LA Times on competitive eating and health

May 3, 2008 at 10:50 am by ojrifkin · More posts about:Crazy Legs Conti, Health

The Los Angeles Times has an article about the impact of competitive eating on eaters’ health. Crazy Legs Conti is quoted and says that he and Tim Janus have hired a yoga instructor to help their eating. George Shea says that most eaters do not train for contests.

Comments (14)

14 Comments »

  1. Ron Koch said

    May 3, 2008 @ 1:54 pm

    Lets just say George is as blind as the baseball owners with the steriod abuse.Eight of his top ten eaters water train and get the high numbers.As in baseball does he want the high numbers or the small numbers

  2. Ron Koch said

    May 3, 2008 @ 2:03 pm

    George cannot monitor every eater,its the honor system.He has to beleive what the eaters tell him.A paper like the LA Times just wants to dig up dirt for their story. Everybody trains in there own way be it water or food

  3. Ron Koch said

    May 3, 2008 @ 2:08 pm

    My typo error, I think its eight of the top 20…My falt

  4. Anonymous said

    May 5, 2008 @ 5:17 am

    George Shea says most eaters do not train for contests? Why would he say that? All the push from the IFOCE is for Joey Chestnut and he openly said he ate 5,000 hot diggity dogs to prepare for the hot dog contest/ What is that then?.

  5. Rhonda Evans said

    May 5, 2008 @ 8:21 am

    I think it is most admirable when people train. It shows devotion and desire. However, I think eating way more (and the wrong types of) food than the body needs for several years might be physically and physiologically consequential. So, in the long run, in the grand scheme of life and living, I doubt it is worth it.

    Additionally, it is the antithesis of political correctness, as detractors of CE will quickly assert the “People are starving …!” argument, while noting all the food that is wasted on the grandest scale for people to ascend in the rankings.

    People with lots of natural talent like Sonya Thomas and Juliet Lee have the best of all worlds. They are both top 10 eaters and got to be that way without training, and they are still improving. Their daily one (BIG) meal a day practices also serve as natural training regimens.

    Like Sonya, Juliet probably only needs to practice for speed from time to time. And since their normal daily food intakes merely reflects dietary needs, just to maintain their weights of around 100 lbs, who can say they are wasting food? No one of (or using their) average intelligence would, unless they were wallowing in ignorance.

    I think that’s why Sonya and Juliet have so many fans. That’s certainly true by me.

  6. Anonymous said

    May 5, 2008 @ 11:17 am

    Sonya practices with diet coke,just like water training.

  7. Gentleman Joe said

    May 5, 2008 @ 11:22 am

    I don’t know if its realistic to say Sonya doesn’t or hasn’t trained.

    With a jump from 18.5 to the upper 30’s in dogs, it doesn’t seem possible.

    Does Juliet have that many fans? Or does the casual observer just think shes the ‘tiny asian girl’?

    I am NOT saying they do train, or that Juliet doesn’t have fans, i’m just asking what appears to me to be, the obvious.

  8. Crazy Legs Mom said

    May 5, 2008 @ 11:39 am

    Schadenfreude

  9. Rhonda Evans said

    May 5, 2008 @ 1:13 pm

    Just my opinion, but if Sonya drinks that much Diet Coke now, she probably drank about as much before she started eating competitively. In that light, her “training” likely duplicates her “normal” eating regimen.

    Joe, I think she increased those totals just through the experience of eating hot dogs twice (sometimes three times, considering exhibitions) a year. I think Sonya is probably one of the quicker learners.

    Joe, I’m trying to give Juliet the benefit of the doubt. Once people see her, they appreciate her.

    You have to forgive him Rona. Joe’s just being Joe.

  10. anonymous said

    May 5, 2008 @ 2:34 pm

    Sonya is basically insulting our intelligence when she posts on her website .”Well golly gee i never ate corn before or i never ate this before etc etc . I just hope i can do my best” Get real. It is not the truth . Are we to believe that she or anyone else just casually signs up for a contest and wipes out the field without ever getting a taste of the food at the table?

  11. Rhonda Evans said

    May 5, 2008 @ 3:44 pm

    First, she did not blow away the field. The contest was very close. She could have lost as easily as she won. Personally, I’m amazed she finished in the top three, because I never pictured her eating that kind of food, especially not in competition–too much jaw strength is required.

    Second, I visit Sonya’s site at least every other day and I don’t recall her ever saying anything of the such. Here’s what she said, according to a UPI article, “Thomas said she ate only four or five ears of corn to practice for the competition.”

    I believe that. She’s Asian-American and though she claims to like likes her BK fries and other fast food on occasion, her staples are probably rice, pickled cabbage, and fresh fruits, and vegetables. It’s hard to stray far from the old standbys you grow up with. If she ate what most of us Americans ate each day, she’d probably weight 200+ lbs!

  12. I said

    May 5, 2008 @ 3:48 pm

    well according to george nobody trains so yeah about your question “Are we to believe that she or anyone else just casually signs up for a contest and wipes out the field without ever getting a taste of the food at the table?”

  13. Anonymous said

    May 5, 2008 @ 5:25 pm

    Yeah really!

    Luther

  14. Gentleman Joe said

    May 5, 2008 @ 6:42 pm

    Schadenfraude? There isn’t any misfortune of others in any of this to enjoy.

    There is nothing negative in what I wrote.

    I don’t know enough about Juliet’s eating to comment.

    Since giving up speedeat, I haven’t paid the attention to others eating, that I did in the past.

    Having met Juliet, she was very nice as was her husband & children.

    Now, if I didn’t write that Sonya too, was wonderful & ‘happy to see me’ would that too be considered negative??

    Asking realistic questions is not being negative or being against someone.

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