• Joey Chestnut, a legendary competitive eater and 16-time Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest champion, has been banned from the 2024 contest due to a new deal with rival brand Impossible Foods.
  • Major League Eating (MLE) and Nathan’s tried to accommodate Chestnut but ultimately enforced their exclusivity provisions, which prohibit competitors from endorsing rival brands.
  • Chestnut, who stated he had no contract with MLE or Nathan’s, expressed his disappointment on social media, claiming the ban was an attempt to change the rules and emphasizing his commitment to continue competing.
  • KnightontheSun@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    This might not be popular, but in my opinion the world absolutely does not need a “Major League Eating” organization or competitive eating contests.

    Competitive eating has no reasonable place when there is so much food insecurity around us. Even moreso when there are people going hungry within the same country as the competition. I’ll even wager there are people within a mile of it that would greatly appreciate one of the fifty hot dogs a competitor eats.

    In my limited view, it appears to me as an overt display in food gorging and over-consumption. Is this a skill to aspire to? Perhaps it had a place when showing the world how successful we were as a nation, but now it just seems gross as the optics (in my view) have changed.

    The rest of the world is competing by simply vying for food. Any food.

    /rant

    • gl4d10@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      competition eating is not what is causing the inequality, watersports shouldn’t exist, anything televised is evil with the consumption of energy it takes

      • KnightontheSun@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        competition eating is not what is causing the inequality

        Please point to where I said it was the cause. So because it didn’t cause it, it’s perfectly fine to flaunt the inequality?

        watersports shouldn’t exist, anything televised is evil

        I’m just spitballing here using your example, but what if watersports were shown to drought-stricken audiences? And we know they are just down the street from the event. Is that alright?

        Yes, anything superfluous to basic life itself is the purest of evils. You can see I’ve obviously stated the very same. Plainly. /s

        • Agent641@lemmy.world
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          5 months ago

          Im sorry everyone but he’s right. Now everyones not allowed to post memes on lemmy any more because there are underprivileged children around the world who don’t have access to the internet. Your use of the internet to shitpost and trollywolly is a flagrant and insulting misuse of what should be a universal right to an information dissemination and educational tool only.

  • Toto@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    Would love him doing a live stream at the same time, with the same rules, just to flex

  • reddig33@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    So after the competition is over, do the contestants vomit to relieve the gastric pressure?

    I’m wondering if Impossible foods has done any testing to see what happens when someone eats thirty of their hot dogs? Is there any concern these ingredients might expand more than pork would?

    • Xanthan Gum
    • Wheat Gluten
    • Methylcellulose
    • Varyk@sh.itjust.works
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      5 months ago

      Those three ingredients wouldn’t expand, no.

      Actually went into a deep dive on food eating for a week or two. The competitors I watched videos about or interviews with claim they don’t intentionally make themselves throw up because that primes their gag reflex to be more comfortable with throwing up in general, which obviously you don’t want as a competitive eater.

      Makes sense.

      I cannot imagine how impossible foods plant “meat” could possibly be more toxic than traditional hot dogs, and obviously they conform to the same food production safety standards the FDA sets.

      • skuzz
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        5 months ago

        Probably not “toxic” as much as gas-generating. If you’ve ever made the mistake of eating two impossible whoppers, you rapidly drive all people and animals nearby 50 feet away from you.

        • Varyk@sh.itjust.works
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          5 months ago

          I haven’t had that particular problem with impossible burgers myself, but it could certainly depend on your GI

          • skuzz
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            5 months ago

            Don’t get me wrong either, I’d do it again. Just, hilarious how some GI tracts react. And I’m a frequent eater of veggies, legumes, root vegetables.

            • Varyk@sh.itjust.works
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              5 months ago

              Definitely. I started doing a bunch of different diets and then stuck with intermittent fasting after all my gas and unpleasant toilet activities went away.

              I’m a huge fan of spices and Hot pot and all that, but breakfast, lunch and dinner with buckets of chili oil started to take its toll.

              Low carb, high carb more vegetables, More fruit, fruit juices, All had an impact one way or the other, but as soon as I gave myself a 4-hour eating window pretty much every stomach trouble I had flew out the window.