The Wall Street Journal's Health blog reports that the delegates at the American Medical Association annual meeting voted in favor of a resolution calling competitive speed eating a "an unhealthy eating practice with potential adverse consequences." The vote was 312 to 158.

June 21, 2011 at 7:43 pm by ojrifkin · More posts about:Health | Permalink * Comments (29)

29 Comments »

  1. Johnnie Excel said (Registered October 5, 2010)

    June 21, 2011 @ 7:50 pm

    Damn, I thought it was good for you. Thanks Wall Street Journal for ruining my dreams, next you’ll tell me I shouldn’t drink or smoke either. FML.

  2. Anonymous said

    June 21, 2011 @ 10:10 pm

    Does this mean health insurers can charge higher rates to ‘speed eaters’ as they do to smokers?

  3. Anonymous said

    June 21, 2011 @ 10:13 pm

    I wonder what they call boxing, MMA, and football?

  4. Anonymous said

    June 22, 2011 @ 12:08 am

    Is unsafe sex still a risk these days?

  5. Cutter said (Registered November 9, 2010)

    June 22, 2011 @ 12:24 am

    Those 158 holdouts from the 470 voters must have looked at the fact that eaters offset their competitive practices by eating very health when not competing and often exercising more than the average fat and lazy american. For the most part, the best speedeaters are very healthy compared to your average joe off the street. Larell and others are great examples of this effect. And the other eaters that don’t necessarily have the body of a god or goddess would probably be fat anyway so why not enjoy it. I don’t read the Journal and I am plenty successful without it.

  6. Anonymous said

    June 22, 2011 @ 1:25 am

    Cutter – just because a person isnt obese and appears healthy on the outside doesnt mean they are healthy on the inside or will continue to be healthy in the future

  7. Larell Marie Mele said

    June 22, 2011 @ 4:31 am

    Cutter – thx!!! I know b4 I started getn interested in CE, my ignorance had me thinking that CEs, for the most part, were huge, obese people. Afterward I realized what a misconception that was. As you stated so many eaters are actually physically fitter than the average person. We need to have u have a chat with the 158 lolllll. Guess they’re concentrating on the long-term affects on the body that consuming large quantities of “unhealthy” foods may have – cholesterol, blood pressure, etc. Lol, most of my friends/family were using that as a reason I should stop…..that is until my last check-up had my labwork better than ever ahahaha go figure!

  8. DaxtheGinger said (Registered April 23, 2011)

    June 22, 2011 @ 4:33 am

    I wonder how many of the voters smoke ciggers and drive every where they need to go.

  9. anonymous said

    June 22, 2011 @ 8:39 am

    does not matter if the labwork and checkup was fine this time around . The overall effect of eating those kind of foods will have dire consequences in the next few years if you continue eating like that

  10. Rhonda Evans said (Registered March 6, 2008)

    June 22, 2011 @ 9:30 am

    The AMA’s focus is not generic safety, but physiological/medicinal health. I’d be shocked if they didn’t find CE to be an unhealthy practice; “practice” is a key word here, as most people only do a few speedeating events per month, counting training runs (for those who practice).

    People like Sonya, who professes to refrain from practice, have the best of all worlds. Didn’t I read on her Web site a few months ago that during a recent lab her total cholesterol was @140-something and her BP was somewhere in the neighborhood of < 140 / < 80? Those are pretty good numbers.

    I don't want to jinx her but I believe that even if she continues speed-eating for another decade, it will have no deleterious effect on her physiology.

    However, she's an anomaly, and I believe that most people will indeed suffer the consequences of frequent practicing with food having high amounts of fat, calories, and white sugar. To think differently is costly, health-wise.

  11. Stallion Italian said (Registered August 27, 2010)

    June 22, 2011 @ 10:22 am

    I do think that Sonya is unusual, just like Kobayashi. Kobayashi eats really healthily always, enjoys a steak here and there but his favorite food is tofu according to extensive articles about him. You can see from just watching him that Joey’s eating ability doesn’t come without lots of practice. It is painful to watch him and he says that he practices, does actual runs. His health simply cannot be that good, I bet he has problems even now. Hotdogs are the worst of the foods in competitive eating for obvious reasons. Is it really worth it even for half a million dollars? You cannot buy good health. Some of the eaters have said publicly that they are diabetic but that they are carefully watched. This isn’t only those who are on the heavy side. Just cannot understand why a diabetic would compromise their health by doing competitive eating. That seems just crazy to me. Diabetes can cause organ deterioration and require amputations, blindness, it is just a horrible disease. Why anyone thinks competitive eating and being pre-diabetic or diabetic can be compatible seems self-destructive.

  12. Matt "Mega Toad" Stonie said (Registered June 22, 2010)

    June 22, 2011 @ 10:43 am

    I would agree with them if all competiors did was train and sit on their ass….
    Personally I dont only moderate what im doing and eat a healthy diet to balence out whatever i need, but i also have gotten extremely fit from all the exersice required to be a CE’er
    Recently I’ve had a checkup at the doctor and my cholesterol levels were low, BP was 107/65, and resting HR was 58….
    On top of that ive lost 15 Lbs since i started competeing and have mantained that weight for about half a year now, so id say the AHA is ignorant of many of the other factors most competiors ahere to.

  13. nunonabun2 said (Registered November 10, 2009)

    June 22, 2011 @ 11:05 am

    The AMA can kiss my ass. It does not take a rocket surgeon to know CE could be bad for you. No shit really? Americans in general eat food having high amounts of fat, calories, and white sugar. Oh the horror of white sugar. Look fat people are not fat because they train for CE events. And yes I am an expert on fat sons of bitches. People are fat because they eat to much and do not exercise enough. Simple damn equation. Wankers every last one of them.

    People get cancer, they drop dead of heart attacks at twenty, they get hit by frozen airplane piss….. why not just let people have a little damn fun before they drop dead?

  14. anonymous said

    June 22, 2011 @ 11:31 am

    Stonie you are only 18yrs old . You can play around with all kinds of fatty or hich cholestorol foods in practice and not have to worry one bit about your health for now

  15. Rhonda Evans said (Registered March 6, 2008)

    June 22, 2011 @ 11:39 am

    Matt your years of experience speaks volumes. 🙂

  16. anonymous said

    June 22, 2011 @ 12:11 pm

    God this conversation is so boring . Talk about Seiken its much more interesting

  17. KevinRoss said

    June 22, 2011 @ 12:31 pm

    LOL frozen airplane piss. I saw them try to recreate that on mythbusters.

  18. Rhonda Evans said (Registered March 6, 2008)

    June 22, 2011 @ 1:32 pm

    Okay, yesterday, June 21, 2011, BB celebrated 14 years in CE. That’s quite a long time. Congrats BB!

    Of the long-time eaters associated with what is now MLE, who was the first? Which eaters were at the very first IFOCE-affiliated event, and what was that event?

    Guys, I am really asking this. I don’t know.

  19. ojrifkin said (Registered July 27, 2005)

    June 22, 2011 @ 1:42 pm

    Rich Lefevre first finished the 72 ounce steak at the Big Texan in 1995.

    http://eatfeats.com/query.php?_table=eaters&id=6

    http://bigtexan.com/72oz%20steak%20eaters.pdf

  20. beautifulbrian said

    June 22, 2011 @ 1:56 pm

    Thank you Rhonda Evans. I came down on you in the past because of your anonymous status but you are very well educated in the sport and in general. When you say first IFOCE afflilated do you mean first ever inaugural event besides Nathans?

  21. A-Bomb said (Registered May 7, 2009)

    June 22, 2011 @ 2:09 pm

    But he reported that first.

  22. NReda said

    June 22, 2011 @ 2:51 pm

    This should almost be a non-story… but it has generated a discussion!

  23. Cutter said (Registered November 9, 2010)

    June 22, 2011 @ 3:51 pm

    The science must be uncompelling if the ama has to vote on whether or not they feel this practice is adverse towards the health. the chunkier guys out there, like Boykin, if they are unhealthy it probably has far more to do with what he does outside of competitions. Rifkin should have let someone else report this first.

  24. NReda said

    June 22, 2011 @ 4:03 pm

    Well, it’s still competitive eating related. I can see the reason for putting a link. But it almost seems like an obvious thing. We don’t open up a newspaper and expect to see a big bold headline: “Sun Rises This Morning”

  25. nunonabun2 said (Registered November 10, 2009)

    June 22, 2011 @ 4:14 pm

    it is all glads your son of a ….. oh you mean because i am fat. Chuncky, that is like calling kids husky. CE has oddly put me in better shape. I want to drop down to fighting weight at about 230. Only like 75 pounds to go. 305 today. I was close to 380 a year and a half ago. Scared me and I snapped out of my funk. Shit I am an expert on sitting on my ass and doing nothing then eating crap food. McDonalds is good once in a while but not every damn day. Eat a salad now and then. I hate cry baby fat bastards who pretend they can not help it. It is not CE or Ronald McDonald or Snoop Dogg that make us eat food we damn well know is bad for us or drink to much or sleep to much ot smoke crack even. We make a choice.

  26. nunonabun2 said (Registered November 10, 2009)

    June 22, 2011 @ 4:40 pm

    glands not glads

  27. Nathan in Cali said

    June 22, 2011 @ 4:52 pm

    actually “glads” was funnier…

    and Ef you Boykin, I’ve been held captive in Snoop Dogs basement for three years with a daily ration of one jar mayo, a stick of butter and a quart of gravy to drink… He did make me fat! You think you’re all high and mighty because you did it with Grace Lee…

    ps – the on the left called you fat… lol

    http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-jHPTolOxDAQ/TbZvviFE90I/AAAAAAAAAlw/ZxdM1KlXQt4/s1600/0423111501-00.jpg

  28. nunonabun2 said (Registered November 10, 2009)

    June 22, 2011 @ 5:27 pm

    Snoop is the new face of Colt Blast. Made me get drunk and then I had to drive to.

    Look I am fat. The only reason for me to be thinner is so my heart does not explode. Santa, Budda, Oprah….all happy fat people. You never see any refugees smiling now do you?

  29. Gastroboy said

    June 23, 2011 @ 10:48 pm

    Truth is:

    – They can’t know for sure what effects competitive eating has in health (medium-long term), it hasn’t been studied at all! That’s not to say common sense/medical background can not foresee them.

    – Health is more than body shape, weight and/or even your average medical chekups. They are not making a biopsy of your intestines in those checkups after all, are them? A lot of things remain hidden, some things an eventual biopsy could tell, others no known medical procedure can tell, the later case being ‘controlled’ by controling the exposure to so called ‘risks’, which while not rocket science hold some truth in them.

    – Some behavours related to CE, ranging from not chewing the food properly to regular overeating are indeed risk factors, whose posible consecuences by the way are not only chocking or becoming overweight (yet they are the most obvious and short term ones).

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