The Great American Wiener-Minyanville

The Great American Wiener

Justin Rohrlich Jul 02, 2009 12:00 pm


		Nothing says freedom like processed meat.

Chestnut is certainly no slouch. Take a look at some of his other records:

8.6 pounds of tempura-fried asparagus spears in 10 minutes
118 Jalapeno Poppers in 10 minutes
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212 chicken and vegetable gyoza dumplings in 10 minutes
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On Saturday, Kobayashi will once again challenge Chestnut, along with such famous eaters as Tim “Gravy” Brown, “Pretty Boy” Pete Davekos, and “Humble” Bob Shoudt.

The Health Factor

In Greg Critser's book Fat Land (recommended to me by Houston fund manager, Minyanville professor, and competitive-eater-in-training Ryan Krueger), some startling figures jumped out.

Nearly 60% of Americans are considered overweight.
The American Medical Association says there are 280,000 obesity-related premature deaths every year.
The care and treatment of diabetics -- the majority of new cases being a direct result of excess weight -- costs $100 billion annually, which boils down to 1 out of every 10 dollars dedicated to health care.
One in 4 Medicare dollars goes toward diabetes treatment
.
39 million work days are lost annually due to obesity, worth $3.9 billion.
More Americans are obese than smoke, use illegal drugs, or suffer from ailments unrelated to obesity.

Frightening numbers, for sure. But there are too many other numbers on my mind going into the holiday weekend for me to remember these.

In fact, I can almost hear the crowd chanting as the starter’s pistol goes off: “U-S-A! U-S-A!”

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