Eat and beat the world!

Competitive eating is becoming very popular among youngsters in the City. Since it is a good way to make money, some youngsters want to explore the idea of making a career out of it in the near future.

“I had heard about this concept from my friend who had participated in a competition and had won it. I gathered more information through Facebook and my friends kept updating me. I finally took part in a professional competition, where I lost to a popular, professional eater called Dale Boone. That is when I thought about taking it up seriously.

I became a member of a professional competitive eating league, which started sending me for competitions on a regular basis,” says Aakash, an engineering student and a professional competitive eater.

He says unlike professional competitive eaters, who literally prepare for a competition, he does little before a competition.

“Other professionals eaters eat cabbage as it releases some chemicals which expand the walls of the stomach. However, I try and drink water, which expands the stomach wall and I try not having a heavy lunch. I don’t starve as it shrinks the stomach. I also prepare mentally for the competitions,” he explains.

The monetary aspect of these competitions are also very attractive. While the first prize in most of these competitions are around Rs 10,000, the second prize varies between Rs 5,000 and Rs 6,000.

Different professional eaters have different capabilities, while some can eat faster, others can eat larger quantities.

“I can’t eat faster but I can eat larger quantities, but there are many who can eat faster. Every competitive eater has his or her own strategy and mine is to eat slowly and steadily. That is why they call me a clockwork eater,” Aakash adds.

Nivedith, a competitive eater, says that the City hosts such competitions every now and then. He does not mind taking it a step further and making it a full-time career.

“I love eating and have  participated in many such competitions. My friend introduced me to a doughnut eating competition, where I came second. Soon, I realised that I was good at it. Now, I am a professional competitive eater. I don’t mind pursuing it full time as it’s a profession where you get to eat goodies and make money out of it,” he informs.

Not many look at the prize money and say that it has given them a good boost.  “I don’t participate in a competition only for the money. I participate in it because it’s fun. Many people think that competitive eaters are obese, but that is not true. There are many competitive eaters who are fit and practice yoga. It also depends on how you balance things  while taking part in competitions. When we eat something sweet, we generally keep a bowl of chilly sauce or rasam near us so that we don’t have an overdose of sugar,” he notes.

Abhishek, another competitive eater, says that he enjoys taking part in it and has trained himself to eat in a short span of time. “I try to finish the food in the minimum amount of time possible. It’s a great way to earn money and it is slowly catching up in the country,” he sums up.