Eating Contest Sport

Look at Why Gluttony Has Become Glamorized

By
Relationship Advice Expert April Masini

As the mother of two boys, I let them watch ESPN and the other sporting programs they are interested in. But I have noticed lately that there are many programs with eating contests on them, and while there is no violence or sex, I still feel uneasy with them watching many shows with people stuffing their face with glory. Not only is being gluttonous unhealthy, it's downright wasteful. Will my kids grow up thinking it's okay to be gluttons like the eating contest winners, and will they aspire to get that kind of positive attention from overeating?

Sincerely,

Over overeating

Dear Over overeating,

You bring up an excellent point. Eating contests were not considered sports when we were children, and in a time with nearly a third of our population overweight, it seems unfair for these images of overeating and wastefulness to be broadcast to sports lovers, otherwise thought to be healthy people.

Eating contests have become a sport because we have too many cable channels and not enough shows to fill the time slots! Seriously. That is the only reason.

As you can see, if you peruse any night's television programs, there's more junk on television than ever before. In fact, reality television is a whole new genre of television, making stars out of "civilians" who have never taken an acting class or acted in a play -- let alone tried out for a television drama or comedy. And then there's D list actor shows where has been actors make up regular TV time -- for instance, Flavor Flav, Danny Bonaduce, Hulk Hogan, and all the has beens on Celebrity Fit Club. If there weren't so many television channels, these actors would be interior decorators and realtors. Instead, they've got a second shot with this new D-list genre.

And THEN ... as if that isn't enough, are all the surgery candidates who find themselves on television, naked and cut open because they want new breasts, or liposuction or rhinoplasty -- and have decided to go public by having their surgery and recovery on television.

Eating contests are just another one of these phases where there's time to fill and the definition of "entertainment" gets stretched again!

April Masini -- nicknamed "the new millennium's Dear Abby" by the media, is author of the best-selling books Date Out Of Your League and Think & Date Like A Man, the two (just released) step-by-step dating and relationship manuals, Ideas for a Fun Date and Romantic Date Ideas, and the critically acclaimed dating and relationship online magazine www.AskApril.com.

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