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How Many Hot Dogs Can a Human Possibly Eat? Science Finally Has an Answer

posted by Fnord666 on Sunday July 26 2020, @02:37AM   Printer-friendly
from the 42? dept.

upstart writes in with an IRC submission:

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)

Original Submission

 
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  • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 26 2020, @05:25AM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 26 2020, @05:25AM (#1026465)

    I'm pretty sure that's more hot dogs than I've eaten in the last 20 years. We ate them when we were kids. I can't remember the last time I bought one for myself. It's not like I'm super vegan or anything. It's just that if I'm going to eat meat, there are so many options that taste better.

    Aside from that, I wouldn't mind if the whole eating contest thing just disappeared. Food is supposed to be savored, and enjoyed. I get the idea of being competitive; but I just don't see eating as a facet of life that benefits from competition.

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  • (Score: 2) by Bot on Sunday July 26 2020, @07:01AM

    by Bot (3902) on Sunday July 26 2020, @07:01AM (#1026487) Journal

    >Food is supposed to be savored, and enjoyed.
    that's what she said, holding the cucumber.

    --
    Account abandoned.

  • (Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Sunday July 26 2020, @03:55PM

    by Azuma Hazuki (5086) on Sunday July 26 2020, @03:55PM (#1026605) Journal

    More to the point, in a world where so many are hungry or outright starving, this sort of thing is almost blasphemous...

    --
    I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...