http://www.cnn.com/2007/LIVING/wayoflife/11/21/eating.contests.ap/index.html
The group's chairman, George Shea, said competitive eaters are athletes who train for their sport, working to improve jaw strength and increasing their stomach capacity.
Dr. Lee Kaplan, director of the Massachusetts General Hospital Weight Center in Boston, said concerns over the link between the contests and obesity aren't well founded.
Brian Wansink, a food science and psychology professor at Cornell University, compared competitive eaters to other extreme athletes.
"It's the same sort of person who, let's say, would train really hard and compete really hard in a marathon," said Wansink, author of "Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think."
"It has the same level of competitiveness and compulsiveness," he said. "One we label crazy and one we label as noble, but in reality it's the same sort of process that drives both these people."
"Seeing these guys go at a 20 pound turkey is like poetry," he said. "It's like a dance."
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Thanks to my culture-forward, former-collegiate-athlete brother, I was fortunate enough to witness the Thanksgiving Turkey Bowl on Spike TV's "Chow Down" series. Amazingly, my brother and his friends texted much commentary during the 15-minute television extravaganza, proving to me that these competitive eating athletes have the same following of any professional athletes.
ReplyDeleteOh, but I can attest that Brian Wansink is wrong - that contest was nothing like any dance I've ever seen.
I wonder how I can get into Fantasy Chow Down pools....