 Toxic ... for some, stinging nettles are painful. For others, stinging nettles are painful.
June 15, 2009 4:57 PM
Stinging Nettle correspondent
Mike Hobbs is the new World Stinging Nettle Eating champion.
So that's something, anyway.
Just why is anybody's guess, but at least Mr Hobbs is happy after scarfing down 15 metres of the poisonous, stinging weed.
Well, happy after sobbing like a newborn for several hours.
"They taste foul," he told local media gathered to watch the tearjerking spectacle in Dorset, England.
"Everything comes out bright green for a few days afterward."
Which for most of us would be warning enough that the human body just wasn't meant to process toxic, noxious weeds.
Particularly the type of noxious, toxic weeds that inject boric acid into your system, making you go all red and itchy for up to a week afterward.
But after two Dorset farmers argued over a nettle problem in 1986 and ended up trying to outswallow the problem with each other in a local bar, the World Stinging Nettle Eating Competition has become a rapidly growing annual institution.
Competitors are given 60cm long stalks of nettles, which they proceed to strip and chew the leaves.
Whoever has the most stalks left is the winner.
Mr Hobbs - who holds the world record of 25m - opted to pack his nettle leaves into tight balls before convincing his screaming throat to swallow them.
And it's not just a man-thing. This year, 40-year-old Mel Lang also choked down 15m of stinging nettle to nab the women's crown.
Which is just silly.
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