man vs food – super burger challenge

The other day I saw a new show on the Travel Channel called MAN v. FOOD.  (BTW, that’s an awesome title, especially once you learn what it’s about).  The host, Adam Richman, goes around the country to various restaurants, and eats the spiciest foods, and he also takes on challenges at restaurants.  That’s my kind of show.

I’ve only seen a couple of episodes so far, but one I saw was at this restaurant in Boston, and it was voted the 2nd best place to pig out in the U.S.  They specialize in burgers.  They sell a monster burger with fries, and if anyone can eat it all within an hour, they name it after that person and then create a bigger one.  The current challenge is called the Eagle’s Burger Challenge.

eagles-deli-challenge-burgerThe challenge is a cheeseburger with 5 pounds of beef — but it’s not one giant patty, it’s 10 half-pound patties.  And it has 20 strips of cheese, 20 strips of bacon, and a LOT of fries — 5 pounds.   In fact, all that together weighs 12 pounds.  The owner estimates 1500 people have tried this one but no one has defeated it.

On the show, Richman competed against a former employee of that restaurant (who had obviously done some prior “training”).  Richman ate almost 7 pounds of it, but his competition ate a little over 7 pounds of it.  Before they got that far, though, they were sweating from processing that much greasy food.   Try to imagine how that would feel…

I wonder what the “Important Doctor” thinks about that burger, since he promotes a bacon and cheese diet and has other unusual views on eating…

caption contest, guys eating giant burgers

Here it is, Monday again, and here is another caption contest.  (Normally I ramble on here for a while before actually displaying the picture, but not this time.)   🙂

guys eating giant burgers

(To see the other caption contests, click on the “Say What?” category in the sidebar.)

special diet preparations for fasting

Today I heard someone say that the proper way to do an extended fast is to prepare with a special diet during the previous week.  Supposedly this special diet prepares your metabolism for the absence of food, and it also helps you be more efficient with weight-loss during and after the fast.

That all sounds good, until you hear what the special diet consists of : cabbage soup.  There are some variations on the cabbage soup, including adding beef on certain days, but still, it’s cabbage soup.  I don’t know your opinion on it, but I think it’s nasty.

I was wondering about this diet, why it would work, and I’ve come up with a few ideas.  I’m no dietitian or nutriologist, but I’m good at making up stuff.  🙂  First, I think that after a week of eating only cabbage soup for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, your stomach says “no more” and thus you don’t want any food for a while.  Secondly, I think that it takes the whole length of your fast (say, 21 days) for your stomach to quit reeling over all that cabbage soup.  Given these ideas, I can see how such a diet can “help”.

Speaking of cabbage, since this is in a soup, I suppose it would involve boiled cabbage.  If you haven’t ever been around such a mess, I’ll tell you that there is some STANK involved with that.  (If you aren’t familiar with the term STANK, it’s worse than “stink”.)

Anyway, I plan to do more fasting in the future, but I don’t plan to research that cabbage soup diet.  If anyone tries it, you can let us know how that works out for you.

viewer mail, issue #14

One of my regular readers recently pointed out that I haven’t written an issue of viewer mail in a while, and what they said was true.   There’s no good excuse for that, but to appease certain people, I’ll make an excuse anyway: I had stuff to do.  🙂

But enough rambling, well, rambling without a point, anyway.   Let’s get to the viewer mail.   As always, these are actual search terms that led people to this blog.  I will provide answers, advice, skepticism, ridicule, or whatever is necessary in response to these phrases.

  • newly invented vitamins and minerals — I have nothing against science and inventing, but I don’t think we need more vitamins and minerals.  I already have enough trouble eating all of them I’m supposed to.  HOWEVER, if these new vitamins and minerals can somehow make things like bacon and gravy healthy, then I’m all for it!  That would be a great invention — not only would you improve the quality of life of millions of people, but you’d make billions of dollars!
  • volcano-kilauea-in-sept-84-shot-450m-high1“survive a volcanic eruption” — I can help you here.  The key for survival in that situation is to be far away.   It’s really that simple.  You really want to avoid the hot molten magma / lava, because it can burn through almost anything, including concrete and steel.  So it’s best to be far away.   And don’t try to cook marshmallows or hot dogs over the lava, because it can reach 2000 degrees; thus your food will melt, as will you.
  • friends that are too cool — It’s unfortunate this happens, but it’s a way of life.  Your only options are to either improve yourself, or just give them their space.  We had a guest editorial by Thomas Wayne about this one time, so you can read a few people’s thoughts on it in the comments on that post.
  • chocolate chip cookiescookies for breakfast — Some health nuts may say cookies are not a “breakfast food” or that they aren’t suitable for breakfast somehow.   To that I say “hogwash!”.   I have conducted my own extensive research in this area, and the results are conclusive that cookies make a great breakfast.   Milk is a good beverage of choice to go with your breakfast of cookies.
  • smoking/oxygen — I’m glad you brought this up, whoever you are.  Have you ever realized that smoking cigarettes and cigars burns oxygen out of our atmosphere?  Thus smoking contributes to global warming!   You probably won’t hear Al Gore mention that, because it might make some people mad, but I’m not afraid to rock the boat.

Well, that’s all we have time for today.   I really do have stuff to do.  🙂  Be sure to check out the other issues of viewer mail for more answers to the stuff you’re searching for.