Eat Your Heart Out - An Eating Contest For All!

In some parts of the world, being able to eat well is viewed a sign of good health. There are mothers who keep telling their children that they must eat well, "only then" they add "will you grow strong like your father!"

Those were the days when all three meals were freshly cooked and nothing was ever re-cycled. Even in between meals something was baked at home by my mother for mid morning snacks on holidays and something for afternoon tea as well. At that time we used to use a paraffin fueled cooker and a had a hot plate for emergencies.

Quick meals or fast food were totally unheard of. Recipes for health food were non-existent. There was nothing called low fat, low calorie, fat free, sugar free, or salt free. In fact these terms were never heard of. The most important thing was, the food was always tasty.

Although my interest in food at that time was very low, from memory I could say that everything prepared at home was yummy. Weight watchers did not exist! Nobody was diabetic and nobody was overweight! Nutrition always used to take care of itself.

Many years later, when I was fourteen years old, I remember having invited a friend to lunch after school one day. I did so since he had to attend hockey practices that afternoon and on that particular day his father did not have the time to pick him up, take him home for lunch and bring him back.

I was living within walking distance from school and so I thought why not take him home for lunch. Since I too had to attend a swimming session late in the afternoon, I thought I could walk back to school with this guy, hang around there for a while and then join the others at the pool.

My mother was a great hostess too and she had a habit of force feeding guests as often as they come. My mum did just that on that day too, and this guy, just a few months older than me surprised me by taking several servings, of course to my mother's delight!

I knew that mum would in the future be constantly referring to how Ricky ate and would take to humoring me as I could not match his gastronomic abilities. At that time I did not have much interest in food at all. Eating a meal was only a formality.

Ironically on that particular day I was hungry and was willing to eat. But my mother kept reminding me that I had to attend a swimming session. The coach had instructed all swimmers to have only a light meal in the afternoon and three hours before practice session starts. He was very strict about this, and I like many others had to follow these instructions as I had a tendency of throwing out during practice sessions if I had been after a reasonably good meal.

Now, getting back to Ricky, I could only watch him eat! To top it all, at the end of the meal Ricky sincerely apologized to my mother for not being able to eat more! He stated that he was in the past able to "eat well" but these days he simply could not! He added that lately his mother had pointed out that it was due to "evil eye" that her son Ricky had simply lost the ability to "eat well!" He blamed it on evil eye!

The hockey coach had not given any instructions on food intake and I was certain Ricky would fall asleep during the hockey practice sessions! I was hoping he would!

Evil eye ... my foot! It's just that the glutton was "out of form!"

Now, here is a story about a true life incident, related to us by a friend of my oldest brother. I have reason to believe the story is true because each time he repeated it there were no discrepancies. Up to this day I have not heard other versions of the same story from any other source either.

Eating being an important feature in most celebrations, this story is about an incident that had taken place when a certain event was being celebrated in a particular village. Expecting an abundance of food and knowing the variety involved is what had compelled some of the guys who were guests at this celebration to arrange an eating contest! There was of course no award, just the honor that you would earn as the best eater around would suffice.

The hosts had, with short notice made the necessary arrangements that a contest of that nature would call for and had approved the list of contestants. Of course the contestants were actually some of the invitees who had volunteered.

The day of the celebration had finally dawned. Towards noon the guests had started appearing. When a good number of the guests had arrived the contestants were separated and assigned different locations for the contest to get under way.

The main dish was of course savoury rice flavored with onion leaves and laced with fried cashew nuts. The other dishes consisted of garlic flavored cooked lentils, large slices of baked fish set in mint and coriander leaves, vinegar pickle with onions, and of course roast chicken!

That's all!

"Hear ye! Lunch is now ready!" A common signal triggered it off! The contest had gotten under way and everyone had started eating, the contestants as well as the guests.

Of course the guests were aware that they could "watch" the proceedings after their meal as all of them had thought that it would be wise to eat first and watch later!

A wise decision indeed I thought. I too would have done likewise! Eat when the eating's good ... lest all the contestants over perform!

When the last of the guests had finished eating, the contestants were still on the job! They had gone on and on ... and on ... Replenishing the fast diminishing food was the concern of the hosts, and the food that was being fast replenished had not lacked in quality either!

Time had passed, and amazingly more and more food had been brought in to replace what was being consumed! However, inevitable as it was, one by one the contestants had started withdrawing. Some of them simply gave up, because they just could not even take another mouthful.

As more time elapsed, there had been just a few contestants left, and they were busy at their task, although visibly the initial enthusiasm that they had displayed had reduced to near zero! There had been even a repulsive look on the faces of some of the remaining participants.

Then slowly and surely that number too had started reducing fast until there had been just four ... then three ... then two ... and then just one! It was this last guy who was ceremoniously declared the winner!

But ... to everyone's amazement, even after being officially declared the winner, this guy had continued eating!

He was eating as they described, furiously, fast ... and he was simply devouring the food! Good lord! He had gone on eating like there was no tomorrow! He had gone on and on until ... well, he probably felt he could not take any more!

He would have felt some discomfort at that point as most observers had pointed out. It was then that he himself had discovered that he could not rise from his seat to help himself to the next serving!

And so ... inevitably he had had to give up, although he had been declared the winner much earlier. This is the point at which the problem had been detected! It was discovered that he could not rise from his seat at all!

He could not keep his eyes open either although he was still in that sitting position. He could also hardly speak. He had been breathing normally though. Profuse sweating was noticed as well. Although some of the other participants had reported afterwards that halfway through the eating session he had started sweating.

There was panic all around and an on-call doctor was not easily reachable as that day was a holiday. However, they had cautiously lifted him while he was still in the sitting position, placed him in a vehicle with utmost caution as not to upset his equilibrium, and had driven him to a medical center.

After what had appeared to be a long wait, the doctor had finally arrived. Meanwhile this guy was still not able to move. He was still sweating, and his eyes were still closed. Although still in a sitting position he was not responding to any questions either.

The doctor soon confirmed that it was certainly not a condition of the heart much to the relief of everyone. Immediately the good news was conveyed to the village via telephone.

But even to the doctor's amazement, this guy's eyes were still shut and he was not responding at all to any attempts to "revive" him. The puzzled doctor, not having treated such a case before, gently suggested to him that he should try to put his index finger down his throat and induce vomiting.

At this suggestion his face showed a slight indication of a smile. When it was suggested to him the second time, he had appeared somewhat vexed. It was on the doctor's third attempt to make him induce vomiting that he reacted.

Reacted he surely did! In an instant he even got his voice back ... he opened his eyes ... and then all hell broke loose when he screamed at the doctor "Whaaat? ... If I could insert my f--king finger into my f--king throat, don't you realize I would have eaten half a f--king banana?"

... concluded

This is only a story about an eating contest that is supposed to have been held somewhere in the sixties, at some location not mentioned.

This is in no way any sort of encouragement to anyone to eat beyond their capacity or needs.

I would strongly recommend health food to each and every reader of this article and I would at this time even encourage you to check out some articles right here on hub pages on the various aspects of health.

These health topics include nutrition, health food, measures to prevent maladies, restoring and maintaining health and dozens of valuable essays written by our worthy fellow hubbers like Tatjana-Mihaela, Steve Mark, Shalini K ... just to name a few.

The right food and exercise coupled with six hours of sleep every twenty four hours is the secret formula to maintaining excellent health.

Click your way to good health my friends ... and here's to your health! "Na-zdarovye!" as the Russians say it! Cheers!