Trade Your Passion For Glory

Recently eaten: couscous, shrimp, cherry tomatoes
Recent annoyance: my feta cheese is missing

This woman is my hero. Back in the day before my HDL and LDL were so terrible, I could chug and plate of chicken parm like a Hoover vacuum. Now I am relegated to eating mere mortal amounts and no saturated fats. I am embarrassed for myself.

Petite Food Fighter Pigs Out
"Natsuko Sone [check out her Wikipedia entry] is a petite 21-year-old who stands 5 feet 4 inches tall and weighs just 95 pounds. But she can eat 183 pieces of sushi in half an hour and down 20 pounds of food in one sitting.

Sone is the newest celebrity sensation among Japan's long line of champion competitive eaters -- or "food fighters," as the entertainment industry calls them -- and a rising star on YouTube.

Presented with a gigantic bowl on a weekly variety show, Sone says, "I can eat this easily!" The human food vacuum takes a pair of chopsticks and digs into the 20-pound tub of curry, noodles and rice. For the next hour, the crowd looks on as her slender hand carries giant gobs of food from bowl to mouth. When asked how she's doing, she simply says: "This is delicious!"

Sone is better known as "Gal" Sone for her bleached chestnut hair, high-pitched staccato voice, thick makeup and girlie fashion, which make her a thoroughly trendy Tokyo "gal."

Quirky competitions are a big part of Japanese entertainment culture, and the abundance of all-you-can-eat restaurants and a national obsession with gastronomy make food perfect to battle over.

Tokyo TV is full of shows where contestants see who can eat the most watermelons in three minutes, or where couples jointly attempt to gain 15 pounds by eating mountains of sushi. The thrill of a good challenge never fails to get the Japanese riled up.

In a taping of a 2001 speed-eating contest between Takeru "The Tsunami" Kobayashi and Takako Akasaka, two of the world's best food fighters, it's man against woman. The food fighters make their way down a long table stocked with dumplings and sushi. Kobayashi wins in an astounding 5 minutes and 47 seconds. According to the commentators, it takes an average person 35 minutes to finish this amount of food.

But in 2002, displays of competitive gluttony went temporarily off the air. A freak choking accident at a school cafeteria left a schoolboy dead after he mimicked a speed-eater by stuffing his mouth with butter rolls. The backlash left Japanese television free of eating contests for three years.

In 2005, despite voices of opposition, TV Tokyo revived its popular show, The Gluttonous King Contest. That's when the 19-year-old Sone made her dramatic debut, beating out all other female competitors, including her predecessors Miyuki Iwata and Takako Akasaka. Food fighters are back, and their icon is a 95-pound girl in a gold sequined cowboy hat.

Clips from these shows are gaining popularity on YouTube, especially ones featuring Sone, who is giving food fighters a total image makeover.

In one clip, recently removed from YouTube for "rights violation," Sone sings "Boys & Girls" -- a hit tune originally recorded by pop star Ayumi Hamasaki -- while stuffing her face with sushi between verses. Her off-tune singing, burps between breaths and rhythmic fish-swallowing has the crowd roaring with laughter.

Beyond her svelte appearance and age, Sone is famous among competitive eaters for actually enjoying the massive amounts of food she consumes.

While others -- like reigning Coney Island hot-dog-eating champ Kobayashi -- furiously gulp down their meals with water, Sone displays a calm nonchalance even in the middle of a race.

A certified chef, she appears to savor each bite she takes, even when she's already taken a couple hundred of them. At a women-only contest in Okinawa last year, Sone was seen reapplying her makeup after finishing first, even as the clock was still ticking.

And Sone is looking forward to her next match. "I can't wait to see what I get to eat next!" she writes on her blog.

While ingesting too much water can cause brain swelling, seizures and death, there are no known immediate lethal effects to binge eating."