10 minutes, 76 hot dogs, and an iron gut: Competitive eater racks up another win in weiner-wolfing contest

In case you missed it, Joey Chestnut once again took the trophy in the Nathan’s Famous competitive hot dog eating contest on the Fourth of July. The golden number: 76 weiners in one sitting, reported The Washington Post. This achievement took only 10 minutes and dunking the buns in water to make them go down easier; vomiting up the goods—sometimes called “reversal of fortune” by diehard competitive eaters—results in automatic disqualification. We don’t want to think about what such high-speed swallowing does to a person’s insides, but we know there’s a real danger of death by choking (which makes the $10,000 cash and Mustard Belt bragging rights seem rather paltry). Chestnut inhaled an estimated 20,520 calories and 50,160 milligrams of sodium in those hot dogs. He’s legend in this extreme sport of sorts, where contenders gobble reindeer sausage, rice balls, and fruitcake for money. Chestnut holds about 50 other records, once consuming 141 hard-boiled eggs in 8 minutes and 55 glazed donuts in the same amount of time.

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