Eating a Record Number of Powdered Doughnuts Is More Complicated Than You'd Expect
Most Guinness World Records that involve food are pretty straightforward. It's hard to set a record, but trying to eat as many chicken nuggets as you can in three minutes isn't confusing. Start the clock. Eat chicken nuggets until you feel sick. Fist pump.
Even when the record attempt is grueling and painful -- like when L.A. Beast set the record for most ghost peppers eaten in two minutes -- it's still pretty straightforward. After conquering the two records mentioned above, L.A. Beast set out to break the record for most powdered doughnuts eaten in three minutes and it was surprisingly complicated.
As with any record attempt, there are rules. You may eat just one doughnut at a time and have to show your mouth between each doughnut to prove you're done with it. The doughnuts must be fresh, at least six centimeters in diameter, and completely covered in powder. Those rules are reasonable. However, there's one more rule and it's a strange one. You can't lick your lips.
It's not clear why you can't lick your lips. (Thrillist has requested an explanation of the rule. This article will be updated with an explanation if one is provided.) Nonetheless, the rule adds a whole other element to the record attempt. You can't eat a powdered doughnut without licking your fingers. That's like not licking your fingers after eating Cheetos or not rushing to the bathroom after eating fast food.
Even during L.A. Beast's training (seen in the above video), he was disqualifying himself repeatedly for licking his lips.
In the official attempt, he manages to refrain from licking his lips, which is maybe his greatest accomplishment. Of course, eating nine doughnuts in three minutes to best the previous record of six is pretty impressive too. But he didn't lick his lips!
UPDATE:
Guinness tells Thrillist the rule about licking lips is simply to "increase the challenge" of the record and "differentiate it from our other eating records."
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