World records are one thing. Challenging the scientifically impossible is another.
© John Minchillo, AP
Competitive eater Joey Chestnut sets a new world record with 75 hot dogs to win the men’s division of Nathan’s famous July 4 hot dog food contest on Saturday, July 4, 2020, in the Brooklyn district of New York . AP Photo / John Minchillo) ORG XMIT: NYJM122
It turns out that the champion of eating hot dogs, Joey Chestnut, is only nine hot dogs away from doing so, according to a new study published Tuesday by Biology Letters.
The researchers analyzed 39 years of data from Nathan’s famous hot dog food contest, held annually on the Coney Island boardwalk, but this year in a private location indoors due to the coronavirus pandemic.
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The study used mathematical models to calculate the maximum number of hot two that a person could eat in 10 minutes. That number was 84. Chesnut just ate a world record of 75 frankfuters on July 4.
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James Smoliga, author of the study and professor of psychology in the physiotherapy department of High Point University, told CNN that he was fascinated to find the limitation that the human body could handle and sharpened his research on competitive consumers of the person. average.
“The average person would probably encounter a stomach capacity problem,” Smoliga said. “But competitive consumers train specifically to expand their stomachs, so for more competitive consumers, it is probably more chewing and feeding within a time frame that limits it.
“There’s not a lot of research on competitive consumers, but what we do know is that obese people and people with binge eating disorders have similar types of physiology: They may have more food in the stomach, which can alter mental feelings of satiety “
As a psychologist, Smoliga has studied other sports phenomena and said that it wasn’t until the great boom in competitive eating in the early 2000s that he saw advances in the ability to eat hot dogs.
“On something like the 100-meter dash, looking at the records and the performances, you will notice that there are small incremental changes in performance,” Smoliga said. “But then something big changes: the sport becomes more popular or professionalized, or there is a new medicine or procedure, and the performance limits increase.”
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Joey Chestnut can eat 75 hot dogs in 10 minutes. Study says only 85 is humanly possible
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