Happy 4th of July to all!  I spent my Independence Day at Coney Island, another place that after almost 5 years of living in NYC I had never been to.  Although I found out that I was not alone, when telling clients of my plans many of them responded “why?” and/or admitted that they also had never been there.  There was something else driving this journey, besides some sun and adventure on the 4th: the Annual Nathan’s Hotdog Eating Contest; something that I didn’t care much to see, but my girlfriend really wanted to witness and I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t curious.  We arrived to an extremely crowded Surf Avenue and the contest was about to begin.  Were we close enough to see?  Not really, but thankfully there was a huge jumbo-tron set up to broadcast the event.  I was becoming excited as the countdown began…and then my consciousness turned on.  Hot Dogs — do these people understand what a hot dog really is?  Where it comes from?  What do the contestants do after this event?  Or more importantly, what do their bowels do?  I noticed while vying for a spot near Nathan’s that an original hot dog (bun included) has 297 calories, and  assumed that’s what they’d be eating.  And then the contest was under way!

2 Hotdogs: 594 calories

5 Hotdogs: 1485 calories

11Hotdogs: 3267 calories

Ok so my math wasn’t good enough to go to far past 11, but we’ve already surpassed the average daily diet in only 1 minute.  What happened next was even more disturbing than the actual count, was that people started chanting USA! USA!  That’s right folks the reigning champ from the land of the obese was followed closely by Kobayashi from Japan.  USA!  Are these people serious!?  Are they thinking of the irony, we’re dying from this shit, but hell we’re good at it!  I’d be confused if a Japanese guy with a 6-pack won.  But, come to think of it, the reigning champs body comp doesn’t seem too bad either, so what’s the deal?  Well, who knows and I don’t have the desire to perform some heavy research to find out.  In the end Joey Chestnut of the U.S.A.! (which set everyone into cheers) won by consuming 68 hotdogs in 10 minutes to set a new world record.  Lets look at the nutritional facts of that “meal” shall we:

Joey Chestnut

Nathan’s Famous Beef Hotdog:

Calories = 297 x 68 = 20,196

Calories from fat= 164 x 68 = 11,152

Fat (g)=18 x 68 = 1,224

Sat. Fat (g) = 7 x 68 = 476

Trans Fat (g) = .5 x 68 =  34

Cholesterol (mg) = 34 x 68 = 2,312

Sodium (mg) = 692 x 68 = 47,056

Carbs (g) = 24 x 68 = 1,632

Fiber (g) = .75 x 68 = 51

Sugar (g) = 4 x 68 = 272

Protein (g) = 11 x 68 = 748

Calcium = 8 x 68 = 544

Iron = 2 x 68 = 136

748g of protein sweet!  He’s probably ripped — that’s like 21 Muscle Milks!  But, seriously 20,196 calories, that’s about what I eat in a week, maybe more.  What happens to these guys after the trophies are handed out?!?!!

On the way home from Coney Island I ran into a friend who had just got out of a screening of Food Inc. I couldn’t believe the irony, and how righteous is that!?  On the 4th of July, instead of eating chips, soda, beer, and a shit-ton of other processed foods or watching others this guy put him self in a movie theater on a nice summer evening to learn about the horrors of the food industry and probably why you shouldn’t consume hot dogs.  Check out the trailer:

I can’t wait to see this.  As you may have noticed from the trailer Michael Pollan and Eric Schlosser are both in the movie, two of my favorite authors.  Read their books:

Read This

And This.

I’ll be back soon with my review.