Competitive Eating? Unbelievable.

I was looking through the news articles a few days ago, and the following headline caught my attention:  “Death by steamed rice bun: Competitive eater dies.”  Sounds like a sick joke, right?  But intrigued, I decided to take a look.  After all, the story was carried by Scientific American.  Well, I was wrong.  This is not a sick joke, but a true story.  A 23-year old student in Taiwan died at an eating contest.  From the story, it seems that total of five people are known to have died in various competitive eating contests.  Sad.

Eating contests have a governing body?

This got me wondering though — what exactly is competitive eating?  I have seen stories before about eating contests — usually hotdogs, but the subject never really registered with me.  Well, it turns out there is actually a governing body for competitive eating.  It is known as the International Federation of Competitive Eating (IFOCE).  They have safety standards, rules, and you can even look at the “eater profiles.”  From their site, it would appear that they actually consider themselves a “sport.”  You can buy branded merchandise, and they are advertising the upcoming Krystal Square Off Hamburger Eating Championship.  If case you’re wondering, I didn’t look at the contestants.

I think the existence of such an organization speaks volumes about how we view food.  In the Scientific American article, they interviewed participants who talk about how resistant the stomach is to trauma.  Why in the world would someone want to intentionally subject themselves to trauma with food? I know lots of people who enjoy food.  I’m one.  I know people who stress eat and who crave sweets.  But I’ve never known someone who would intentionally try to cram as much food into their mouths as fast as possible, and view that ability as something to which they would aspire.

Are there actually people out there that follow this activity, and are members of IFOCE?  This just amazes me, because glamorizing activities like this only serves to worsen the ongoing obesity epidemic.  Our relationship with food should be one of moderation.  Not gluttony.

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