Antacids, anybody?

I like to eat, and I like spicy foods, but this might be a little excessive.

A 62-year-old retired accountant from Nevada swallowed 247 peppers in eight minutes to win the Jalapeno Eating World Championship at the State Fair of Texas.

Richard LeFevre won $2,000 for prevailing in Sunday's contest, which was sponsored by the International Federation of Competitive Eating.

"I love to eat, and I love to compete, so the two go pretty well together," said LeFevre, the world's eighth-ranked eater according to the federation.

LeFevre is a "professional eater," which means that he enters a lot of these eating contests. And, well, maybe this sort of thing should be left up to the professionals:

Christopher Huang, of Arlington, entered the competition even though he doesn't normally eat spicy foods.

"I eat mild salsa," Huang said. "But there's nothing like putting yourself through a lot of pain for no reason."

The 26-year-old required several minutes of recovery time after eating 53 jalapenos.

"I cant [sic] feel my face," he said when he was able to speak again.

After eating a whole mess of jalapenos, it wouldn't be my face that I'd be worried about, if you know what I mean. A medical professional quoted in the article sure does:

Dr. Daniel DeMarco, a gastroenterologist and director of endoscopy at Baylor University Medical Center at Dallas, said the amount of jalapenos consumed in an eating contest is more harmful than the burn.

"It's really pretty stupid," DeMarco said. "Like any sort of abuse of your body, it doesn't make any sense."

He said long-term complications are unlikely, but there are some risks.

"If they get sick, they're going to be vomiting it up, and that can cause esophageal tears," he said.

Dr. DeMarco doesn't go into what could potentially happen at, um, the other end, but I'd imagine it's none too pleasant, either.