kickfight wrote:
Nope, because I do the complete opposite: I eat very very slowly. I enjoy food soooo much, I don't want to rush a single millisecond of pleasure.

I enjoy food as much as the next person (a person doesn't get to be my size without eating) but I spend as little time eating as possible. Anyone else can eat exactly as they like but my eating slowly is annoying to me. I know a guy who spent over an hour eating an order of fries from McDonalds. I wonder how he did it because most of the time they're cold when I get them and 5 minutes later, they're bordering on gross. He took over an hour.

He says he lives to eat where I eat to live. I say no .... I do eat to live, but he is trying to save money whenever possible. Eating slowly doesn't help him save money but the food lasts longer. So .. instead of eating $5 worth of food (for instance) in 2 minutes, if he takes 62, it increases his ratio of minutes to dollars.

Lovely Day Media wrote:
I enjoy food as much as the next person (a person doesn't get to be my size without eating) but I spend as little time eating as possible. Anyone else can eat exactly as they like but my eating slowly is annoying to me. I know a guy who spent over an hour eating an order of fries from McDonalds. I wonder how he did it because most of the time they're cold when I get them and 5 minutes later, they're bordering on gross. He took over an hour.

He says he lives to eat where I eat to live. I say no .... I do eat to live, but he is trying to save money whenever possible. Eating slowly doesn't help him save money but the food lasts longer. So .. instead of eating $5 worth of food (for instance) in 2 minutes, if he takes 62, it increases his ratio of minutes to dollars.

OK, *that* does seem excessive, especially with food that gets nasty after it gets cold (or, in the case of sashimi or ice cream for example, when it gets warm). Apparently some people take the "savor your food" thing a little too far. I just can't imagine gobbling up food, competitively or otherwise. It just seems bizarre to me.

Lovely Day Media wrote:

I enjoy food as much as the next person (a person doesn't get to be my size without eating) but I spend as little time eating as possible. Anyone else can eat exactly as they like but my eating slowly is annoying to me. I know a guy who spent over an hour eating an order of fries from McDonalds. I wonder how he did it because most of the time they're cold when I get them and 5 minutes later, they're bordering on gross. He took over an hour.

He says he lives to eat where I eat to live. I say no .... I do eat to live, but he is trying to save money whenever possible. Eating slowly doesn't help him save money but the food lasts longer. So .. instead of eating $5 worth of food (for instance) in 2 minutes, if he takes 62, it increases his ratio of minutes to dollars.

Theres a certain merit to slow eating, it takes your body X amount of time to communicate to your brain that you're full and it's not immediate, so slow-ISH eating allows you to not overeat so badly as many of us do....but an hour on mcdonalds fries is absurd.

I've found that my speed depends on who I'm eating with and how fast they're going. My husband inhales his food no matter how hungry or not he is, no matter what the food is, no matter how 3rd degree burn hot the food is, and since we eat together every day my speed has increased considerably. When I go visit my parents for a month I'm noticeably finished way before them, even if I'm not starving I just shovel the food away. Around the end of the month I've started to slow back to their pace.

Looknsee Photography wrote:
In my mind, there are tons of things that are made into competitions in popular culture, and many of these should never be a competition.  For example:
...  Competitive eating.
...  Competitive cooking.
...  Competitive talent shows.
...  Competitive courting & dating.
...  Beauty contests.

And so on.  These things have very little appeal for me.  But admittedly, they are popular.  I couldn't tell you why,

Competitive phone booth stuffing was pretty cool:

Laura UnBound wrote:
Theres a certain merit to slow eating, it takes your body X amount of time to communicate to your brain that you're full and it's not immediate, so slow-ISH eating allows you to not overeat so badly as many of us do....but an hour on mcdonalds fries is absurd.

I have started eating less food. I'll eat what I think is enough for the average person and stop, still hungry or not. If I'm still hungry a few hours later, I'll indulge in some ice water, an apple or some other fruit or vegetable. It's going to be another 8 hours or so before I have some more food unless it's 7:30 or so at night. Then I won't have any more food until breakfast time (unless I didn't get to have any lunch).

No matter how slowly I eat, my body won't communicate that I'm full to my brain so this doesn't work for me. Overeating is really easy.

Lovely Day Media wrote:
Would you ever enter an eating contest?

They have one each year in Philadelphia since 1993. They call it Wing Bowl and it's one that has only one rule: If you heave, you leave. In the contest, the competitors eat chicken wings. It doesn't seem so bad, but the winner last year ate 429 wings! I couldn't. I'd be done after 8 or 10, 20 would be the absolute top. So .. I'd never enter an eating contest.

Would you?

They have something similar every year on July 4th at Nathans in Coney Island, NY where competitors eat as many hot dogs as they can.  Last years winner ate 70 hot dogs in 10 minutes.  I probably couldn't eat more than 4 so I would never enter.