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How many hot dogs can a human possibly eat? Science finally has an answer:
How many hot dogs do you think you could eat in one sitting?
You know, if you had to?
Fortunately, science has now provided an answer. Researchers analyzed 39 years of data from the annual Nathan's Famous Coney Island Hot Dog Eating Contest[*] and, using mathematical modeling, calculated the maximum number of hot dogs one person could possibly eat during the contest's 10-minute duration. The new study published Tuesday in the journal Biology Letters.
The answer, it turns out, is 84.
[*] Contest web site and Hall of Fame.
Journal Reference:
James M. Smoliga. Modelling the maximal active consumption rate and its plasticity in humans, Biology Letters (DOI: https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2020.0096)
(Score: 2) by looorg on Sunday July 26 2020, @02:57AM (2 children)
I guess the summary did leave out some crucial details or definitions here. In that is what they do at professional eating competitions really eating or just stuffing as many things in as possible?
I don't know about other people but I don't really considering just sucking down a hotdog and then dunking the bun in water until it is almost dissolved as "eating hotdogs". That said since nobody has ever "eaten" 84 hotdogs in 10 minutes, or about one dog every seven seconds, that still makes the actual limit 75 since that is apparently the current world record. All the model does is perhaps allude to that there might be a minor room for improvement in the 10% range or so -- which is quite a lot. But until someone does it then it's just theory.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 26 2020, @03:07AM
That one Jap chick that was world champion for many years had surgery to allow her stomach to expand further than normal. Anything for fame I guess.
(Score: 1) by petecox on Sunday July 26 2020, @03:15AM
And yet some competitive 'sportsperson' will come out the next year and smash 85, just to prove scientists incorrect.