The crowd pushes forward, sweaty and anxious to get a closer look. Waving American flags, they crane their necks to see the action onstage: men and women of all sizes and ethnicities waiting patiently in the July sun, running through plans of attack in their minds.

As the countdown begins, these contestants prepare to dip doughy buns into the paper water glasses in front of them, frantically cramming bits of hot dogs into their cheeks like squirrels preparing for harvest. For competitive eaters of all ages, the Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog Contest is the reason they have dedicated months to perfecting how to consume 3 pounds of pancakes in one sitting, and 50 grilled cheese sandwiches in 10 minutes. The time has come — they have arrived.

For many who are members of this competitive eating world, it is about more than just breaking records and eating to the point of nausea. Competitive eating is an art, and a craft that pushes all involved to constantly improve themselves and move one bite closer to victory.

“It’s a sport, but rooted in lighthearted fun, good times,” said Richard Shea, who has been hosting and promoting competitive eating events for the past 12 years, along with his brother and business partner Greg.

The Shea brothers are responsible for helping elevate speed eating to a level of athleticism, beginning first at their public relations firm over a decade ago, where Nathan’s Famous Hot Dogs was one of their clients. The Nathan’s Famous Fourth of July International Hot Dog Eating contest has occurred every summer since 1916, where competitors fight for the Mustard Yellow Belt by stuffing in as many frankfurters as they can in 12 minutes. 2008 winner Joey Chestnut swallowed 59 with matching buns.

“We got a big kick out of it, and talked about expanding it beyond Coney Island,” said Shea.

The Sheas first founded the International Federation of Competitive Eaters in 1997, and later Major League Eating (MLE), a league for competitive eaters. These are organizations that take eating to an entirely new level, and regard it with almost religious esteem.

MLE manages their sanctioned competitive eaters, who are able to compete in various sponsored speed-eating challenges around the globe. The competitions range from the historic Nathan’s Famous hot dogs event in Coney Island, N.Y., to the deep-fried asparagus contest in Stockton, Cali., where competitors celebrate the locally grown vegetable every spring. Eater Joey Chestnut won in 2008 by eating 8.8 pounds. Eating events, much like the eaters themselves, are diverse, and a serious eater can find himself headed as far as England for a mince meat contest, or to Japan for chicken satay.

“It’s a strange journey, much like Jack Kerouac and the beatniks,” said Crazy Legs Conti, a competitive eater from New York City. “We started out for the love of the sport.”

And from that love has spun an experience far larger than many eaters had ever imagined. In New Orleans for the 2002 Super Bowl, Conti, 38, coincidentally found himself over at the Acme Oyster House at the same time the restaurant was hosting its annual speed eating contest. He ended up putting down 34 dozen oysters in one sitting, which Conti said put him on the map.

“I was always a fan,” he said, now on the MLE circuit for seven years. “Competitive eating has allowed me to go on the road — it allows me to indulge more than the casual tourist.”

Andrew “Skinnyboy” Lane, a software developer and competitive eater from Denver, said competitive eating is a crazy ride that’s left him captivated since his first grilled cheese contest back in Colorado.

“I’ve been all over the U.S. — burritos in Maine, PB&J in California, blueberry pie in Oregon. It’s fun traveling and it’s quite a conversation-starter,” said Lane, who’s been on the circuit since 2005. “And it’s neat seeing others you know at all kinds of weird places doing this.”

Ryan Nerz, author of “Eat This Book,” which depicts life on the competitive eating circuit, explained that the world of competitive eating takes normal or semi-normal people with a penchant for eating quickly and transforms them into characters.

“Someone goes from being a mail carrier or subway conductor to this larger-than-life character,” Nerz said. “Their identity becomes that of a gurgitator.”

Nerz, 35, has been a media manager and emcee for MLE since 2003, after hosting a meat pie eating contest in Louisiana that left him hooked on this unique sport. He has tried to join competitions from the other side of the plate, but learned that he simply eats too slowly. In fact, he said that is how many pros fell into this rare community — having grown up as kids who ate quickly, competing with siblings for the last dinner roll.

For many, competitive eating remains a side job to other careers. Takeru Kobayashi, a Japanese eater whose resume includes having won Nathan’s hot dog contest six consecutive years, is the only full-time professional eater who makes an income from his event winnings. Many events award prize money in the thousands, and some even give away material items, like a car at the Philadelphia Wing Bowl. Others participate purely for the rush of competing, as well as the camaraderie associated with this eating network.

“We have more active eaters than others. Some do a couple dozen a year, some are hobbyists who only do six to eight,” said Richard Shea, noting their competition season as being spring through fall.

There’s no easy contest or simple food to ingest quickly, as each are difficult in their own way, said Nerz. Corn is tricky because of technique; hot dogs are tough for stomach capacity. Each competition requires diligence, confidence, and an unshakable focus.

“As an athlete, you run into foods that get the best of you,” said Crazy Legs Conti, citing corned beef as his own pitfall.

And if professional eating is, in fact, a sport, the need for training seems obvious. The world of competitive eating has evolved from a silly display of chewing power to rile up crowds, to a more serious competition that demands concentration and practice.

“In the old era, we used to eat steak and go to the bars,” said Conti about his training regimen before events. “Now, it’s Japanese Ramen soup, and party after. It’s a lot of prep.”

Preparations even include doing practice runs before matches, such as grilling up versions of the event’s featured food as similarly as possible in order to test consumption. Conti also mentioned that his roommate Tim Janus, also known as Eater X, consults a sports psychologist before some events.

“Each food item can be unique and have a not-so-good, a good, and a best way to get it down in competition,” said Andrew “Skinnyboy” Lane.

As manager, however, Shea said that individual training is actually not encouraged.

“We are against home training at all because we can’t guarantee the safety,” he said.

Shea also admitted that EMTs are present at all Major League Eating-sponsored events for that reason. There have even been a number of deaths related to competitive eating — eight since 2000 — almost all occurring outside of the United States. A man choked to death in Russia in March 2009 while claiming his prize onstage for a pancake eating event, and in Taiwan in 2008, another man died after winning a steamed bun contest.

According to Ryan Nerz, competitive eating still remains athletic at its core, and therefore is dominated by mostly healthy people.

Crazy Legs Conti, who is 6 foot 3 inches and 120 pounds, said staying in shape for competitive eaters is all about balancing a healthy lifestyle. An avid runner himself, he ran the Boston Marathon the day after swallowing 25 frankfurters in 13 minutes at the Nathan’s Famous hot dog qualifying contest in 2007.

“I have found that 21.5 is the wall in both hot dogs and jogging mileage,” he said.

No longer a sport veiled in complete mystery, MLE has hosted a number of events that have been spotlighted on TV networks such as the Discovery Channel and ESPN. There is now even a competitive eating video game for Nintendo Wii, in which the characters are based on real eaters, like Conti.

“We have a solid sense of humor about it. … It’s a microcosm, our own little world,” said Ryan Nerz. “Sort of a mix between sport and magic act.”

The post No Gluts, No Glory appeared first on Pavement Pieces.

During the month of December, visitors to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue are greeted by a red AIDS ribbon adorning the North Portico of the Bush White House, boldly staring down any doubters of one of the current administration’s focuses.

“Thirty-three million people around the world are living with HIV, including more than one million Americans,” said President Bush from the North Lawn of the White House on World AIDS Day this year. “The ribbon is a symbol of our resolve to confront HIV/AIDS and to affirm the matchless value of every life.”

Meant as an unabashed display of federal commitment to the fight against a devastating pandemic, the ribbon instead presents a contradictory memory of the last eight years, with the new White House décor an empty gesture from President Bush on the issue of AIDS in the U.S.

With the 20th anniversary of World AIDS’ Day on Dec. 1 paralleling the wrap up of the current administration’s two-term reign, critics have cited the Bush administration’s fight against the disease as more of a show than real action. AIDS instances on the incline in recent years, not enough effort has been put toward keeping HIV/AIDS awareness in the public spotlight, as well as more accessible funding for at-risk regions and useful prevention methods like sex education.

“AIDS has once again become a silent killer,” said Dr. Bill Thierfelder, an English professor at Dowling College in Oakdale, L.I., who has taught a course at Dowling College on the AIDS pandemic for the past 11 years. “It’s not considered the crisis it once was, hence infection rates in every age group is on the increase since Bush heisted the election in 2000.”

The money spent toward AIDS tells another tale. Since taking office in 2001, the administration has granted $99 billion to treatment and care for individuals living with HIV or AIDS here in the United States. Funds topping $20 billion have also been allocated to research on HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment within this country. Just in the 2009 budget alone, the current administration requested $93 million for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s HIV Testing Initiative.

Dr. Lorraine Ronca, who works in the emergency room of Montefiori Hospital in the Bronx, a borough hit hard by the AIDS crisis, said that there have also been incredible advancements under President Bush’s watch, a credit to the administration.

“I grew up in the generation that was at the brink of AIDS. We’ve seen tremendous progress,” she said.

Dr. Ronca highlighted the near elimination of mother-to-child transmission during pregnancy and remarkable growth in prevention and treatment.

But with an October 2008 report by the CDC indicating 1,106,400 people living with the HIV infection in the U.S. at the end of 2006  – African Americans, Hispanics, and homosexual and bisexual men in particular – some still feel that not enough has been done.

“It’s totally political. There’s a deep rooted religious agenda that does no service to anyone,” Dr. Thierfelder said. He has been involved in AIDS activism on Long Island, New York and Manhattan since 1994.

“Millions should be poured into needle exchange programs, condom distribution, proper sex education, genetic research, etc,” he said.

A critical piece of legislation benefiting the AIDS community has been the Ryan White CARE Act. According to Kaiser State Health Facts, the Ryan White Program, which was enacted 18 years ago, was designed to provide funding to cities, states, and other public or private nonprofit entities to enable the delivery of health care and support services to those affected by HIV, previously ignored medically.

The program was reauthorized for the third time in December 2006. With the reauthorization came modifications that AIDS advocates have argued made it more difficult to provide organizations with sorely needed funding.  Dr. Thierfelder said these revisions cost Long Island and New York $21 million.

“They might have meant well, but so much more could have been done,” said Chuck Stutz, 45, of Las Vegas, Nev. who is HIV positive. “I was very happy when in his second term he signed the bill on AIDS in Africa…and then I read the stipulations. Once again, instead of helping people and focusing on common concerns (saving people), we bow to the religious right.”

Despite the fact that it has been scientifically proven that condoms are effective in preventing sexual transmission of HIV, the federal government has still continued to fund abstinence until marriage programs. More than $1 billion have been spent in the last five years to fund these types of programs, such as Adolescent Family Life and the Abstinence Education Formula Block Grant Program.

This discrepancy that those within the AIDS community have had with President Bush’s labors are more easily recognized within the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), the U.S.’s global efforts on AIDS. A major theme espoused by PEPFAR has been the education of children, and their importance in encouraging a brighter and healthier future for the world.

Yet in the last eight years abstinence has been established as the preferred “life skill” for the world’s youth to learn, even though knowledge of proper condom use is critical.  Currently 17 states, including California, New York, and Virginia, reject federal funding that promote adherence to an established eight-point definition of abstinence-only-until-marriage education.

“We’ll give you money, but only if you do it this way,” said Stutz. “Abstinence is not going to stop this epidemic.”

Drug abuse also continues to play a large role in the rise of HIV/AIDS. Injection drug users alone make up 36 percent of U.S. AIDS cases since the 1980s. The administration responded with support for the Targeted Capacity Expansion Program for Substance Abuse Treatment and HIV/AIDS Services grants by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration. These funds assist providers in underserved areas with conceded budding substance abuse issues.

In addition, President Bush has remained a steadfast proponent of routine HIV testing, the White House reported that one in five people living with HIV in America are unaware of their status as an infected person. Bush’s position has been one source of unease for AIDS activists who support voluntary testing.

Lambda Legal, the leading legal defense organization for lesbian, gay, and HIV related civil rights matters, and others worry that mandated testing wouldn’t be carried out with compassion.  They want emphasis placed on finding appropriate resources for those who test positive and readily-available counseling.

“When a person contracts HIV, especially if they’re gay, a drug addict, or a prostitute, the immediate response by many is it’s their own fault. They asked for it,” Thierfelder said. “Meanwhile the person who smokes and gets lung cancer gets the kid gloves and understanding.”

Stutz cited further education as being key to unlocking the mystery surrounding AIDS both here and abroad.

“There are people in this country that actually still think you can get it from a toilet seat,” he said.

But Stutz identified himself as one of the lucky ones. He said that since learning of his diagnosis, he has embraced living by the “crystal ball theory”—now that he understands what the eventual last chapter of his life may hold, Stutz has the opportunity to cherish the times he has now.

“I always thought there was a possibility, and was just too scared to confirm,” Stutz said of his decision to be tested.

All that is left is relishing every moment while you can, he said.

The post Living with HIV/AIDS: Bush and AIDS appeared first on Pavement Pieces.