It’s all fun and games until someone chokes to death.
Your Back Page correspondent is as fond of a hotdog as much as the next guy, as long as the next guy is not called Joey Chestnut.
In case you missed it (and we’re guessing the chances are quite high that you did), Chestnut this week broke his own record for competitive hotdog eating in a contest in Las Vegas.
The contest, which was live-streamed on Netflix, saw Chestnut defeat archrival Takeru Kobayashi, by downing a staggering 83 hotdogs and buns over the 10-minute event, compared with Kobayashi’s paltry consumption of just 66 of the fast-food delights.
The prize for this sickening feat of consumption was $US100,000, plus a gaudy professional wrestling-style championship belt.
Far be it from us to cast judgment on what folks do with their bodies in their spare time, but two questions do spring to mind. Firstly, who comes up with these crazy ideas? And secondly, surely such extreme eating can’t be good for one’s health?
It probably won’t surprise you that the answers are: “Americans” and “It’s not”.
According to a quick Google search, the first recorded pie eating contest took place in Toronto in 1878, with similar events, mainly involving pies, quickly becoming a feature of county fairs across both Canada and the United States.
But it was a publicity stunt dreamed up by Nathan’s Hot Dog Stand in Coney Island in New York that really put these competitions on the map. Held annually on 4 July as part of Independence Day celebrations, this conspicuous consumption of hotdogs began in 1916 and is reputed to have originated as a contest between four immigrants trying to prove how patriotic they were.
Patriotic perhaps, idiotic definitely.
Some of the potential negative health consequences of such eating events are horrifying. These include perforation of the stomach, oesophageal rupture due to vomiting, aspiration pneumonia, delayed stomach emptying, abdominal cramping and chronic indigestion.
Oh, and death, too. Mainly due to choking.
Some recent examples include a 47-year-old competitive eater who choked to death during a 4 July hotdog eating contest in 2014.
And in March 2016, a 45-year-old Indonesian man choked to death in a fried chicken speed-eating competition while a 20-year-old female student met a similar fate during a pancake-eating contest the following year.
In 2019, an amateur taco eating race at a baseball game accounted for a 41-year-old man while just last year a 38-year-old woman died after choking in a pancake-eating contest.
Australians have form in this regard as well.
On Australia Day 2020, a woman died in Queensland after choking in a lamington-eating contest while in 2013 a 64-year-old Australian man died in the same fashion during a pie-eating competition.
But by far the most bizarre and gruesome demise occurred in 2012, when a 32-year-old man choked to death while competitively eating LIVE COCKROACHES!
And on that note, we’re off to find a bucket to vomit into.
Send tasty, bite-sized story tips to penny@medicalrepublic.com.au.
