Guest Post: Dr Richard Krysztopik explains the medical process behind eating.

Sometimes it pays to know how the eating process works. For regular competitive eaters, there are a raft of complications that can occur. We talks to Dr Richard Krysztopik, a consultant surgeon working at the Royal United Hospital Bath, specialising in Bariatric treatment and “Minimally invasive (key hole) surgery, including operations for gallstones and abdominal wall hernia repair, Gastro-oesophageal surgery, such as key hole surgery for hiatus hernia repair or reflux control, achalasia and obesity surgery”. We asked him some about some of the medical and scientific factors that ought to be considered when embarking on an eating odyssey*

Interview: What it’s like being on the other side of the table?

It’s all very well for the people doing food challenges feeling ill and doing something horrible all over the floor but it’s often the hard working staff at the restaurants that provide these challenges who help make it happen. It’s about time they got some more attention We returned to one of our favourite gastronomic haunts, Red Dog Saloon, to chat with Matthew Kearney, 32, who is one of the staff at the restaurant.

An Abridged History Of Extreme Eating

Historical accuracy completely coincidental

All still images Creative Commons / Wikimedia Commons.

EXTREME EATS UK LIVEBLOGS THE MEATLIQUOR MEATEASY CHALLENGE.

Christian Verdon; City Lawyer by day, big eater by night, agreed to undertake a triple threat challenge – the Meateasy Triple Chilli challenge at MeatLiquor. What follows is a live blog of his attempt. And yes, it’s as grizzly as it looks.

Eating yourself to death?

Storify by Katherine Landergan

Several competitive eating participants have died from choking and heart attacks. Here is a compilation of a few deaths that gained widespread media attention.

A man choked to death at a sausage-eating competition in Romania earlier this month. The incident was filmed and uploaded to YouTube.

The 60-year-old man was participating in an eating challenge at a sausage festival on 5 October, according to The Huffington Post. (Warning: the footage attached to The Huffington Post story is disturbing.)

The Huffington Post linked to a 13:29 minute video, which shows the man choking and falling to the ground. Several people try to save him, but no one successfully completes the Heimlich Maneuver.