competitive eating

Question
There are these eating contests (boiled eggs, hotdogs, peanut butter sandwiches etc,) and the object of those contests is to see who can down the most amount of the food in ten minutes. Can competitive eating have any negative effects on the digestive tract, or the stomach?

Answer
Hello Amy!

Thank you for your interesting food question.  Eating food too quickly may cause a special type of indigestion called gastrooesophageal reflux disease (GORD), says a new study published in the latest issue of the American Journal of Gastroenterology.

About one-third of people get some gastrooesophageal reflux at least once every six months. In the study, 20 healthy volunteers were given a meal and asked to finish it within five or 30 minutes. The participants reported any reflux (acid and non-acid) they experienced over a two-hour period following the meal.

The study, carried out by the British United Provident Association's medical research team, showed that reflux occurs more often when a standard meal is eaten fast, in five minutes, compared with the same meal eaten slowly, over 30 minutes. They found that the increase was mainly due to an increase in non-acid reflux in the first hour after the meal. Non-acid reflux includes reflux of stomach contents (food) other than acid.

With heartburn, the sphincter (valve) at the joining point between the oesophagus and stomach does not work properly, allowing the reflux. Eating quickly increases the amount of food in the oesophagus at any one time, increasing the pressure on the base of the oesophagus.

This causes the sphincter to relax more often, increasing the amount of gastrooesophageal reflux. Having a full stomach makes this more likely to happen, as this puts extra pressure on the valve. For people with GORD, the sphincter does not work properly and relaxes more often than usual.


For more answers to your nutrition questions check out "Ask the Nutritionists" by George Rapitis at www.authorhouse.com

-George Rapitis, Bsc. Nutritionist
www.juiceblend.com

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