2008 nathan's hot dog eating contest

what's july 4th without watching a select group of people eat a disturbing amount of hot dogs at nathan's hot dog eating contest in cony island?

ever since i was a kid, i've been watching this contest every 4th of july. somehow, i am just fascinated with people eating massive amounts of food in a short period of time. i'm sure with some practice at buffets and an 8th of weed, i too can eat 59 hotdogs in 10 minutes. this year's contest went into overtime with joey chesnut and my man, kobayashi. i've seen kobayashi eat before. a couple of years back, mtv true life did a skit on him. man, he puts fat people to shame.

kobayashi expands his stomach for a competition by eating larger and larger amounts of food, and then exercises to ensure that fat will not impede expansion of his stomach during a competition. by training with weights and working out, kobayashi has increased his metabolism, which in turn has helped him to burn more calories. this training is used by kobayashi to maintain his overall health as well as helping him to prevent excess calories from being stored as fat. there is no question he is a legend in the world of competetive eating.

however, joey chestnut has reclaimed the top spot this year again after first tying with archrival takeru kobayashi in a 10-minute chow-down and then beating him in a five-dog eat-off. the men tied at 59 frankfurters in 10 minutes, before being made to gobble another five dogs in a last-minute tiebreaker. they consumed 64 hot dogs total and were looking quite peaked after the competition. their competitors also included a pizza cook from new york city, a fishmonger from chicago and a 110-pound mother of two from maryland.

"hot dogs are extremely unhealthy, especially when eaten at high volume," says dr. marc siegel, a professor at new york university school of medicine."they're really processed, they have high cholesterol and too much salt."

and thanks to the quantities the competitors ate, they'll likely suffer nausea, bloat, headache, and possibly high blood pressure for several days as the body slowly digests the food.

"one is bad for you, five's worse and 50 is terrible," he said.

but any gastrointestinal woes won't deter kobayashi. he says he'll be back for a rematch next year. before that, the two, chesnut and kobayashi, will face off again at the krystal square off world hamburger eating championship sept. 28 in chattanooga, tenn.