You've probably heard of competitive eating, those food challenges in which people consume ungodly amounts as fast as they can, battling it out for cash prizes as high as $10,000. These challenges span the globe, are
broadcast on ESPN, and include just about
anything edible: jalapeños, shrimp cocktail, and gyoza, to name just a few.
They've also got history. In a story from the 1400s,
notes Eater, a Nordic man enters an eating competition with a god. In the 1700s, poet James Taylor
wrote of the "Great Eater of Kent," whom,
Atlas Obscura reports, ate "some 60 eggs, a good portion of a lamb, and a handful of pies — a meal that left him hungry for more."
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Nathan S