2008 Woodie Awards
Milking it for what it's worth
Nathan Ley - The Daily Iowan
Issue date: 2/28/07 Section: Arts
- Page 1 of 1
Mitch Nass sits next to me in the Burge cafeteria. On his tray is a normal assortment of pasta and whatever Burge passes off as protein for the day. Also on his tray are five glasses of white skim milk. While eating his meal, he pauses, takes a deep breath, and steadily gulps down one of the glasses. He does this accordingly with each remaining glass throughout the remainder of our lunch. "You need to be able to consume a good amount of milk in one breath," he says to me, and although milk in general makes me want to throw up, I can see the commitment in his eyes.
Mitch is training. It isn't for a race, or for a big game, but it is certainly for a competition, one that lives in pop-culture folklore. Along with around 12 other lactose-loving individuals, Mitch is going to drink a gallon of milk in an hour and attempt not throw up. Officially, the competition is being called the "Gallon O' Milk Challenge," and it is tentatively scheduled for the first week in May, right before finals. "I'm excited and nervous," Mitch tells me in between another glass of milk, "A lot of people are skeptical, but I really think with my continued training, I can do it."
Chugging milk and, specifically, consuming an entire gallon of milk in an hour has always been a hotly debated urban legend. Almost anyone you talk to has a friend or knows a guy who knows a guy who did it. Usually, when these people are confronted, though, they avoid answering whether they actually did it or not. So the question remains, is it possible?
Bottom line, I don't know. Of course, there are numerous websites documenting similar competitions and facts about the myth. From what I can gather (from only the most prestigious websites), most people throw up the milk because the human stomach is too small to hold an entire gallon, and they aren't accustomed to such relentless lacose ingestion that a gallon of milk requires. It seems, however, that people have been successful in drinking the gallon of milk, but they haven't been able to keep it down for an hour afterwards. Consult loudermilk.org's "Milk Bet" for further evidence - a willing chugger gulps the eight-pound gallon, starts shivering as his body temperature drops, and manages to hold it down for an hour and five minutes. He wins the bet, but barely.
So can Mitch do it? He certainly has faith in himself. "I'm drinking four to five glasses of milk per meal. There are times when I don't eat food and just drink milk. I'm committed, and I know the consequences. I know that I could throw up, and I know that I'll gain weight due to my training. I've already gained a few pounds, and I expect to gain about 10 pounds overall."
Though his Facebook group about the event is private, he invites personal e-mails from potential challengers. His loftiest ambition is to gain enough interest to turn the dare into a charity benefit - and if that doesn't happen, the competition already seems like an advocacy group for lactose intolerance.
The milk challenge will happen May 3 at Mike Joyce's apartment on Clinton. Mitch will be training until that time, and maybe when he finishes successfully, I'll just throw up for him.
E-mail DI reporter Nathan Ley at:
nathan-ley@uiowa.edu
Mitch is training. It isn't for a race, or for a big game, but it is certainly for a competition, one that lives in pop-culture folklore. Along with around 12 other lactose-loving individuals, Mitch is going to drink a gallon of milk in an hour and attempt not throw up. Officially, the competition is being called the "Gallon O' Milk Challenge," and it is tentatively scheduled for the first week in May, right before finals. "I'm excited and nervous," Mitch tells me in between another glass of milk, "A lot of people are skeptical, but I really think with my continued training, I can do it."
Chugging milk and, specifically, consuming an entire gallon of milk in an hour has always been a hotly debated urban legend. Almost anyone you talk to has a friend or knows a guy who knows a guy who did it. Usually, when these people are confronted, though, they avoid answering whether they actually did it or not. So the question remains, is it possible?
Bottom line, I don't know. Of course, there are numerous websites documenting similar competitions and facts about the myth. From what I can gather (from only the most prestigious websites), most people throw up the milk because the human stomach is too small to hold an entire gallon, and they aren't accustomed to such relentless lacose ingestion that a gallon of milk requires. It seems, however, that people have been successful in drinking the gallon of milk, but they haven't been able to keep it down for an hour afterwards. Consult loudermilk.org's "Milk Bet" for further evidence - a willing chugger gulps the eight-pound gallon, starts shivering as his body temperature drops, and manages to hold it down for an hour and five minutes. He wins the bet, but barely.
So can Mitch do it? He certainly has faith in himself. "I'm drinking four to five glasses of milk per meal. There are times when I don't eat food and just drink milk. I'm committed, and I know the consequences. I know that I could throw up, and I know that I'll gain weight due to my training. I've already gained a few pounds, and I expect to gain about 10 pounds overall."
Though his Facebook group about the event is private, he invites personal e-mails from potential challengers. His loftiest ambition is to gain enough interest to turn the dare into a charity benefit - and if that doesn't happen, the competition already seems like an advocacy group for lactose intolerance.
The milk challenge will happen May 3 at Mike Joyce's apartment on Clinton. Mitch will be training until that time, and maybe when he finishes successfully, I'll just throw up for him.
E-mail DI reporter Nathan Ley at:
nathan-ley@uiowa.edu
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