Thanks to my mother, I have seen this show before. Gotta admit, the food looks delish but the gigantic quantities he eats is just ridiculous.

GLORY my daughter and son in law love the Hash House...I have never been there.

I posted this thread over a month ago...

I have seen many more shows since...

I like it :)

but it still concerns me our fascination with this type of television...

as we get bigger and bigger as a nation....

I agree with the above posts about the show being somewhat entertaining and supporting local businesses, but what it says about us as a whole is a bit disturbing.
I was channel surfing the other night and there were THREE different channels simultaneously playing shows about cake. And one channel had yet ANOTHER show about cake following the one currently shown. Really, we have to have a half-dozen shows about cake??? Why?

I occasionally see this show because my husband watches it. I always wonder how in the world he can stuff that much food in without getting sick and...um... losing it. I wonder if he can get full/satisifed off of a normal size meal even?

Yeah, I think it is a guy thing and not necessarily about gluttony or obesity crises or the like.

When my boyfriend's bestie left town to move to a different state they held a cheeseburger eating competition to celebrate (just the boys, no girls invited, thank goodness). The guy that won was this skinny creature who runs half marathons and runs on the beach for an hour every day. He most certainly doesn't eat 12 cheeseburgers in 5 minutes every day. It was how they chose to farewell their friend.

Bizarre, yes. Weird, yes. Gross, yes. Funny, kind of. But gluttony...? Not really.

I think it's part of a larger shift in "food television", away from shows that taught you how to cook (Julia Child, the Galloping Gourmet, and even early Food Network shows like Emeril) and toward what I call "Food as Spectator Sport"...the "Iron Chef", "Food Network Challenge", "Dinner: Impossible", and "Ace of Cakes" sort of shows where one isn't watching to learn how to cook, but to see something incredible/outlandish in the world of food.

This has seemed to go along with a general sense of "cooking is a rare talent" thinking...the same thinking that means if I serve a simple roast chicken for dinner, people fawn over it like I've repainted the Mona Lisa. Restaurant meals become the norm and "cooking" has gone the way of football...something you watch on TV, but only do on Thanksgiving.

It makes me sad

you bring up a great point. micheal pollan wrote an article i think is worth noting on how there is a direct correlation with obesity and these kinds of programs.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/02/ma...michael_pollan

I like the show, but sometimes it almost makes me sick. There was 1 show where he had to eat an 11 pound pizza...11 pounds!!! He split it w/ another guy and it's the only time I've ever seen him not finish a competition. I don't understand why he doesn't weight 600 pounds, though!!! LOL

On a side note...what's aykm???

I watch this show but it always makes me feel sick. I really like seeing the places he goes and like when the chiefs talk about the food but I HATE watching him gorge himself.

And to watch him gain weight over the seasons ... he'll die an early death. I'm sure of it. And I don't like that we all cheer him on his way to that.

Mandalinn, that is a seriously insightful comment! I could never have verbalized it like that. That shift is very apparent in TV programming lately.
And I dream of having a good, old school how-to-cook cooking show for vegetarian and vegan food exclusively (but I'll save that rant for that forum).

aykm? I don't see it listed on the acronym sticky

Ironically I never watched this show until I got to my goal weight lol It's fascinating and disgusting at the same time.

AYKM = Are You Kidding Me

At least, I think so.

I really like this show. I think Adam is a very likeable guy and I like the profiles he does of the restaurants in the cities he goes to. The food challenges he does are food challenges. He's not trying to advocate eating like that at every meal. He's not a huge guy (maybe a little chubby) so he probably only eats like that when he's doing a challenge for the show every few weeks or so. I personally would never do a food challenge because I know it would be a waste of time for me as I physically can't eat that much but I do look forward to visiting some of the featured restaurants and trying some of the interesting foods they profile. :)

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh...that makes sense!!! Thanks!!!