Sonya Thomas, Chicken Wing Pro-Eater

By: Aina Hunter
Topics: News ,; Food and Drink

Sonya Thomas (AP)

(CBS/AP) Can you imagine eating 181 spicy fried chicken wings in one sitting? How about doing it in 12 minutes? Champion eater Sonya Thomas broke the national championship record Sunday at the ninth annual National Buffalo Wing Festival in Buffalo, New York.

The diminutive woman 43-year-old, who stands at 5 feet and weights only 105 pounds - devoured 4.86 pounds of chicken, besting favored pro-eater Joey Chestnut. Chestnut, who stands 6'2" and weighs in at 230 pounds, came in second after eating 169 chicken wings, or 4.55 pounds of chicken.

So how, exactly, do 181 fried chicken wings break down nutritionally? If the wings are large and whole, Thomas consumed, in 12 minutes, about 4,583 calories - that's more than two days worth of energy an average person needs. And that's not counting the sauce.

Her liver is trying to figure out what to do with about 198.7 grams of fat, 54 g of which is saturated. Experts say we should consume just 65-85 grams per day, with only 20 grams being of the saturated variety.

Thomas' body also has to process 1,824 mg of cholesterol, yet the American Heart Association recommends we consume less than 300 mg of cholesterol daily.

Let's hope Thomas, Chestnut, and the other pro-eaters drink lots of water, eat some veggies and give their hearts, lives, and arteries some time off this week.

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by jkarthur September 9, 2010 12:14 PM EDT: It is quite obvious that the author did no research when writing this article. On her website, Sonya Thomas writes about how she eats healthy most of the time, very few sweets, and between her job (as a BK manager) and her 2 hours of aerobics each day, she is able to burn a lot of calories. Some of the other contestants do not look very heathy, but she certainly does.; Reply to this comment


by incog-nito September 6, 2010 6:03 PM EDT: This is stupid article. This only becomes a problem she eats like this every day.; Reply to this comment

by janthony451 September 6, 2010 12:31 PM EDT

Sonja Thomas rules! Everybody else is just jealous because they can't eat 10lbs. of cheesecake at one sitting and still weigh 105 pounds! All hail the great gurgitator!

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by thesevenveils September 6, 2010 2:20 PM EDT: How else could her body deal with


by stanleyblog September 6, 2010 11:32 AM EDT: That's terrible. Chicken wings are covered by fatty skin, and I once had cholesterol of 450, and triglycerides of 600 from eating that. It's these food contests, and the hot dog, and pizza eating contests that the poultry farms and hotdog factories love and no other. These people will die young.; Reply to this comment


by Morndenkainen September 6, 2010 10:42 AM EDT: Yes... Lets all hope they take some time off from their "lives" and die.. Serve em right for being consumer ******...; Reply to this comment