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7 risks competitive eating has for your health  Stomach tears to water poisoning Credits: Social Media
By Bruno Cooke

7 risks competitive eating has for your health  Stomach tears to water poisoning

By Bruno Cooke

It was wiener-takes-all, and Joey Chestnut won the day. Jaws took on Takeru The Prince/Tsunami Kobayashi for a live-streamed Netflix special on September 2 titled Unfinished Beef, finishing the beef by stuffing 83 hotdogs down his gullet in just 10 minutes. Some viewers likely found the spectacle nauseating. Others may have thought about trying their hat at competitive eating.

Were here to remind you of the myriad dangers competitive eating poses to those who take that road. Yes, there is glory. Yes, there is (something resembling) heroism. But there is also aspiration pneumonia, obesity (have you tried Ozempic?), perforation of the stomach, and an outside chance youll choke on a pie.�

Ed (Cookie) Jarvis, Sonya (The Black Widow) Thomas, Takeru (
UNITED STATES – JULY 04: Ed (Cookie) Jarvis, Sonya (The Black Widow) Thomas, Takeru (The Tsunami) Kobayashi and Eric (Badlands) Booker (l. to r.) wolf down weiners during the 90th annual Nathan’s Famous Fourth of July International Hot Dog Eating Contest in Coney Island, Brooklyn. Kobayashi, who weighs 144 pounds, stuffed down a gut-busting 49 dogs in 12 minutes to win the coveted Mustard Yellow International Belt for the fifth straight time, and Thomas, 100 pounds, crammed in 37 to take second place. (Photo by David Handschuh/NY Daily News Archive via Getty Images)

At least 5 people have died from competitive eating

As of 2015, when SAGE published its Encyclopedia of Food Issues, there had been five reported deaths worldwide from competitive eating. Most of them had been choking deaths. One of them was on a pie. Another was on live roaches and worms.

One website has a list of 10 people who reportedly died during or after eating contests, noting that the first pie-eating contest took place in 1878 in Toronto, Canada. The prize was a handsomely bound book.

Takeru Kobayashi, to whom the world of competitive eating owes a great deal, famously suffered from an arthritic jaw following years of participation in the sport. Sport? Activity? Something.

But the biggest concern is what could happen in the long term, as the long-lasting effects of many years of competitive eating havent been properly studied yet. 

However, we do know based on a few individuals experiences, and the wisdom of medical professionals, that regular competitive eaters expose themselves to several risks they wouldnt otherwise have to face.

7 major risks associated with competitive eating

An entertainingly informative article in the academic journal Gastroenterology (a branch of medicine focused on the digestive system and its disorders) details several of the more urgent perils of competitive speed eating.

They are:

  1. Gastroparesis: a condition that slows down your stomachs ability to contract and empty properly. A synonym is delayed stomach emptying. It results in food matter remaining in the stomach for an abnormally long time. Symptoms include acid reflux and vomiting. Lovely.
  2. Aspiration pneumonia: an infection of the lungs caused by inhaling saliva, food, liquid, vomit, and other objects, according to Cleveland Clinic. Symptoms include wheezing, coughing up blood, and bad breath.
  3. Gastric perforation, aka, holes in the wall of the gastrointestinal tract. Symptoms include nausea and vomiting. Complications include inflammation of the lining of the abdominal wall and sepsis.�Sepsis is really bad.
  4. Mallory-Weiss tear: a split in the inner layer of the esophagus. Its caused by forced vomiting or straining. Symptoms include more vomiting, or dark, sticky stools. Most tears heal on their own, but symptoms merit a visit to the doctors office.
  5. Boerhaave syndrome: a rupture of the esophageal wall. This is basically a severe Mallory-Weiss tear. While a Mallory-Weiss tear will cause you to vomit blood, writes Cleveland Clinic, it doesnt tear all the way through the esophagus. Boerhaaves syndrome ruptures the full thickness of the wall and is also called a transmural tear.�
  6. Morbid obesity needs no introduction but is worth distinguishing from Class I and Class II obesity, which are lower risk. Morbid obesity (BMI of 40+) is Class III obesity. Its treatable, but often brings a slew of health problems and complications.�

Well end the list  although it could go on  with a problem competitive eaters invite during training, rather than during the contest itself. 

7. Water intoxication. Drinking large quantities of water during training, so as to stretch the stomach so that it can fit more food on competition day, can lead to water intoxication. Its no joke. In 2022, a study proposed that martial arts actor Bruce Lees death in 1973 was a result of water poisoning.�

ABC News quotes speed eater Don Moses Lerman as saying: “I’ll stretch my stomach until it causes internal bleeding. He ate 11 burgers in 10 minutes, once. “I do it for the thrill of competition. Some people are good at math. Some people are good at golf. I’m good at eating.”

If youre good at eating, be aware of the toll it can take on your body if you take it to the next level.