Eating competitions seem like innocent fun.
But behind every record there is a story that is not written about in the newspapers.
Imagine a person who trains for years to swallow a mountain of pies in ten minutes. His stomach stretches to the size of a balloon, and his body works at its limit.
After a victory, he cannot look at food for a week, and sometimes he even ends up in the hospital with acute pancreatitis.
But that's not all. Some participants in such competitions admit that they lose their taste for regular food. For them, eating becomes a sport devoid of pleasure.
One "champion" said that after eating 50 hot dogs, he couldn't get out of bed for three days because of stomach pain. But his face was on the news, and that, he says, "was worth it."
How do they train? For example, they drink liters of water at a time to stretch the stomach. Or they eat cabbage - it is cheap and low in calories, but it fills the stomach.
Some people even take drugs that reduce the feeling of satiety, which is dangerous to health.
And what after the records? Many participants suffer from obesity, heart problems and digestion.
One man who ate 8 kg of ice cream in 10 minutes admitted that he now can't even stand the smell of vanilla. Another woman who won the hot pepper eating challenge suffered burns to her esophagus and spent years treating gastritis.
But why do they do it? For some, it's a way to become famous. For others, it's excitement and a challenge to themselves. And someone honestly says: "I can't do anything else except eat quickly."
