Japan's "eating contest king" announces retirement due to anorexia, fasting for 3 days without feeling hungry

The man who won many eating competitions for more than 20 years has announced his retirement. Currently, he can fast for 3 days without feeling hungry.

Takeru Kobayashi has won many world eating competitions.

Takeru Kobayashi (46 years old), was a 6-time champion of the famous Nathan's hot dog eating contest in New York, USA. Known as the "king of eating contests", he can devour 64.5 hot dogs in one sitting.

At the age of 23, he made a strong impression when he participated in an eating competition in Japan, consuming 60 plates of sushi, 2.7kg of potatoes and 16 bowls of ramen.

In an eating contest in Taiwan (China), he won by eating 5.5kg of stewed lamb in 24 minutes. In Hong Kong (China), he ate 100 pork buns in 12 minutes.

Thanks to winning eating competitions, his annual income can reach more than 650,000 USD (more than 16.5 billion VND), helping him support his family.

Takeru Kobayashi retired because he no longer felt hungry.

However, his life has changed. He recently appeared in a Netflix documentary focusing on the human digestive system, analyzing the relationship between the gut, diet, and health.

Through the film, he also announced his retirement plan. The reason for this decision is that he no longer feels hungry. After fasting for 3 days, he still does not feel hungry.

"When you eat too much, you lose the ability to react to the smell of food, ignore signals from your body, and don't know when enough is enough," he said.

Medical professionals found nothing alarming about his intestines. However, his brain was sending out signals that made him feel anorexia. Specifically, when Kobayashi saw food, all the brain regions related to eating would activate, creating feelings of nausea and loss of appetite.

"I started to feel scared. I didn't know if my brain was still healthy," he shared.

Experts advise you to learn to listen to your body, even if it's just smell, senses or very basic things.

Now, he has started using nutritious ingredients like avocado, perilla leaves, shiitake mushrooms and garlic to make healthier sausages, improving his eating habits. "I want to live a healthy life, so I decided to give up competitive eating competitions," he said.

(According to Vietnamnet)

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