Buffalo food festival features first ever kale-eating contest

Forget hot dogs. For the first time in history, competitive eaters in Buffalo, New York chowed down on some leafy greens for a kale-eating contest.

The nine competitors had eight minutes to eat as much raw kale as possible at this year’s Taste of Buffalo Food Festival on Saturday.

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They devoured a combined 45 bowls of kale and drank Gatorade to help break down the fibrous leaves, which left for a sticky mixture of liquid and kale chunks around the competitors’ mouths.

Gideon Oji, a 24-year-old Nigerian who lives in Atlanta, Georgia took home the $2000 (U.S) prize and went home as the champion kale eater. He ate 25-and-a-half cups of kale in eight minutes, more than half eaten by all competitors combined.

Organizers said the eating competition offered a healthy alternative to most other eating contests.

The Independent Health Foundation, a Buffalo based not-for-profit that promotes healthy eating, requires that each vendor at the food festival offer a health-conscious menu item.

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That’s when they had the idea of featuring a kale eating contest, as the “world’s healthiest eating championship.” The competition is meant to highlight the healthier fare served alongside the typical chicken wings and ice cream.