Competive eating book author interviewed

Salon interviews Ryan Nerz author of Eat This Book: A Year of Gorging and Glory on the Competitive Eating Circuit — a book about people who competitively overeat, consuming (for example) 53 and one-quarter hot dogs in 12 minutes at events with names like the "Wing Bowl."

What else is really hard to eat and keep down competitively?

From what I understand, hot dogs really are the toughest because there's all that sodium and nitrates and then there's the bun — most eaters dunk the buns in water because they are easier to swallow.

What are "meat sweats"?

When I first heard the term I thought it was another made-up term on the circuit. But then I heard people talk about it, and I don't know what it is about meat, but in the same way that asparagus emanates through your urine, meat perfuses through the skin. It's the essence of meat coming through you.

Link

(Note: If you visit Salon via Boing Boing links, you are exempted from watching the Salon "day-pass" advertisement)