Disturbing dangers of competitive eating

(Photo: Tina Fineberg, AP)About a week after eating 62 hot dogs in 10 minutes to win the Nathan's Famous hot-dog-eating contest, Matt Stonie drove to a Hooters and bought some chicken wings — 200 of them. By dinnertime, he'd polished them off as part of his training regimen for the Hooters Worldwide Wing Eating Championship to be held Saturday in Clearwater, Fla.

"It's hard work," he said. "We push through the pain."

These so-called training sessions can include drinking more than a gallon of water and are used by competitors to stretch their stomachs so they can hold more food for contests. But they can lead to serious injuries and are part of what competitive eater Patrick Bertoletti calls…