Mental Floss

The Quick 10: 10 Competitive Eating Records

Stacy Conradt|

Everyone knows about the famous Fourth of July hot dog eating contest. It may be one of the most well-hyped, but it's hardly the only eating competition out there. In fact, there's probably an eating competition for just about any food you can think of. Here are the best performances from 10 of them.

SONYA
SONYA

2. 11 pounds of cheesecake in nine minutes, Sonya "The Black Widow" Thomas (pictured—she weighs about 100 pounds). Thomas holds several records, including nearly five pounds of fruitcake in 10 minutes, but I think it's notable that she totally trounced Washington Redskins player Randy Thomas in a shrimp eating contest. The football player is known for his appetite, but The Black Widow just crushed him by eating 6.5 pounds of shrimp in 10 minutes to his 1.5 pounds.

3. 34.75 ears of corn on the cob in 12 minutes, "Crazy Legs" Conti.

4. 1.75 pounds of butter in five minutes, Donald Lerman.

5. 51 Bhut Jolokia chilis (the hottest pepper in the world) in two minutes, Anandita Dutta Tamuly. Tamuly is so hardcore, she rubbed the seeds of the chilis in her eyes before chowing down.

6. 46 latkes in eight minutes, Pete Czerwinski.

7. 141 pieces of Nigiri sushi in six minutes, Tim "Eater X" Janus. Eater X and Crazy Legs Conti are roommates, by the way. Can you imagine hitting up a buffet with them?

8. 47 slices of pizza in 10 minutes, Pat "Deep Dish" Bertoletti.

10. Four 32-ounces bowls of mayonnaise in eight minutes, Oleg Zhornitskiy. And I have to throw in that this is the one that grosses me out the most. That's 714.1 grams of fat!

Most of these are just utterly incomprehensible to me—how do you even eat one stick of butter, let alone seven of them in five minutes? Ugh. But I confess, I could probably hold my own in a mint chocolate chip ice cream eating contest. Could you give any of these competitive eaters a run for their money? What food would it be?