Competitive eating legend Takeru Kobayashi retires, says he no longer feels hungry
He’s lost his appetite for competitive eating.
Takeru Kobayashi — the Japanese eating legend who won six consecutive Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contests — is standing down from all future food challenges because he quite literally no longer has the hunger to compete.
The 46-year-old announced his retirement in the new Netflix documentary “Hack Your Health: The Secrets of Your Gut” after doctors discovered his brain had become repelled by highly processed foods.
“For the past 20 years, I have been in this field,” he stated. “I worry about the consequences of my decision, but most importantly, I want to repair my brain and gut.”
Kobayashi spent more than two decades chowing down on hot dogs and other highly processed foods, with his enormous appetite earning him worldwide fame and an income of up to $650,000 per year.
His competitive eating career kicked off in 2000 when he appeared on a Japanese reality show where he consumed 60 plates of sushi, 2.7kg of potatoes, and 16 bowls of ramen in one sitting.
Soon, Kobayashi was appearing at eating events all around the world, including Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest.
He claimed victory in that competition every year between 2001 and 2006 when he scoffed a staggering 53 hotdogs in just 12 minutes.
But in recent years, Kobayashi says his appetite started to wane and he now never feels hunger at all. He once went three days without eating.
“When you eat too much, you lose the ability to smell the food, and you also ignore signals from your body, such as feeling full,” he explained in the new Netflix doc.
In the movie, doctors analyzed brain scans, finding that when Kobayashi sees food, all areas of his brain related to nausea are activated.
“Your brain still thinks you’re in competition, in a state of eating highly processed food,” neuropsychologist Annie Gupta tells the Japanese native in the documentary, released in late April.
“Everything has to work together to suppress your system so that you do not get disgusted by more and more food,” German scientist Giulia Enders added. “You can see how far your body goes for what you want, even if it has to harm itself.”
Kobayashi is now focusing on eating more nutritious foods in much smaller portions in a purported bid to rewire his brain.
“I want to live a healthy and long life, so I’ve decided to quit competitive eating contests,” he declared.
