On July 4, 2022, Joey Chestnut won the Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest. He did this by consuming 63 dogs within 10 minutes. Last year the number was 76. Joey described this year’s contest, “It hurts, but I was in the zone for a little bit.” Ever-vigilant readers want to know “why” and, more importantly, “how?” There are answers to both questions.
Joey Chestnut is one of the most famous -- or infamous -- competitive eaters in the world. While he competes in all manner of competitions, The July 4th Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest is his Groundhog Day. It's the day competitive eating takes center stage, and Chestnut never disappoints.
Chestnut first dove into the world of competitive eating in 2005 while he was a student at San Jose State University. His first major victory came that year when he ate six-and-a-half pounds of fried asparagus in 11 1/2 minutes. That year, Chestnut qualified for his first Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest and ate 32 hot dogs.
By 2011, Chestnut had become such a force on the eating circuit that he was able to quit his full-time job in construction management and focused solely on training for eating competitions. That year, he won his fifth straight Mustard Belt, awarded to the winner of the Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest.
Since then, Chestnut has cemented his status as the best competitive eater of all time. The life of a competitive eater may not be glamorous, but it can pay pretty well. Chestnut's 2022 net worth is estimated to be $2.5 million. The Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest, an event Chestnut has won 14 times, pays its winners $10,000 every year.
Top competitive eaters can easily make $500,000 a year between a combination of winnings and sponsorships. Chestnut won both the hot dog competition and a worldwide pumpkin pie eating contest last year, consuming 16 pounds, 12 ounces of pumpkin pie in 11 1/2 minutes for the latter. Last year Joey down 13.78 pounds of weenies, not including the bun and water weight and volume. Measuring this by local standards is equivalent to gorging down 14 of the 1 lb Big Juds Challenge in under 10 minutes. Now that would be a sight to see — not at all pretty — just pretty amazing.
This year, the spectacle expanded when a man, probably some vegan, dressed like Darth Vader and rushed the stage with a sign reading “EXPOSE SMITHFIELD DEATHSTAR,” opposing hog processing in Beaver, Utah. The interruption didn’t sit well with Chestnut, who didn’t know what was going on outside of a stranger bumping into him mid-contest — so he jumped up and choked Vader, throwing him to the ground before security dragged the pig- processing-protester off the stage. Joey was unfazed and went on to win the contest! What a man!!
Enquiring minds want to know what happens after all the dust has settled and Joey takes his filled-to-the-brim, last trimester-sized stomach home with him? An average adult stomach has a maximum threshold of about 1 liter of food before the overpowering nausea reflex kicks in and goes into the “return to sender” mode. Joey has retrained his stomach to ignore this reflex and expanded it to at least 4 liters. So what happens to 14 pounds of hot dogs that sit in a large, quiet stomach that no longer contracts? Do the dogs just sit there and slowly ruminate for a few days? Or does Joey go into his backyard for some personal and alone time with his garden hose?
Here is a picture of an artificial human model showing the problem Joey faces after each of his contests — think, “last trimester” :
You can view the fascinating YouTube video, The Science Behind Competitive Eating, and see Joey and the anthropomorphic dummy in action.
https:www.youtube.com/watch?v+=D9DZmoRY0H4
Joey has done this to himself long enough that he almost certainly will become an "interesting medical case." Although I find all of this to be fascinating, one of my goals is not to become an interesting medical case.
Ever vigilant,
RT
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