Competitive hot dog eaters may be nearing humans’ max eating speed
In the race to scarf down as many hot dogs as possible in 10 minutes, competitive eaters may have a limit: 83 franks, buns and all. That’s according to an analysis of nearly 40 years of the storied Nathan’s Famous Coney Island Hot Dog Eating Contest. Started in the 1970s in New York City, the contest now is a televised international event. The current record of 75 hot dogs — set in July — is an improvement over the competition’s early days, where winners were crowned after eating a measly dozen or so dogs. James Smoliga, a physiologist at High Point University in North Carolina, was watching the hot dog eating contest in 2019 when an idea struck him: Could he apply the mathematical equations used to estimate the limits of athletic performance to feats of gluttony? Smoliga dug into the hot dog record books. Based on data from 152 competitors over 39...