If you've ever overindulged at a Thanksgiving dinner, you understand, on some level, the truth that the human stomach can only stretch so much. Sure, the stomach's capacity can grow over years, which allows an ever increasing amount of calories to turn into fat. But if enormous quantities of food are introduced over days, weeks or months, you may just wind up with a dangerously distended belly. Such is the case with the Dinka Tribe of Sudan [source: World News Inc.].

Each year, the young men of the tribe engage in an approximately four-month eating contest. The competitors eat as much as possible and avoid movement so they don't burn calories. At the end of the period of eating they prop themselves up on their withered and weak legs and use canes to slowly make their way to a central area to be judged by the community for their girth and size. It's not unheard of for a contestant's stomach to rupture, resulting in death. Competitors say they don't fear such an outcome because it's an honor to die in such a way [source: World News Inc.].