Gluttony Extravaganza: Speed ​​eating contests. Fast food

People have always loved to compete. AT USA especially popular competitions for speed eating food. Starting from the 1910s, competitions for the absorption of various products have been massively held in the country. And every year the amount eaten in the allotted period of time only increases.

The history of speed eating contests originates from rural fairs. Initially, people were invited to race to eat vegetables and fruits presented by farmers.

Between 1910 and the 1940s, speed eating contests become very common in the United States of America. Many manufacturers of not only food, but also other products, used these competitions to popularize their products.

Sometimes contests grew from a harmless pastime of eating something to real gluttony. For many, preparation and participation in such competitions cost many months of problems with work. gastrointestinal tract.

The funny thing about these contests was that the weight and mass of a person were not at all indicators of a mandatory win. So, in 1929, on Thanksgiving Day, miniature contestant Olga Cinek managed to eat 25 pancakes and 21 sausages in one sitting, washing them down with three cups of coffee. The girl's opponent, 190-pound (86 kg) Joe Hanley, failed to beat her record.

The most famous in this area is the competition for high-speed eating hot dogs ( Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contests). It was first held by Nathan Handwerker, owner of a chain of eateries, on July 4, 1916. Four men were asked to eat the maximum number of hot dogs in 12 minutes. Since then, every year (except 1940) this competition is held on Independence Day. If in 1916 the winner of the competition managed to overcome only 10 hot dogs, then in 2009 an absolute record was set - 68 hot dogs in 10 minutes.

During the Great Depression, the public needed to be distracted from pressing issues, so contests were an integral part of American leisure. Popular at that time Most of the participants were ready to dance for hours for the amusement of the public for just a piece of bread.

Eating contests are one of the most controversial competitions in the world. And although many people and doctors consider such championships to be extremely insane and dangerous to human health, there are still those who want to participate in such competitions and those who like to watch.

Some well-known events, such as hot dog eating contests, have been going on for decades.

However, every year there are new types of speed eating contests, ranging from the most delicious to the strangest, such as the donkey penis eating contest:

World Oyster Eating Championship

Every year in June, New Orleans, Louisiana hosts the World Oyster Speed ​​Eating Championship. The winner is awarded a cash prize of $1,000. In 2011, Patrick Bertoletti set the championship record by eating 468 oysters in 8 minutes.

International Garlic Eating Competition

This event is held in the county of Dorset in the southwest of England. In 2014, David Geeman won by eating 33 cloves of garlic in 60 seconds.

Nettle Eating Championship

Another crazy competition also takes place in Dorset, the World Nettle Eating Championship, in which participants have to eat raw nettle leaves. The winner is the one who can eat a nettle branch about 60 centimeters long.

World Pepper Eating Championship

Eating contest for one of the most acute species jalapeno pepper is held in Texas and is one of the most famous events. In 2006, a 62-year-old retiree from Nevada ate 247 peppers in 8 minutes, setting a new world record in the competition.

Crocodile Egg Eating Championship

Every year in Thailand, a crocodile egg eating championship is held at the Pattaya crocodile farm. The winner is the one who can eat 10 eggs of these reptiles in the shortest possible time. The main purpose of this unusual event- development of tourism.

World Peanut Butter Banana Sandwich Eating Championship

To honor Elvis Presley's memory, his fans gather in Biloxi, Mississippi, for a peanut butter and banana sandwich eating contest, the king of rock'n'roll's favorite food. In 2011, the winner was Patrick Bertoletti, who ate 28 sandwiches in 10 minutes.

Sushi Eating Championship

In 2088, Tim Janus, a professional eating contest participant known by the pseudonym "Eater X", set a world record - he managed to eat 141 sushi in 6 minutes.

Curry Eating Championship

Every year, the city of Edinburgh, Scotland hosts a curry-eating contest. Before the start of the event, all participants undergo a medical check and without fail sign a waiver of liability. There have already been precedents when during the competition the participants had to provide medical assistance.

live cockroach eating competition

Ken Edwards from England broke the world record - in 2001 he ate 36 hissing Madagascar cockroaches in one minute. And in 2012, one of the participants in a similar competition in Florida died after eating about a dozen live cockroaches.

Donkey Penis Eating Contest

If you want to take part in the craziest and most unusual competition, then you need to come to Beijing. Each participant in the competition is entitled to three buckets - the first is filled to the top with fried donkey penises, the second contains sauce, and the third participants spit the remains of unchewed penises to avoid suffocation.

Animal Testicle Eating Contest

The annual Speed ​​Eating Testicle Festival is held in several US states such as Illinois, Michigan and Montana. During the competition, participants must eat as many fried bull eggs as possible in 10 minutes.

Crayfish Eating Championship

The Crayfish Eating Championship is held in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Chris Hendricks broke the world record by eating 331 crayfish in 12 minutes.

Germ Duck Egg Eating Championship

Each year, New York hosts one of the most unappetizing events on this list, the Balut Eating Championship. Participants must eat as many boiled duck eggs with an already formed embryo as possible in 5 minutes. Wayne Algenio won the competition - he ate 18 eggs in 37 seconds.

Plum Dumpling Contest

This competition is held in the Czech Republic, where plum dumplings are a very popular dish. Competitors must eat as many dumplings as possible within one hour. The latest record was set by a man who ate 191 of these fruit dumplings.

Butter Eating Contest

During this crazy competition, participants eat whole packs of butter. In 2001, Don Lerman ate seven packs of butter (each weighing 113 grams) in 5 minutes, setting a world record in this competition.

The history and secrets of speed eating competitions: how much to eat with the body of a fashion model

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More and more often on entertainment sites you can see news about records for the speed of absorption of food. The latest informational occasions in this unusual area look like this: Matt Stoney, nicknamed "Megatoad", ate thirty servings of ice cream three varieties under 17 toppings in 15 minutes. The energy value of the entire portion was, according to experts, 11 thousand calories. The “athlete” himself does not look at all like a person eating a monthly supply of ice cream at speed. On the contrary, a fit Asian without a gram of excess weight is looking at us from the photo.

Or another example: Nela Zisser, a New Zealand professional eater, ate a one-kilogram burrito in a minute and 44 seconds as part of a contest organized by Australian food chain Mad Mex. And, being a fashion model, she looks amazing in her free time from eating Mexican snacks.

TJ columnist Ivan Talachev decided to learn the history of fast food competitions, reveal the secrets of eaters and find out how you can sometimes eat ten thousand calories a day and still look like a fashion model.

The history of speed food

Eating competitions have been around for hundreds, if not thousands, of years. For example, such a competition is mentioned in the medieval Icelandic work "Younger Edda", written around 1220 AD. There are also stories of medieval taverns in Europe, whose owners, out of boredom, made bets with visitors on especially large dishes, which allowed them not to pay a dime for them if the client managed to eat everything in an hour.

At the beginning of the twentieth century, the situation changed dramatically. In 1916, at the Independence Day Fair on the Coney Island peninsula, Nathan's Famous hot dog company organized a speed-eating competition. According to legend, the competition was held for patriotic purposes (whoever eats more is a real patriot ), and the now unknown Irishman won it, having eaten as many as 13 pieces.

Until the early to mid-nineties, Nathan "Famous" held their annual games, however, after changing the marketing department of the company, it was decided to expand the competitions, making them more popular. The brothers George and Richard Shea managed not only to increase the attendance of such competitions from hundreds to tens of thousands of people, but also within a few years to create the Federation of Food Competitions (now called Major League Eating) - a single supervising body for competitions that manages the database of records and the regulation of competitions.

Today, food contests in the cultural space occupy a serious position: the leading sports channel ESPN broadcasts from the annual Nathan's Famous competitions (they still continue, for almost a hundred years), restaurant chains organize their contests and competitions one after another , and top speed eating champions are making headlines in news feeds, with Major League Eating even releasing a video game for the Nintendo Wii based on their competition, using the names and looks of their stars.

Trailer of the official video game Major League Eating for the Nintendo Wii console

On your marks! Attention! Ground meat!

An ordinary person, already on the third or fourth hot dog, feels that he “does not fit” anymore. One of the MLE champions, Yasser Salem, told how he first tried to eat a dozen after watching the next Nathan's Famous contest on TV. Yasser could not even cope with four, after which he began to discover the sports secrets of eaters one by one.

The first and main one is water. It is with the help of it that during training the stomach is stretched, allowing the athlete to hold more and more food. For a month of training, you can learn to drink a gallon of water in one gulp (about 3.5 liters). Further, the result can be gradually developed and consolidated with solid food.

In addition to the stomach, chewing muscle training is required: professional hot dog eaters give each sausage two or three bites, and they must be strong enough to crush it to a swallowable state. During jaw training, athletes chew five to six gum pads at a time, or use special silicone pads that doctors give to people who have undergone jaw surgery.

Hands and breathing also require training. Eaters use rhythms similar to those of swimmers' swings and breaths, breathing in and out between two or three hot dogs and practically juggling food during competition. For example, eating hot dogs requires tearing and putting a sausage in your mouth while the buns are dipped in a bowl of water to turn it into an easy-to-swallow mass of wet dough.

The judges of the competition do not count hot dogs and other food that remains on the table or in the hands of the eaters. Only food already in the stomach of the participants or in their mouth counts. The latter option created a whole technique of "chipmanking" (from the English "chipmunk" - chipmunk). It is to keep a large number food in the cheeks by the end of the contest time. special rule counts all food in the mouth only if the competitor can swallow it in an additional thirty seconds.

Famous professional eaters are almost always in good shape. Firstly, thanks to the myth of the “belt of fat”, which says that less food is placed in obese people, since fat squeezes their chest and stomach, preventing it from stretching to the required capacity. Secondly, their stomach often spends more energy digesting poorly chewed food than it receives from it, as a result of which the energy value fifty hot dogs may well turn out to be negative. And thirdly, outside of the competition, the participants are very healthy lifestyle of life: drink plenty of water, eat fruits and fruit purees, consume electrolytes (to compensate for excess water intake) and vitamins.

Another athlete's enemy: the gag reflex. As a rule, it is not even the reflex itself that hinders novice eaters the most, but its fear. Some even have to turn to hypnotists, engage in special meditation and even turn to medical specialists to get rid of the inhibitory mechanisms built into the body that prevent them from using large quantity food and prevent vomiting. As a rule, after the suppression of these fears, the results of the competitors grow almost several times.

Black Widow and Jaws

Like other sports, this one also has its own champions and legends. For example, Sonia Thomas, nicknamed "Black Widow" - American Korean descent, which has an impressive two dozen records from six kilograms of cheesecake in 9 minutes or 80 chicken nuggets in 5 minutes before the record for eating such specific things as tardaken (sequentially stuffed chicken, duck and turkey), which Sonya ate more than 3.5 kilograms in 12 minutes.

In July 2015, Sonia Thomas will turn 48, and she continues to regularly win in various competitions, year after year continuing to be the first in the annual Nathan's Famous women's standings.

Joey Chestnut is a real luminary of fast food. In 2013, at the already well-known Nathan's Famous games, he set a hitherto unbroken record of 69 hot dogs, and also holds the lead in 38 categories: including apple pies, chili, tacos, pork ribs and even Russian pies, which Joey ate 165 pieces in 8 minutes.

Contests for eating something quickly or for the amount eaten in a certain period of time are one of the most controversial types of competitions in the world. Many people and all without exception medical institutions consider these competitions disgusting and dangerous to human health. But there are also many people who love such competitions.

1 World Oyster Eating Championship

Every year in June, the World Oyster Eating Championship is held in New Orleans, in which participants compete for a cash prize (the winner is paid $1,000). In 2011, Pat Bertoletti set a record by eating 468 oysters in 8 minutes.

2. Worldwide Garlic Eating Contest

This competition is held in Chideoke (Dorset County, South West England). In 2014, David Greenman managed to chew 33 cloves of raw garlic in 60 seconds.

3. Nettle Eating World Championship

Another crazy eating contest is held in Dorset - participants chew on nettle leaves. After an hour has passed, the length of the gnawed stems is measured (and they must be at least 60 cm), and the one who has the highest score wins.

4. International Kimchi Eating Championship

Anyone who likes kimchi (Korean national dish) should sign up for the International Kimchi Eating Championship held in the Korean area of ​​Chicago. To break the current record, you need to eat more than 3.86 kg of this spicy pickled treat in 6 minutes.

5. Crocodile Egg Eating Contest

At the crocodile farm in Thai Pattaya, an annual competition is held, the meaning of which is to eat 10 crocodile eggs for shortest time. The main purpose of this strange competition is to attract tourists.

Mushroom lovers can compete with each other in the championship held in Pennsylvania. Whoever can eat more than 4 kg of breaded fried mushrooms in 8 minutes has good chance set a new world record.

7. Competition for sushi lovers

In April 2008, professional eater Tim "Eater X" Janus set a world record by eating an incredible 141 sushi in 6 minutes.

Glutton Bowl - two hours of eating mayonnaise. This is perhaps the most harmful competition from this list. The winner in this discipline - Oleg Zhornitsky ate 4 bowls of mayonnaise, which is equivalent to 3.6 kg of this seasoning.

9 Live Cockroach Eating Contest

The world record is currently held by Ken Edwards of Derbyshire, England. In 2001, he ate 36 live Madagascar cockroaches in one minute. In 2012, during a similar competition in Florida, an accident occurred - one of the contestants, having eaten a dozen live cockroaches, died.

10 World Ice Cream Eating Championship

Ice cream speed competitions are held in many countries, but in 2014, a new world record in this discipline was set at the World Ice Cream Eating Championship in Florida. Joey Chestnut swallowed 15 pints (7.1 liters) of ice cream in 6 minutes.

11 Wonton Shrimp Eating Contest

Joey Chestnut excelled in another discipline - in May 2010, he set a world record by swallowing 380 Wonton shrimp in 8 minutes.

12. World Crayfish Championship

In 2004, Brian Duffield from the UK was able to master a large 212g onion in just 1 minute and 32 seconds.

15. Oil Eating Contest

Oddly enough, but there is a similar competition, during which participants eat whole pieces of butter. In 2001, Don Lerman ate 113 grams of salted butter in 5 minutes, setting a world record in this discipline.