Kale-Eating Contest Proves Kale Is Just as American as Hot Dogs

Fresh on the heels of Nathan's Famous annual hot dog eating contest (in which Joey Chestnut ate 70 hot dogs and buns in a span of ten minutes), a New York food festival will host a far healthier version of the all-you-can-eat competition: the Kale Cup.

According to the AP, the Kale Yeah! contest will take place at the Taste of Buffalo food festival, slated for July 9 in New York. Contestants will have eight minutes to consume as much of the green stuff as possible and the winner will take home $2,000.

Though the Taste of Buffalo menu includes things like buffalo mac and cheese and s'mores cupcakes, the contest is meant to highlight the healthier options available at the event; festival rules even stipulate that each vendor must serve at least one healthy item.

Fortunately for competitors, eating pounds of kale likely isn't going to have the same effect as eating pounds of, say, hot dogs. While competitive eating has been found to have some serious adverse effects on the human body, you'd have to eat 9 cups of kale to equal the amount of calories in one Nathan's hot dog. (Good luck with that.)