The Sushi World Record You Had No Idea Existed

While it's impossible to know for sure the exact date of the first food-eating contest, we know the concept has been around for centuries. A Norse myth dating back to the 13th century tells the tale of an eating contest much like the ones that became popular in the 20th century, says Twisted.

Most sources credit Coney Island with the birth of modern food eating contests (in the United States, anyway), starting with hot dog scarfing in 1916 (via TIME). Since then, competitions have included pies, watermelon, chicken wings, and countless other foods.

Needless to say, some of these competitions are a pretty big deal to those who take part. They spend months preparing their bodies, and even learn how to suppress their gag reflex. Some do it for prize money, some for charity, some just for bragging rights. Who else besides Kobayashi can say he can eat 14 Twinkies in one minute? 

The Guinness World Records database contains more than 60,000 world records, with 6,000 of those records set in 2021 alone. One such record was set by Californian Michael Takla in August 2021. Takla ate a whopping 471.5 grams of sushi in one minute (via Guinness World Records). That's more than a pound of sushi, folks.

Takla posted a video of his record-breaking stunt on Instagram when he officially received confirmation from Guinness. In the video, he eats 16 pieces of Alaska roll sushi as a timer on his laptop counts down from 60 seconds.

An Alaska roll is also known as inside-out sushi, according to My Sushi Kitchen, because the rice is on the outside. Alaska rolls are typically made with salmon, crab, and avocado, but some are also rolled in panko and deep-fried. As delicious as this sushi sounds, we don't think we could ever come close to beating Takla's record!