In recent years specially talented individuals have pushed the limits of their bodies, and the limits of their alimentary canal, by taking part in the sport of competitive eating. Competitive eating has an extremely simple objective: eat as much food in as short of a time span as possible. Top competitive eaters in the world attack this task with startling efficiency while simultaneously consuming insane amounts of food.

Most food eating records boggle the mind and may even cause people to consider throwing up their last meal. For example, the jovial Cookie Jarvis once ate 91 Chinese dumplings in eight minutes. That translates into a blistering rate of one dumpling every 5.3 seconds, hardly a feat which your average human being could accomplish.

Surprisingly, the two top eaters in the world, Takeru Kobayashi and Sonya Thomas, weigh only a paltry 132 pounds and 105 pounds, respectively, despite the imposing mountains of edibles they have consumed. For five consecutive years Kobayashi, widely considered the greatest competitive eater in the history of the sport, has won the most prominent event of competitive eating; hot dog eating. In 2004 he set a world record by somehow wolfing down 53.5 hot dogs in 12 minutes. In perhaps a more impressive feat, Kobayashi once managed to eat 57 cow brains in 15 minutes.

Although she only burst onto the competitive eating stage in 2003, Sonya Thomas already holds 24 world records in competitive eating, ranging in everything from ravioli to cheesecake. Among her other remarkable accomplishments, she has eaten 44 lobsters in 12 minutes, and 161 chicken wings in 12 minutes.

As one might expect, the speedy ingestion of such magnanimous quantities of food can also potentially harm the bodies of competitors. In fact, the International Federation of Competitive Eating “believes that speed eating is only suitable for those 18 years of age or older and only in a controlled environment with appropriate rules and with an emergency medical technician present.” [1] So, as a wise word of warning, really, don’t try speed eating at home.