The ‘dangerous’ of competitive eating like those at Nathan’s hot dog contest

Joey ‘Jaws’ Chestnut won the 2023 Nathan’s hotdog competition held in Coney Island, but the victorious feat could have grim health consequences.

The 16-time winner consumed 62 hotdogs in 10 minutes, the equivalent of almost 20,000 calories and up to four times the entire daily salt and fat recommendation for an adult in one sitting.

The true health effects of competitive eating are not well known – because its such a new phenomenon and studying it in the general public would be deemed unethical. 

But the limited studies that do exist show that wolfing down dozens of hot dogs in one go stretches the stomach by up to quadruple its normal size, turning it into ‘a massively distended food-filled sac occupying most of the upper abdomen’. 

Experts warn that over time, this could eventually cause the body to stop emptying solid food, leaving competitive eaters with intractable nausea and vomiting.  

Competitive eaters also spend months stretching their stomachs using ‘dangerous’ techniques like ‘water loading’, or downing gallons of milk and eating mountains of cabbage and fibrous foods.

Joey ‘Jaws’ Chestnut won the 2023 crown with 62 hot dogs, but scientists fear a competitive eater’s stomach will eventually stop emptying solid food

More than 30,000 spectators descended on Coney Island, New York, today to watch people compete in Nathan’s famous annual hot dog eating contest that first began in the early 1970s.

For 10 minutes, men and women scarfed down franks and buns, hoping to take home $10,000 and the title of hot dog king or queen.

Chestnut won the 2023 crown with 62 hot dogs and Miki Sudo took the women’s championship with 39.5

According to the nutritional information on Nathan’s website, one of its Original Coney Island natural casing beef hot dogs contains 170 calories, 16 grams of fat (including 6 grams of saturated fat), and 480 milligrams of sodium.

This means Chestnut consumed 10,540 calories in 10 minutes, not including the bun. Each of the buns has 130 calories, pushing the amount to 18,600, which is well above the daily and even weekly recommended amount.

High sodium intake is enough to send blood pressure soaring, which can trigger a heart attack or stroke. The recommended sodium level is no more than 2,300 milligrams each day, just shy of five hot dogs. 

And the high fat can lead to nausea, diarrhea and gastrointestinal distress, Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics spokesperson Debbie Petitpain told CBS News.

However, experts said as long as these competitors return to regular eating, their bodies should also return to normal. 

Miki Sudo took the women’s championship with 39.5

According to the nutritional information on Nathan’s website, one of its Original Coney Island natural casing beef hot dogs contains 170 calories, 16 grams of fat (including 6 grams of saturated fat), and 480 milligrams of sodium

Chestnut said he trains for every Nathan’s contest for three months straight by performing mouth exercises to strengthen his mouth and throat, Insider reported.

‘Every practice, I record it and I try to push a little bit harder and figure out what I can do differently,’ Chestnut said in 2021. 

‘You can only practice so much. If I practice too much I start gaining weight, and if I start gaining weight then I start slowing down. So it’s a weird double-edged sword. You have to love to eat, but you can’t eat so much that it becomes unhealthy.’ 

The first Nathan’s hot dog eating contest, held in 1972, was won by Jason Schechter, who ate just 14 wieners.

While it is unclear why the amount eaten has changed over the decades, it was likely due to people training for months to expand their stomachs. 

A 2007 study conducted by the University of Pennsylvania analyzed a 29-year-old man who ranked among the top 10 worldwide in competitive eating.

While Chestnut is the reigning champ for the 16th contest in a row, Nathan’s event was transformed when in 2001 when Takeru Kobayashi came on the scene

The man was asked to ingest an effervescent agent and high-density barium before eating hot dogs for 12 minutes, which allowed researchers to see the food move through his body.

Another group of regular eaters consumed seven franks before reporting symptoms of sickness.

Following the study, the competitive eater’s stomach showed it could expand as he consumed the food.  

‘The key to success in competitive speed eating is the ability to slowly train and adapt the stomach so that it can expand and dilate to a remarkable degree, enabling the speed eater to consume an extraordinary volume of food in an extremely short time (possibly superimposed on an innately compliant stomach),’ according to the published paper.

The team compared a competitive eater to ‘a predatory carnivore that periodically gorges itself on its kills, ingesting massive amounts of food for sustenance until it captures another prey days or even weeks later.’

However, these eaters may also lose the sensation of fullness and satisfaction when eating regularly. 

The researchers noted that there is not enough data to predict what will happen to competitive eaters.

The team wrote in the study that there is a potential risk that the dilated, flaccid stomach may eventually decompensate, becoming an enormous sac incapable of shrinking to its original size and emptying solid food.

While Chestnut is the reigning champ for the 16th contest in a row, Nathan’s event was transformed when in 2001 when Takeru Kobayashi came on the scene.

Kobayashi won the contest by eating 50 hotdogs, double the previous year. 

He admitted to health issues from competitive eating in 2021 and almost stopped altogether because of a painful and arthritic jaw.

Speaking to AFP, Kobayashi said: ‘When my stomach becomes very full with that amount of food inside, the organs in my body begin to shift places. 

‘So, for example, my lungs get shifted up, and they can’t expand. They have no room to expand. So, when I breathe, I become very short of breath.’