There are some things in our culture I cannot understand, one of which is competitions that have no value.

To me, competitive eating is at the top of that list.

Don’t get me wrong, I like food as much as the next guy, but I can’t comprehend why anyone would want to gorge themselves merely for the entertainment value.

Not only do I see the practice as dangerous, I see it as wasteful.

There are people all over the world with little to no food, but in countries like the United States, Japan and Canada there’s so much food people eat as much as they can to win as little as $100 or less.

There are other competitions many may see as unnecessary, but at least most of those aim to push the person to train in order to become the best at what they do.

At times I compete in games with friends with very little reward for my victory other than a brief amount of bragging rights. However those games help build eye hand coordination. It’s not much, but it’s something.

Don’t forget professional sports. While not essential to survive, these athletes undergo massive training to improve the performance of their bodies. Many of them command a salary to be envious of to boot.

And while some sports players suffer serious injury and sometimes die, the same is true for competitive eating.

It’s typically choking that proves fatal for competitive eaters.

According to news outlets, a 47-year-old man choked to death while participating in an eating contest in South Dakota earlier this month.

Over the years there have been several other deaths. Those deaths were due to eating too many sausages in Romania, stuffing too many small cakes in their mouth at once in Great Britain, or choking on roaches and worms in Florida.

I think I will limit my eating to just keeping my belly full and skip the competitions.