54. And all this was done in 10 minutes. The average person can eat about seven hot dogs in that period before they start to feel sick. Other competitive eating contests feature watermelon, pancakes, eggs, jalapeños, and even sticks of butter. The record there is about seven sticks in 10 minutes. Surprisingly, most speed eaters start out slim. The big overweight guys don't normally do as well. It seems that the skinny guys stomachs have the ability to swell more and hold more food. Doing competitive eating is OK, if you do it every once in a while. As a matter of fact, most competitive eaters say that it's a lot of fun. Where the trouble comes in is when you do it frequently for a living. These competitors soon become overweight and face the risks of obesity, heart disease, diabetes, and hypertension. Although a full-scale study of competitive eaters probably will not occur because it is such a small group, there was one small study at the University of Pennsylvania that reported that competitive eaters never feel full. Their stomach has lost the capacity to move the food quickly through their digestive tract. Instead it just sits there. According to CNN, one participant reported that his stomach would gradually go down several days after a competition. During that time period he usually wouldn't eat anything. If you can imagine the case of heartburn you would have from eating some 120 jalapeño peppers then you'll know the risks. There have even been some cases of stomach inflammation and scarring reported. There are other risks beside the disease factors too. One 23-year-old college student from Taiwan, where speed eating is a popular sport, choked to death during a bun eating contest. The winning prize was $60. Source: /www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/07/03/competitive.eating.stomach/index.html