his brother george said that the federation does not accept eating athletes under 18 years of age for safety reasons at the end of the contest the man known as jaws had scarfed down 20010 calories 151 intro new york city bill de blasio handled the ceremonial duty of weighing in contestants today for the nathans famous fourth of july international hot dog eating contest hot dog havoc health risks of competitive eating but most of the elite competitors are surprisingly healthy if something is edible there is probably a competition to see who can eat the most of it in the shortest amount of time there are speedeating competitions for pizza both 24 and 16inch diameter pies as well as vienna sausage pulled pork and beef brisket even those who dont train this way appear to have a super human ability to expand their stomachs at 5 10 he claims to weigh 155 pounds with a lean 75 percent body fat and a total cholesterol level of just 141 its not just hot dogsurltext although the fourth of july hot dog eating contest at coney island is attended by more than 60000 spectators and is perhaps the best known competitive eating event in the world its by no means the only one more healthconscious competitive eaters can enter contests to see who can eat the most asparagus cabbage garlicky greens or fruit for example shoudt says he hops up and down to accelerate the swallowing process with gravity and he sometimes presses against his stomach to push food lower into the abdomen this closes off the airway and supposedly increases the squeezing movement of the esophagus known as peristalsis its a real sporturltext like baseball competitive eating has two major leagues the international federation of competitive eaters also known as major league eating and the association of independent competitive eaters though a female has never won the coney island contest the top women eaters have proven they can hang with the guys shoudt and other competitors push the limit of stomach distension by drinking copious amount of fluids media 19571771 quicklist 4category eating to wintitle those with a sweet tooth vie for titles in consuming things like birthday cake moon pies candy chocolate and strawberry shortcake media19571306 quicklist 5category eating to wintitle women compete toourltext nearly a quarter of the ifoces membership is female quicklist 1category eating to wintitle