Eric Booker

By age 20, Booker began training his chug skills and training to compete in food championships. Booker lives on Long Island, he’s 6 ft 5+1⁄4 in (1.96 m) tall and weighs 400 lb (180 kg).^[1]

Booker trains for competitions by trying to stretch his stomach and develop jaw strength. He eats large amounts of fruit and vegetables and drinks gallons of water in a sitting position in order to stretch his stomach and chews over 20 pieces of gum at a time to build jaw strength.^[7] He maintains that competitive eating is a healthy sport and has lost weight since he began competing.^[8] As of 2022, he is ranked 27th by the IFOCE.^[9] Booker is also known for his YouTube channel, BadlandsChugs, in which he primarily performs soda chugging challenges, including Mountain Dew, Sprite, Gatorade, and milk.^[10] In 2019, over the span of a year, his YouTube channel amassed over 3 million subscribers.

At the 2021 Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest, Booker won a lemonade drinking contest by consuming one gallon of lemonade in under 40 seconds.^[11] He captured his second lemonade chugging contest title in 2022,^[12] and repeated in 2023, setting a record of 23.08 seconds.^[13] In 2024, he continued his lemonade-chugging winning streak, breaking his 2023 record with a time of 21 seconds.^[14]

For the 2025 contest, Booker drank a gallon and a half of lemonade.^[15]

Some of Booker's accomplishments include:

• Burritos: 15 BurritoVille burritos/ 8 minutes^[16]
• Candy bars: Two Pounds Chocolate Candy Bars / 6 minutes^[16]
• Cannoli: 16.5 cannoli in six minutes / 2004^[17]
• Corned Beef Hash: 4 pounds of hash / 1 minute 58 seconds^[16]
• Cheesecake (Mini): 50 Mini-Cheesecakes / 6 minutes^[17]
• Doughnuts: 49 glazed doughnuts / 8 minutes^[16]
• Hamentaschen: 50 Hamentaschen / 6 minutes^[16]
• Matzo Ball (Ben's Deli): 21 baseball-sized (half-pound) matzo balls / 5 minutes, 25 seconds / 2003^[16][18]
• Matzo Balls (Ruthie & Gussie's): 30 matzo balls / 5 minutes, 25 seconds^[19]
• Raw Onions: 8.5 ounces Maui Onions (three onions)/ Whalers Village / 1 minute/ August 8, 2004^[16]
• Peas: 9.5 one-pound bowls / 12 minutes ^[16]
• Pumpkin pies: 4+3⁄8 Entenmann's Pumpkin Pies / 12 Minutes/ November 22, 2004^[16]
• Lemonade: Nathan's Famous chug contest / 1 gallon lemonade / 21 seconds / July 4, 2024^[20]
• In May 2021, he set the Guinness World Record for the fastest time to drink two litres of soda (18.45 seconds).^[21]
• In June 2022, he set two more Guinness World Records, drinking 1 liter of soda in 6.8 seconds and 1 liter of tomato sauce in 1 minute and 18 seconds.^[4]

Since 2004, Booker has performed and recorded competitive eating themed hip-hop as Badlands Booker, and he frequently performs selections from his albums at competitions.^[22][1] Besides his own nine albums, Booker has also made guest appearances on albums by Jendor and Loser's Lounge.^[23] Much of the music used on his YouTube channel is created by himself and his son Brandon Booker (OKHIPHOP).

• List of competitive eaters