“Glorified Gluttony”
It seems like whenever I witness a wonderful example of human expression, shortly after, I encounter an act reminding me of how disgustingly thoughtless we can be.
While watching the evening news, one of its stories was the coverage of a hot dog eating contest. Why this was considered a pivoting human interest story escapes me. These events have always disgusted me. How can an individual honestly consider gluttonous indulgence a sport? Or participate in some hole in the wall restaurant’s offer of a free meal, and an out of focus Polaroid picture of themselves placed on a wall of shame, for devouring a dangerously excessive amount of food. This shameful lack of self-control is not an act that should be rewarded or proud of, especially with there being so many lacking proper nourishment.
And what really agitates me is knowing that these events are corporate sponsored for little or no financial responsibility to its participants. These companies do this for free advertisement to the cheering spectators - which truthfully remind me of history’s blood crazed fans cheering the roman gladiator. There are times in which I question who is worse – the mindless spectator, the instigating corporate sponsor, or the gluttonous participant.
What’s so twisted is there are actually guidelines for this despicable behavior:
- Consult your physician before the contest and get their advice. Make sure that you aren’t on medication that shouldn’t be taken with food. Check with contest officials or request that EMTs and an ambulance be present in the event of choking or allergic reactions.
- Eat before the contest. Starving oneself is unhealthy for the body, so eat light meals up until the contest.
- Try to exercise regularly before the contest
- Prior to the contest, consume as few liquids (water, soda, alcoholic beverages, etc.) as possible. This will only fill the stomach, creating less room for food.
A relatively astute individual would realize that an activity that might require a doctor or an ambulance might be uhmmmm – DANGEROUS! Just an opinion – a persons need for nourishment should not be considered immediately hazardous.
- To win an eating contest you need to stretch your stomach to fit more food in it more easily. The best way to stretch your stomach is to eat lettuce. It is mostly water and takes more calories to digest than it carries, so all it really does is stretch the stomach. In time, it’s possible to eat three to four heads of lettuce in one sitting.
- Also, boiled cabbage is equally good. Many professionals often go on a three or four day diet of nothing but cabbage as the gases in cabbage expand the stomach.
- There is also a little-known technique to make more room in the stomach. After eating, when you begin to feel slightly full, stand up and wiggle your hips from side to side for 5-10 seconds. This makes the food go down your esophagus faster and squashes it up in your stomach.
There is a saying, “one should eat to live, not live to eat.” Because we have seemed to have forgotten this, society’s health has declined. This reckless eating behavior has contributed to a 64% rise in obesity, statistically attributing to diabetes by 48% , with a 58% rise in hepatitis b.
When are we going to realize that the – all you can eat buffets, and the super sized meals, along with the 30 minutes or it’s free deliveries, is playing a part in the deaths of 400,000 individuals each year. Maybe it’s time we open our eyes more – instead of our mouths.
First, I would like to point out that your jump from eating contests to the rise in obesity and diabetes has no factual basis, and you should pay as much attention to your critical thinking and grammer here as in your other posts.
Now, there has never been a single incident of choking or death in an eating contest in America, and the precaution of having an EMT present is the same as having a medic at a football game, where there has been quite a few injuries I might add. I haven’t found any blog from you protesting that sport.
Have you ever been to a festival that had an eating contest as part of the day’s activities? I have been to many, and no one watching ever complained of the grotesqueness of the event, they were too busy cheering and having fun.
What is your point about under nourished people in the world? If competitive eating were to stop right now, how would this help? OK, I get that the point was that we should be ashamed to do it while there is hunger in the world, however, the donations made by competitive eating organizations to charities give Second Harvest would also stop, and you can see where I am going with this. On a side note, how much have you donated in the past year to hunger relief?
Pivoting human interest? No, however, the news has enough time to it that it can spare a few minutes to stories other than those that you feel are interesting. There are many others out there that wouldn’t care to watch about your interests I imagine.
First I wish to thank you for your comment, and I assure everything you mentioned was considered in the preparation and research of this article. I am not a disciple of Fox news, my percentages are factually based. These are the findings from
the Food, Nutrition and Consumer Services.Before the House Committee on Government Reform Subcommittee on Human Rights and Wellness.
As far as the choking or death of an American, if you had payed closer attention to that paragraph it states, “Check with contest officials or request that EMTs and an ambulance be present in (the event) of choking or allergic reactions.” You can believe that professional football was on my mind while writing this. Having played with an opportunity to play on a collegiate level I declined. This too is disturbing because I don’t care how fit an individual may think he is,if you have a field of men with the average bench pressing capacity being in the neighborhood of 300lbs running at each other in ways known to have caused physical injury, that’s insane. Because when they retire and the crowds are no longer cheering, many are left with multiple re-constructive surgeries, and bottles of pain killers. Now some are lucky enough to have made wise investments with their money. Some manage to get good endorsements or are able to write a descent selling autobiography. But everyone does not get to co-host sporting events or get to be the face for a car lot or food chain.
Even though this began as an opinion based article, the percentages are factually based. This was the conception of my heartfelt empathy for the less fortunate that unnessarily want for food on a planet that can easily provide for all.
Oh yeah…in the past two years a little over $5000.00. And believe I am not a rich man or even considered as middle class. Again thank you for the comment.