What does a hot dog eating contest do to your stomach? Experts detail the health effects of competitive eating.

Champion of competitive food Joey Chestnut advances Dozens of hot dogs Each July fourth at the famous Hot -Dogs restoration competition in Nathan – and returns to redo year after year. But no one really knows what long -term impacts it could have on their body or on the body other competitive eaters.

The chestnut ate as much as 83 hot dogs and rolls In 10 minutes, exceeding the world record, he set in 2021 when he ate 76 hot dogs and breads. He Little 62 To win the Nathan competition in 2023 but did not to compete in 2024. Chestnut returned this year and ate 70.5 Hot-Dogs and Breads, Take the title Again. In the female competition, reigning champion Miki Sudo Laispa 33 Hot-Dogs and Breads this year after eating a Save 51 dogs in 2024. Applicants can eat more 22,000 calories In a single meal during competition.

The long-term consequences are not well known because a competitive food is a relatively new sport with a relatively low number of participants, said spokeswoman for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, Debbie Petitpain.

But health experts say that the practice raises certain potential health problems.

The stomach, which normally contracts after people ate, could eventually stretch, said Dr. Rajeev Jain with Texas digestive disease consultants. This could also have an impact on gastric emptying, the process by which food moves from the stomach in the duodenum.

“No one will be funded for a randomized controlled test where you say:” Hey, I’m going to quadruple the size of your stomach and see what happens to you “, because there is no reason to do this type of thing from a medical point of view,” said Jain.

However, gastroenterologists have an idea of ​​what is happening when a qualified competitor has hot dogs. A study by the University of Pennsylvania 2007 published in the American Journal of Roentgenology offers some clues.

What happens to the stomachs of competitive eaters?

In the study, a subject of control and a competitive speed eater – a 29 -year -old man who was classified in the top 10 of the world – were invited to eat as many hot dogs as for a period of 12 minutes. While most competitions plan to include hotcakes, the study was held at hot dogs. The researchers studied the stomachs of participants in advance and asked each man to ingest an effervescent agent and a high density baryum before eating the hot dogs so that they could look at the food when they moved through the bodies of the participants.

Based on fluoroscopy analyzes during the study, the researchers found that the competitive eater stomach was able to develop to accommodate much more food.

The subject of control ate seven hot dogs before he felt sick and had to stop. At 10 minutes, the competitive speed eater had ingested 36 hot dogs; The researchers asked him to stop because they were worried about him.

“His stomach has now appeared as a massively distended bag and filled with food occupying most of the upper abdomen, with little or no gastric peristalsis and the emptying of a small amount of baryum in the duodenum,” the researchers wrote.

In the end, they said that his abdomen had exceeded “enough to create a distinct impression of an intrauterine developing pregnancy”.

Dr. David Metz, who was one of the authors of the study and worked as a professor of medicine at the Perelman School of Medicine of the University of Pennsylvania, said that speed eaters have the capacity to relax their stomach so that they can ingest more food.

The average and empty stomach is roughly the size of a fist or a fist and a half, he said. It is made up of two parts: a receptacle on the top and a crusher, in a way, below. The muscles of the stomach stretch to accommodate food as people eat, but each muscle “has its argument where there is no return”.

“You could potentially end up with a big bag that does not contract properly,” said Metz.

The study noted that competitive eaters have declared to use “variable training methods” to try to expand their stomach capacity, including the ingestion of “large quantities of cabbage” or “loading of water”, which can be dangerous.

In the aftermath of the catering competitions, the participants declared that they feel extremely swollen and tired. They also signal gastrointestinal distress during the day or two after a competition.

Other side effects of competitive food

Competitive food has an impact more than the stomach. Participants can become sweaty, late and weak in the next day, experts said. Some speed eaters noted the pain in their face, their jaw and his neck thereafter due to the amount of chewing and swallowing implicated.

“Some athletes have reported arthritis in the jaw, atrocious pain in this area,” said Petitpain.

It is not only the large amount of food that is a problem. It is also the type of food. Hot-dogs are rich in sodium. According to nutritional information on the Nathan website, one of its original hot dogs from Beef Natural Boeud contains 170 calories, 16 grams of fat (including 6 grams of saturated fat) and 480 milligrams of sodium. Other varieties are higher. USDA 2020-2025 food directives recommend that Americans consume less than 2,300 milligrams of sodium every day. It would take less than five hot dogs to exceed the daily limit.

“If they absorb too much sodium, their thirsty mechanism will get started and they will drink a lot of water thereafter,” said Jain. “My concern is that, if your stomach is so full of food, how will you get other compensatory liquids?”

Sodium -rich diets are associated with an increased risk of developing high blood pressurewhich is a major cause of both stroke and heart disease.

Ingesting excessive sodium may have an impact on the renal function. The sodium peak can also cause blood pressure, exerting pressure on the blood vessels in the body, said Petitpain.

“If there is a weak point in these blood vessels which is stressed, it could cause a heart attack,” said Petitpain. “Or if there is a burst of the vessels in the brain, a stroke.”

The high level of ingested fat could cause nausea, diarrhea and gastrointestinal distress, said Petitpain.

During the annual competition, competitors also eat the hotcakes, which means a lot of carbohydrates.

“This great load of protein, carbohydrates, starch, all these things, they will now be thrown into the small intestine. And while this happens, your body must increase its insulin,” said Jain.

But all in all, if the competition eater dates back to a normal diet once a competition is finished, their body should regulate themselves in normal.

“Your body is a very adaptive organism,” said Metz. “The kidneys eliminate excess sodium and other micronutrients.”

There are still dangers, however. Beyond immediate stomach pain, competitors can feel, there are very worse possibilities. Competitors who vomit are likely to vacuum or tear the mucosa from their esophagus, said Metz.

People died during food competitions. In 2017, a 20 year old man The student died After choking during a pancake eaters contest. That same year, a A 42 year old man suffocated During a donut competition.

“There is a lot of danger involved and many of us have been very concerned about this,” said Metz.

The major in terms of the league, the organization that oversees professional competitions, has safety teams on events and says that it “firmly opposes and discourages home training of all kinds”. In a declaration in 2023 at CBS News, the major food league said that it adheres to “strict security protocols”, in particular by having an emergency medical technician present at events and ensuring that the participants are 18 years old or more.