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Competitive Eating

Competitive eating, which can also be called speed eating, is a sport that involves participants competing on who can consume the most food in a short period of time.



Most of these contests are usually around 10-15 minutes long. Competitive eating is popular in the United States, Canada, and Japan. The All pro Eating is the organization which sanctions the competitive eating contests in the world. They follow the picnic style rule which is “respect to the food and maintains the integrity and dignity and public reputation of that food item.” The organization prohibits the dunking of any food in water.

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Another group who organizes eating competitions is the International Federation of Competitive Eating. They host around 50 “Major League Eating” contest every year in North America. The IFOCE has a three-hour elimination tournament which is shown on ESPN; it is called the Alka-Seltzer US Open of Competitive Eating. Some of the famous competitive eaters are Joey Chestnut, Sonya Thomas, and Eater X.



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