Joey Chestnut (photo, left) is to sponsored hotdog eating contests what Man o’ War is to horse racing: unbeatable; the greatest.
Chestnut holds the world record of 76 hotdogs and buns eaten in 10 minutes and not barfed up.
My personal best, achieved in high school, was 26 hotdogs, no buns, in about an hour, which got me fired from my job in the school cafeteria. We do a lot of stupid things when we’re young. I survived them all, or I wouldn’t be writing this.
Competitive eating is an organized sport. Is it dangerous? Probably. Unhealthy? Gotta be. (Details here.)
Witnesses claim his sweat smells like hot dogs after contests (see story here).
Chestnut, who last competed in 2023, didn’t exactly quit the annual Nathan’s contest; he was kicked out for signing up with Impossible to promote its plant-based meat products, probably because the money is better. Nathan’s was paying him $200,000 a year. (Story here.)
I can’t find anything about what Chestnut eats when he’s not competing. He’s not fat. According to Wikipedia, he’s not married, either. I’m not saying these two are connected. Judging from his competitive statistics, he eats a lot of unhealthy food. Maybe he doesn’t eat the rest of the time. If he’s endorsing Impossible, maybe he lives on their plant-based products. Maybe he eats salads.
I guess everybody’s different. I lost weight by living on fish, salad greens, and working out in a gym; and I’m putting it back on, despite working out, by eating processed foods again. All of that stuff is bad for you, no matter what the advertising and labels say. Hotdogs are worse. Chestnut is only 41 years old, so his body can still take it. That won’t last. In a few more years, he’ll be getting colonoscopies like the rest of us.