FanHouse - AOL Sports Blog

One of the great mysteries of the competitive eating world has finally been explained. The question: Why do Thin Guys Always Win Eating Contests? Bypassing the unfair generalizations that overlook some of the sport's original, more traditionally corpulent champions, Das FanHaus always fine such intense study of the lesser appreciated sports fascinating. The article, originally from PopSci.com, explains:

Muscles stretch when they relax, and when we eat a big meal, our stomach muscles relax so much that they send a message to the brain, which interprets the signal to mean a full belly. Then our brain stops us from eating anymore. But a good training regimen deadens this communication, causing "the signal to the brain or the brain itself to become less responsive to the large volume of food," says Douglas Seidner, M.D., program director for clinical nutrition at the Cleveland Clinic. In other words, you can eat yourself numb, or at least deaden your urge to stop.

Thus explains one of the true paradoxes of speed-eating. Das FanHaus would like to think that there's some kind of secret lab in Japan, or possible Coney Island, where such studies consist of hot dog gorging while being hooked up to all sort of fancy monitoring equipment. Something like those Gatorade ads, but with
more ketchup than sweat.

Today, Spike TV, that veritable cornucopia of Fanhaus materials is giving us fair warning for our holiday viewing. After the various baked and fried turkeys, stuffings, dressings, yams, and pumpkin pies have been thoroughly gorged upon, if the slate of NFL blowouts isn't enough to make you sick, check out the Major League Eating (MLE) Chowdown. The following commercial is definitely NSFW ... containing gritty closeups and full protonic "reversals."



It's time to once again revisit the great debate of "Is this a sport?" To which, Das Fanhaus endorses with an emphatic yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. It has the toothlessness of hockey, the full-on obesity of many an NFL lineman, and the flashy sets of that Rock-Paper-Scissors tournament shown occasionally on ESPN. I really hope this bacchanal is live, and that one of the internet's many illustrious online wagering sites will give me some action on this. I want to take the deceptively skinny old-timer plus the points, but I probably won't be able to because gambling is wrong. This is art, and you can't gamble on art ... unless you're in Bellagio in mid February.

You may not have run it in an 1100cc GoKart as in the video above, but you probably recognize anyway: that's the Nurburgring, alternating host track of the German Grand Prix and model for countless video game loops you've probably wrecked a good number of virtual cars on over the years.

The 3.2 mile loop--once dubbed "Green Hell" by driver Jackie Stewart, an homage to both the beautiful pastoral scenery and its twisted difficulty--hosted the Nurburgring 24 Hours this weekend, one of those sadistic endurance races where extraordinarly wealthy people with cars that cost more than the GDP of Romania run their crews and drivers into the ground over nearly impossible race courses because...well, mostly because they can, and you can't, you penniless plebe.

The Manthey Race Team, piloting a fleet of Porsche 911 GT3 (Street legal edition price: only $100,000!), won the day despite a two hour rain delay, with the new 911 RSR performing flawlessly in its first serious outing. If this all seems a bit frilly, cold, and Jean Girard-esque for your tastes, then you are likely not German: the race drew 210,000 spectators throughout the 24 hour ordeal, which features drivers pulling hellbent through the night with headlights on the dark, winding roads of the Ring.

Kobayashi. Michael Buffer. A ton of Kodiak bear. Two plates of hot dogs. A television magic that can only be called "Foxtastic."

Sometime, when you're dying, on your deathbed, you might ask yourself, "Self--did we see anything worth talking about? Anything really, really special in this life?"

We've answered that question for you. Press play, and you may say yes with confidence.

And now: Kobayashi versus a bear in a competitive eating contest.