I don't know if you've heard of Kobayashi?
图源：people
As the king of big stomachs, he has been popular all over the world, after all, he is the only man who can stuff 69 hot dogs into his stomach in 10 minutes. But now his brain is not the same as normal......
Takeru Kobayashi, born on March 15, 1978 in Nagano, Japan, is a well-known competitive eater. His career began in 2000 when he appeared on the Japanese reality show TV Champions, eating 60 plates of sushi, 2.7 kilograms of potatoes and 16 bowls of ramen in one sitting.
Source: WSAZ
Kobayashi quickly made his mark in the competitive food-eating world, winning the Nathan's Hot Dog Contest six times in a row between 2001 and 2006, becoming a world-renowned food-eating contestant. He is also known for his unique eating method, the Kobayashi Shake, which involves dipping a hot dog in water and then shaking its body to make the food slide more smoothly into the stomach.
热狗蘸水 图源：orange country register
In the 2006 Nathan's Hot Dog Contest, Kobayashi won the championship by eating 53 hot dogs in 12 minutes, a feat that helped him amass a huge following and reputation around the world. In 2001, he set a world record of eating 69 hot dogs in 10 minutes.
图源：cbs sports
Kobayashi in 2019 is over 41 years old, but it's not a problem to eat 62 slices of pizza in 12 minutes or 337 chicken wings in half an hour.
However, all this comes at a price......
同年，ESPN制作了一部纪录片《The Good, The Bad, The Hungry》，片中小林尊自曝了在职业生涯后期出现了一系列的健康问题。
Kobayashi uses a series of methods to expand the capacity of his stomach to accommodate the intake of large amounts of food. Before the game, Kobayashi drinks a lot of water to expand his stomach. This process helps him adapt to the need to eat large amounts in a short period of time. He also uses plenty of low-calorie foods, such as vegetables or boiled noodles, to simulate a game and train his stomach to be elastic and tolerant by gradually increasing his intake.
In the past, there were also Japanese TV shows that used X-rays to shoot the stomach of another big stomach king Mengzi, and it can be seen that the size of her stomach pouch before and after eating is very different, and even the kidneys next to her are about to be squeezed out of shape......
Source: Internet
After years of extreme training and eating, Kobayashi lost his appetite for food, did not feel hungry, and sometimes did not feel hungry for days without eating. Not only did this affect his quality of life, but it also made his performance in the game much worse than before. In addition, doctors found that Kobayashi's brain had a rejection response to highly processed foods.
Zun Kobayashi doing an MRI Source: Netflix
If a normal person sees delicious food, several key areas of the brain (hypothalamus, amygdala, prefrontal cortex, striatum) are activated, and these areas are mainly involved in the processing of appetite, pleasure, and satiety.
Images of an MRI of the brain after seeing food Source: Netflix
And for Kobayashi, the result was completely different. His brain has developed a negative reaction to these foods due to his long-term high intake of highly processed foods. When he saw the food, the areas of Kobayashi's brain associated with feelings of fullness and nausea were activated at the same time. This reaction meant that his brain was still in competitive eating mode, even though he wasn't going to eat.
Kobayashi's brain has adapted to extreme eating habits, causing normal hunger and satiety signals to be distorted. His brain is more inclined to trigger stress and protective responses when he sees food, rather than pleasure and anticipation.
Source: Netflix
This is not an isolated case, but has been confirmed by large-scale studies. In 2013, scientists employed a cross-sectional and longitudinal study design with the aim of evaluating the effects of long-term excessive eating on brain response patterns. Participants were divided into two groups: chronic overeating (defined as at least three binge eating behaviors per week for at least two years) and normal eating.
During the experiment, subjects were asked to look at a series of pictures of food while taking an fMRI scan. Activity in areas of the brain associated with feelings of fullness, pleasure, and nausea is recorded.
It was found that areas of the brain associated with satiety (such as the hypothalamus) and nausea (such as the insula) were activated simultaneously in people who had been overeating for a long time when they saw pictures of food. The control group, when seen with a picture of food, mainly activated areas associated with feelings of pleasure and anticipation, such as the amygdala and prefrontal cortex.
The figure below shows the results of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) of the brain under different conditions, comparing brain activity in a normal control group and a bulimia patient under the two stimulus conditions.
Source: Literature
In the chart, patients with binge-eating disorder already had higher levels of brain activity than normal controls in the absence of food stimulation, indicating that their brains were highly active under baseline conditions. In addition, people with binge-eating disorder respond more strongly to food stimuli, as evidenced by the hyperactivity of the brain's reward system, which may be the neural basis of their binge-eating behavior.
Studies have shown that when people consume high-calorie, high-sugar foods for a long time, the dopamine receptors in the brain gradually decrease, making people need more food to achieve the same satisfaction.
Source: Internet
In the brain of people with depression, dopamine activity may be suppressed. Consuming foods high in sugar and fat can temporarily boost dopamine levels, which can improve mood . However, this mechanism can lead to a vicious cycle that makes individuals more dependent on these foods for short-term emotional relief.
In addition, studies have found that long-term intake of a high-sugar, high-fat diet can lead to cognitive decline, affecting memory and learning ability. That said, eating too much can also make you stupid.
Not only the brain, but also the cardiovascular system and other parts of the body have many adverse effects. Kobayashi's career has been high in highly processed American diets, which are often high in calories, sugar, and fat, such as fast food, desserts, and sugary drinks. Long-term intake of this type of diet can lead to a variety of health problems, including obesity, cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, and metabolic syndrome.
Hot dogs are the most typical American food, Kobayashi and his opponents Source: SportsPro
Recently, Kobayashi finally announced his retirement decision, saying: "I have been in this field for the past 20 years. I was worried about the consequences of my decision, but most of all, I wanted to repair my brain and gut. ”
Kobayashi's legendary status in the competitive food and broadcast industry is irreplaceable, and his retirement marks the end of an era. His story is not only about the triumph of extreme challenges, but also about the re-pursuit of a healthy life.