Competitive Eating, Who Really Wins?

In the days of hunter-gatherers, our primitive ancestors would stalk their quarry for days—weeks even—before experiencing the raw satisfaction one knows when a spear is thrust into the flesh of a wild beast. With the invention of agriculture and the domestication of certain mammals came the ability to raise quarry for the slaughter.

And then it took a turn for the worse.

With the creation of industry and cities our quarry could be found in packages at stores. Now, in our chronically bored age, we stuff fifty servings of said quarry into our face in under twelve minutes.

There are many reasons why competitive eating is demented. Two of them are as follows: 1. it defeats the purpose of food, and 2. the food could be put to more worthwhile uses.

Come, come now, competitive eating people! Eating is like little league: as long as you're doing it, you're a winner.

Comments

[Jeremy Robbins]

Just thinking about that competition in Coney Island makes me sick to my stomach. The last time I ate a Nathan's hot dog (and yes, it was just one) I thought that I'd injected superglue directly into my intestines.

[Tom Tuttle]

What? The World Health Organization just released the fact the 400 children die every day due to illness and disease caused by unsafe drinking water. In the U.S. so many people water their lawns or leave the sink running while brushing their teeth. What a waste of clean, treated water. YOU are wasting water that could be put to better use. You overlook this somehow to declare that 15 people wasted some hotdogs on the 4th of July?

[Natalie Benchman]

Unsafe drinking water, famine due to food shortages, isn't it six or half dozen of the other? It's gluttony all around that ought to be targeted. Food, water, doesn't matter. We're wasteful.

[Natalie Benchman]

Unsafe drinking water, famine due to food shortages, isn't it six or half dozen of the other? It's gluttony all around that ought to be targeted. Food, water, doesn't matter. We're wasteful.