Joey Chestnut

“The hardest is foods I am not familiar with. Gyros, I lost that one; I don't like tzatziki sauce very much. I did kimchi in Korea, which was rough: fermented cabbage and spicy.”

“I love king crab a lot. I love good Mexican food, good tacos, and chile rellenos.”

“I know I hold the contest record for downing the most hot dogs, and the record for most Nathan's Famous Hot Dog Contest championships, but it was really cool to be a part of a Guinness World...”

“I know that when I'm fitter, I breathe better. If I breathe better, I can eat more.”

“My weight does fluctuate, and there are extreme highs and lows in my blood sugar, so there is some worry about diabetes.”

“There have always been a lot of critics of competitive eating. You can be a critic of anything. It's easy to be a critic. You can say negative things about golf, the amount of water wasted o...”

“There are times when I'm not eating buns if I'm on a low carb diet. I'll have hot dogs and romaine lettuce, but if I'm at a baseball game, I'm always eating a hot dog.”

“So now I'm 'the hot dog guy,' which isn't bad. I take it in stride. It's not like it was my goal in life. I'm having fun with it.”

“They don't sell the Nathan's hot dogs hardly anywhere in the West Coast. So I have to special order them, and I just end up getting Nathan's to ship them to me.”

“I think my body was built to eat 68 hot dogs. It's natural.”

“Honoring our nation's heroes and their caregivers is a cause very important to me - especially on Independence Day.”

“I've strained some muscles here and there, in my throat, even my jaw. Nothing that doesn't heal quickly.”

“There's nothing pretty about competitive eating. It might be uncouth, but it is fun, and it is lighthearted.”

“It's addicting, beating the heck out of people and eating hot dogs and making people smile. I do feel like garbage afterwards, but so what? Most people feel like garbage after a long day of...”

“I think Peter King... he's kind of narrow-minded.”

“I love food, and not surprisingly, I often suffer from stomach upsets when I overeat in general, let alone when I'm competing.”

“I have the craziest dreams when I'm digesting a massive amount. It feels so real, it's psychedelic.”

“You need to stay calm the day of the contest. Not let the weather bother me and just relax.”

“When I'm eating I try to make sure I can breathe through my nose the entire time. If I have to breathe through my mouth, there's no way I'm eating or swallowing.”

“Make sure I'm chewing, swallowing, and breathing, my whole body is working together. I can just find a rhythm and keep going and going and going. It's my love of food.”