Joey Chestnut Downs 63 Hot Dogs, Miki Sudo 40 To Win Nathan’s Eating Contest

Healthcare Joey Chestnut Downs 63 Hot Dogs, Miki Sudo 40 To Win Nathan’s Eating Contest Bruce Y. Lee Senior Contributor Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own. I am a writer, journalist, professor, systems modeler, computational and digital health expert, avocado-eater, and entrepreneur, not always in that order.

New! Follow this author to improve your content experience. Got it! Jul 4, 2022, 05:08pm EDT | Share to Facebook Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin Joey Chestnut (L) and Miki Sudo (R) hold 63 and 40 hot dogs respectively after winning the Nathan’s . .

. [+] Famous 4th of July 2022 hot dog eating contest on Coney Island on July 4, 2022 in New York. (Photo by YUKI IWAMURA/AFP via Getty Images) AFP via Getty Images Frankly, Joey Chestnut looks like he can’t be beat, even when he’s injured.

The same can be said about Miki Sudo, who returned after having her son. Both were top dogs once again in the men’s and women’s competitions, respectively, at the 2022 Nathan’s Famous Fourth of July Hot Dog Eating Contest . The 38-year-old Chestnut didn’t exactly dog it despite wearing a surgical boot due to a leg injury.

He actually 63-dogged it, as in consumed 63 hot dogs in a span of just ten minutes at the annual Coney Island, New York, event. While this didn’t top his own world record of 76 hot dogs set at last year’s event , he did continue his remarkable roll. Chestnut’s been the champ in this wiener-takes-all event for a total of 15 times.

Chestnut has allowed only one other person, Matthew Stonie in 2015, to win the title since first topping legendary reigning champ Takeru Kobayashi in 2007. Joey Chestnut reacts after reaching the 63-hot-dog mark in 10 minutes. (Photo by Kena Betancur/Getty .

. . [+] Images) Getty Images While Chestnut will most likely relish this seventh straight title, this year’s contest was not all just bun and games.

During the contest, a protestor wearing a Darth Vader mask rushed the stage. Instead of saying, “Joey, I am your father,” the protestor was carrying a sign that said, “Expose Smithfield’s Deathstar,” pushed his way to the hot dog table at the front of the stage, and bumped Chestnut in the process. Chestnut then responded by monetarily putting the protestor into a bit of a chokehold and then tossing away the makeshift Darth Vader with some force.

Since the “wurst” was not over, a security guard had to quickly remove the fan from the stage. Chestnut then resumed his dogged pursuit of the title. The video accompanying the following tweet from Will Brinson, Senior NFL Writer for CBS Sports showed how Chestnut put some mustard into throwing the protestor away from the hot dog table: MORE FOR YOU CDC: Salmonella Outbreak Has Left 279 Ill, 26 Hospitalized In 29 States Canadians End Up In ICU After Attending ‘Covid Party’ White House Mandates Pfizer Vaccines for Millions of Citizens .

. . Before the FDA Clinical or Safety Reviews Have Been Made Public In Heinz-site, this incident along with the injury may have kept Chestnut from breaking his record and reaching his stated goal of 80 hot dogs.

But he remains so far ahead of his competitors that they can’t really ketchup. Sudo has been practically as dominant as Chestnut, having won the women’s competition for the eighth time in nine years. Since winning the first time she competed in 2014, Sudo has been the big “wiener” every year except for last year when the 36-year-old skipped the event due to being pregnant.

In Sudo’s absence, Michelle Lesco topped the competition with 30. 75 hot dogs for the 2021 title. However, this turned out to be a bun and done situation.

This year, Sudo led all the way, finishing with a gut feeling of 40 hot dogs and buns, easily out-eating Lesco, who finished second. Miki Sudo (C) poses after she won first place, eating 40 hot dogs in 10 minutes. (Photo by Kena .

. . [+] Betancur/Getty Images) Getty Images What has made Chestnut and Sudo so dominant? Well, let’s take a look at what makes for a top competitive eater.

It starts from the mouth and throat. Competitive eaters don’t chew food and swallow like you would during a date or business dinner. Instead, through a combination of sipping water and using various chewing techniques, they try to create a mass of food that can then move down their esophagi like toothpaste.

(Yes, “esophagi” is the plural of “esophagus” in case you haven’t ever had to mention more than one esophagus in a sentence. ) It helps for them to be able suppress their gag reflexes so that this mass can make its way past their throats. It also helps to be able to expand their esophagi and relax their lower esophageal sphincters, which normally control the junctions between the lower esophagi and stomachs.

Top competitive eaters are typically able to hold more food in their stomachs at a time than regular folks. As I covered for Forbes last year , they tend to have larger, more stretchy, and more flaccid stomachs from birth or training or both. Then there are the body movements.

You’ll notice that during the competition, competitors will be moving their bodies, jumping and writhing. This isn’t just dancing to the surrounding music. It’s to physically move the mass of food down their esophagi, again like squeezing toothpaste.

As with all physical competitions, the mental game plays a big role too. Top competitive eaters need to be able to suppress many of their body’s natural feelings and reflexes. Normally, your body will tell you when you’ve reached your limit when it comes to eating.

This can come in the form of nausea, feeling very full, or even vomiting. Typically, such feeling will come rather soon. That’s why you may tell your host at a dinner party, “I don’t think I could eat another hot dog,” rather than “I don’t think I could eat forty more hot dogs.

” Competitive eaters, on the other hand, have to somehow delay and overcome these cues and press on in the competition. Finally, they need to have enough muscle and a high enough metabolism to burn all the calories and handle all of the salt that they consume. A typical hot dog made of beef or pork will consist of around 6 grams of protein, 14 grams of fat, 3 grams of carbs, and 562 milligrams of sodium, totaling 162 calories.

That means 40 hot dogs would be well over 6,000 calories. That’s not even considering the buns, hun. Therefore, top competitive eaters must try to stay in shape even thought their esophagi and stomachs may be in different shapes.

Both Chestnut and Sudo have dominated this Nathan’s Famous Fourth of July Hot Dog Eating Contest sort of like how tennis player Rafael Nadal has dominated the French Open. They’ve roasted their competition with no real end to their reigns in site. Follow me on Twitter or LinkedIn .

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