Olympic Gluttony contest

[chrose]

Don't forget that tonight on TV is the Gluttony Games, a 2 hour stuff your face and get sick contest.
Hmmm do I watch the Womens Olympic hockey team or this???
Gotta go with the Girls!

[momoreg]

That's very funny. My husband and I were watching the women's skating, while chowing down on various snacks. At one point, I referred to one skater as a heffer, then looked at myself, and just started cracking up!!

But I'm ALLOWED to be a heffer, because I'm eating for 2!!

[Pete]

Momoreg, well then you technically can't be called a heffer. A heffer is a cow that has not yet had a calf, and well, since you are eating for 2.....

[Risa]

When I read Chrose's post yesterday, I thought he meant watching the Olympics and chowing down. I was flipping through the channels last night and there really was a tv show called Gluttony Games or something like. I didn't watch it and just read the synopsis. It sounded pretty disgusting.

[thebighat]

We saw part of it. Makes you wonder what's wrong with the entertainment industry. It was truly disgusting. People who participated ought to be ashamed of themselves.

[culinarian247]

Some skinny kid ate like 31 hotdogs.
Personally, I think the whole show was a waste of airspace. They could've brought back Iron Chef USA or something like it.

[chrose]

And people wonder why our whole country is fat and out of shape! This really was a disgusting showing of what's becoming important to the general public. I'm not starting a we need to eat healthy etc. rant, but this was ridiculous. If nothing else how soon are we going to be burying these people. Remember that in order to win a gluttony contest you must train, and train they do. With Olympic intensity I might add. Imagine, the most unhealthy things you could possibly eat; calf brains and the winner (a 100# Japanese kid) eats about 12lbs of it! The runner up 6lbs.
Stupid.
2 channels over we can watch the healthiest people in the world enjoying life, while half of the country struggles to get their fat asses out of the chair to get another Ho Ho and diet Coke!

[kuan]

I have used gluttons to exact punishment on establishments I didn't like. One time this (nameless) place advertised AYCE ribs on Monday night, so I went. Sure it was AYCE, but they didn't say that it was only between 5 and 7. The next week I treated two of my buddies, Bruce (300lbs) and Stanley (350lbs), to AYCE ribs just to teach them a lesson.

Kuan

[Jock]

LOL Kuan

Jock

[Svadhisthana]

Makes you wonder what's wrong with the entertainment industry.

They seem to have come to the conclusion that if you highlight one of the "seven sins" you'll get ratings. Sloth, Greed (any of the newest gameshows), Pride, Envy, Lust, covetousness, anger(anything on Fox), and now Gluttony. They actually had a show on Food tv about eating contests. That is not good eats.

[Isa]

FOOD TV hour showcases 'eating for the gold'
By JOHN DEMERS
Houston Chronicle

JUST when America -- and yes, even Houston -- is busy deciding to do something about our national obesity problem, we have to be treated to TV glorification of the International Federation of Competitive Eating.

Come on, you've heard of such things. Perhaps at fairs and festivals. The self-proclaimed IFOCE regulates (or at least attempts to make the most of) all those contests aimed at seeing who can down the most oysters, chicken-fried steak, pizza, hot dogs, hamburgers or ice cream -- in the least amount of time. It's not exactly the sport of kings, but it is hotly contested nonetheless.

"Commitment, confidence and capacity," answers the federation's George Shea when asked what it takes to become a competitive eater. It might be a tongue-in-cheek answer, except that for most on the competitive eating circuit, there's no more cheek room.

Each of those three qualifications will be personified Sunday evening in Don "Moses" Lerman, "Krazy" Kevin Lipsitz and Ed "Cookie" Jarvis, alimentary aspirants whose odyssey toward a July 4 Coney Island eat-off is the stuff of a bizarre new TV show called Gut Busters. The program will debut on the Discovery Channel.

Winging it
In the course of the show, the sheer lunacy of competitive eating becomes clear, from Philadelphia's Wing Bowl, which packs in 20,000 fans to watch Belly Donna, El Wingadore and others chomp down on Buffalo wings, to the Laredo jalapeño-eating contest, at which world champ Jed Donahue sets a world record by pushing down 152.

In New York, even the Russian émigré community of Brighton Beach is seen getting into the eating act. Local favorite Oleg Zhornitsky jumps to victory swallowing 200 palmeni dumplings in a mere 4 minutes, 19 seconds. In case you're counting (or happen to be unfamiliar with palmeni), that's 7 pounds of food.

The granddaddy of all IFOCE events, however, is that July 4 hot dog contest -- at Coney Island, where else? Sponsored by Nathan's Famous, naturally.

Last year's contest is spotlighted in Gut Busters, in particular the efforts of several all-American competitors to take back the "mustard-yellow" championship belt from a Japanese invader named Takeru Kobayashi. We watch, perhaps feeling ill, as Kobayashi puts away 50 hot dogs and buns in 12 minutes, 30 seconds. It all sounds a bit like Iron Chef, except maybe a few links lower on the food chain.

"Takeru Kobayashi is not simply an athlete," waxes Shea. "He is a magician and a master. He has transformed a sport into poetry."

Like any poetry, competitive eating needs form as well as flow. There are actual techniques for eating certain types of foods in competition -- techniques to get the most food swallowed in the least time.

At the hot dog contest, one contestant is known as Crusher because he crushes the hot dogs and buns before eating them. Another promotes the separation of wiener from bun, allowing them to be devoured separately. And the current champ loves to snap hot dog and bun in half before eating them. This is called the Solomon method -- apparently a reference to the wise (though hopefully less than obese) king in the Bible.

Keeping track
One of the federation's more useful functions, if you concede that it has any, is keeping track of eating contests across America and delivering unto posterity the records of consumption in bulk. The next time you nibble on a few chicken wings, for instance, you might give a moment's thought to Bill "El Wingadore" Simmons. He ate 137 of the things in 30 minutes.
How about hamburgers? Like to enjoy one or two every now and again? Lerman put away no fewer than 11 quarter-pound Willy's Garage Cloud Burgers in 10 minutes. And Jell-O? In July 2000, Steven M. Lakind took in 121 ounces of the jiggly stuff in only 90 seconds. Bill Cosby must have been so proud.

Finally, there's one competitive eating event devoted to three-course meals. In the case of Peter Dowdeswell, in June 2001 that menu rang up as 1 pint of oxtail soup, 1 pound of mashed potatoes, 1/2 pound of sausage, 1/2 pound of baked beans -- and 40 prunes.

Honestly, I can't say that's a menu I would ever select. But I also can't say I'd ever consider eating all three courses in 45 seconds.