Posted 02.20.2012 at 11:30 am
9 Comments
Competitive Eaters
David Handschuh/NY Daily News Archive via Getty Images
Yes. Marc Levine, the chief of gastrointestinal radiology at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, has found that a competitive eater’s stomach works more like an expanding balloon than a squeezing sac.
For his study, Levine recruited a professional eater, then ranked among the top 10 in the world, and a man who was 45 pounds heavier and four inches taller. He pitted the two against each other in a hot-dog-eating contest and used fluoroscopy, a real-time x-ray, to watch the two men’s stomachs. Levine immediately noticed something odd. Even when empty, our stomach—our entire digestive tract, in fact—makes a wavelike muscular contraction called peristalsis that helps move food through the body (scientists also call this anal propagation).
The competitive eater displayed almost no peristalsis. The regular guy stopped eating after just seven dogs—his stomach was full. The pro, however, was still going strong. After 10 minutes and 36 hot dogs, Levine asked him to stop. The pro’s stomach had stretched to the point that it took up most of his upper abdomen, and still there wasn’t much peristalsis.
By regularly forcing his body to consume past the point of fullness, Levine says, the pro’s stomach had adapted to expand. He never felt full, and by never feeling full his stomach showed very little muscle contraction. Experts still don’t understand this phenomenon.
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Sounds healthy
lol
Force ourselves beyond our normal expansions of the digestive stomach, only for personal financial gain or prestige, we call this the USA Government, 'currently'.
I am very much for democracy. I like to get rid of this corrupt, over ambitious, power hungry, lawyer abusive current government we have now.
I like to see a government create by the people, voted for the people and very much FOR THE PEOPLE!
HOW SOON CAN WE GET RID OF THIS CORRUPT EVIL GREEDY POWER HUNGRY LAWYER BUNCH! GOODBY SOLONG SEE YOU LATER!
I wish to go back to the original roots of democracy, back to the Greek days, when any person can be in power, create laws and voted on them. It was a constant rotating vote, and constant rotating power of the people, anyone and everyone had power and the vote. Please oh please research this history. I do not lie to you. It was the most pure form of democracy from the people, about the people and for the people with the least ability to be corrupt! Our USA Government is on the edge of bankruptcy and we as a nation will change to a better or worse society. I do as the people of USA to research the true nature of what democracy is and search to original Greece. I believe in democracy, freedom of speech and equality to all people, people being men and woman.
.............................
Science sees no further than what it can sense.
Religion sees beyond the senses.
Robot, what the f#@k does any of this have to do with the article. Learn that there is a time and place for every argument. It would save everyone a huge headache.
giranda,
lol, stuff sometimes happens.
.............................
Science sees no further than what it can sense.
Religion sees beyond the senses.
I suppose practice can make our bodies numb to anything. These eaters, might as well be banging their heads on a wall and getting Award!
Mooo!
I knew it had to be something genetic!
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