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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To Hate Eating Competitions?

75 replies

SunshineLollipopsAndRainbows · 19/03/2022 18:50

They are so wrong! Apart from anything else, it’s obscene for people to shovel down vast amounts of food to win a prize when there are so many starving in the world. Plus it’s bad for you physically.

OP posts:
LuckySantangelo35 · 19/03/2022 21:01

@thebellsesmereldathebells

Ooh, good one OP Grin great way to bring out the MN food frothers on a Saturday evening!

Have we had "I hate food waste", "nobody needs that much food" and "we all need to eat less meat" yet?

@thebellsesmereldathebells Well to be fair all those things are true!
Fairylightsongs · 19/03/2022 21:05

@Perfectlystill

I've never seen one. You just follow some weird stuff to have 'loads' of these weird things come up on your feed?
Never had one come up on my feed either so the op, at least initially, must have went looking for it. Which I can’t comprehend if you find it so offensive.

Personally I find lots of things upsetting, vile, offensive, from war, to child cruelty to animal abuse. Someone eating twenty hot dogs,,meh. Not so much.

Shrekles20 · 19/03/2022 21:24

I loved watching man versus food and visited some of the places featured when in the states and ate some delicious food there!

I don’t see the problem with eating competitions…if you don’t like them don’t watch them? They aren’t to blame for people starving in the world. They are just a bit of fun and it feels a bit judgemental to be assuming the competitors suffer from eating disorders. It’s not like they’re doing it every day.

georama · 19/03/2022 21:32

Lots of things are bad for you, doesn't mean they are or should be illegal.

SliceOfCakeCupOfTea · 19/03/2022 21:33

@Shrekles20

I loved watching man versus food and visited some of the places featured when in the states and ate some delicious food there!

I don’t see the problem with eating competitions…if you don’t like them don’t watch them? They aren’t to blame for people starving in the world. They are just a bit of fun and it feels a bit judgemental to be assuming the competitors suffer from eating disorders. It’s not like they’re doing it every day.

As someone with an eating disorder it's really triggering (for lack of a better word) to see/hear about them. Which is why I make sure I am not around them. Before I was ill I used to love watching them on TV so I fully appreciate and accept my hypocrisy. Cannot back this up at all but I once remember reading that millennials are more likely to suffer from eating disorders than any other current generation so I think there are a lot of people my age who do find it triggering.

I don't think they should be banned at all but I personally just don't want to be surprised by one happening in a bar when I'm eating there (which has happened to me before). Is that self-centred/entitled? Probably.

Smokeahontas · 19/03/2022 21:34

Doesn’t bother me, cannot get worked up about it. Scroll on.

Janesmom · 19/03/2022 21:36

Live and let live. If other people want to enter food competitions, I dont see how it harms anyone else.

For some reason MN now seems full of people who are desperate to inflict their views and values on everyone else around them!

whattodu · 19/03/2022 21:36

Agree completely- they are bad for your health, wasteful and appalling role modelling for children.

GlendaSugarbeanIsJudgingYou · 19/03/2022 21:39

I used to love watching Man V Food but I suppose it is a little gross, isn't it?

Reminds me of the vomitorium myth.

Allmyarseandpeggymartin · 19/03/2022 21:41

They are small fry compared to the proper competitive eating competitions in the US. I once watched one online where the competitors had to eat blocks of butter and jars of mayonnaise Envy not envy

Shehasadiamondinthesky · 19/03/2022 21:43

It's disgusting and a total insult to people who don't get enough to eat. There are plenty of children who go hungry in this country as well.

Fairylightsongs · 19/03/2022 22:06

@Shehasadiamondinthesky

It's disgusting and a total insult to people who don't get enough to eat. There are plenty of children who go hungry in this country as well.
I guess in this vein then you feel expensive restaurants, expensive supermarkets, people eating snacks for the fun of it, wasting money on things they don’t need, anyone overweight due to over eating, is an insult to those who go hungry and find that disgusting too?
JaneJeffer · 19/03/2022 22:08

They're gross.

Karwomannghia · 19/03/2022 22:21

Grim. I used to have a phobia of
Being sick though and so it’s in the same ball park. Would definitely not want to watch this at all with retching etc

fairylightsandwaxmelts · 19/03/2022 22:37

Why can't people disagree with things without wanting them to be banned anymore? Hmm

Justanotherlurker · 19/03/2022 22:39

The simple reply is jut stop watching them then..

Eating competitions are not thrust upon you unless you go looking for them or you have some dodgy watch list that they are recomended.

It really is a niche category that is easy to ignore without wanting to ban it, some personal responsibility should be weighed into the equation

Boxowine · 19/03/2022 22:39

Agreed. I find them to be repulsive.

slashlover · 20/03/2022 04:17

No of course not, nor have I suggested that would be the case. The OP has said she finds the display revolting, and I agree. Part of the reason I find it grotesque is that I find wasting a resource that some people don't have enough of offensive.

There was someone on here who contemplated turning their fridge/freezer off overnight to try and save money because they couldn't afford the electricity bill yet we're all on MN on devices which need to be charged, do you find that offensive?

Do you find people who take a bath/long shower offensive as some people don't have enough water?

TibetanTerrah · 20/03/2022 04:35

I could never do the huge ones, but I love the spicy ones. I love my food off the scale hot. On a parallel universe I would make millions touring the world doing chilli challenges and beating them all Grin

BeHappy91818 · 20/03/2022 06:50

@SunshineLollipopsAndRainbows

*whataroyalannoyance of course I don’t enter them! That’s not the point. I don’t believe they should exist in the first place!
Who are you to decide what should and shouldn’t exists.

If you don’t enter them then stop moaning about what other people do.

Fulfil your life a bit more.

BeHappy91818 · 20/03/2022 06:52

@Shehasadiamondinthesky

It's disgusting and a total insult to people who don't get enough to eat. There are plenty of children who go hungry in this country as well.
An insult to people 😂

People can do what they like with their own money.

Original poster
SunshineLollipopsAndRainbows · 20/03/2022 16:25

A few points to make :-

  1. I definitely didn’t go looking on Facebook. Some eateries that I had already liked decided to run eating challenges.
  2. I don’t watch them
  3. I’m not in charge of what exists & what doesn’t- I was saying my personal opinion is that eating challenges shouldn’t exist. Unfortunately they do!
OP posts:
Original poster
SunshineLollipopsAndRainbows · 20/03/2022 16:26

And why is expressing an opinion moaning?!

OP posts:
OwlinaTree · 20/03/2022 16:34

Adam Richman is my weird crush! I love watching man v food, but there is more to that program then just the eating contest. I don't think I'd seek out eating contests to watch but I can't get worked up about it.

I can totally understand why it would be triggering for some though.

Shrekles20 · 23/03/2022 17:31

I can understand why it’s triggering if you’ve got an eating disorder but that doesn’t mean they should be banned or come with a warning.

If everyone in the world thought what triggered them shouldn’t exist anymore I hate to imagine the sort of reality we would end up living in!

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