What are mukbang videos and why are health professionals concerned about this latest tend?
Sharing and consuming food is a communal activity for people, so that could partially explain the popularity of mukbang videos. But is it healthy?
A social media trend called ‘mukbang’, which originated in South Korea in the late 2000s, has been gaining widespread popularity. There are now millions of videos posted on platforms like YouTube and TikTok which feature people eating food, some of which have attracted incredibly large audiences.
The trend has caught the attention of health professionals as some of the content posted can be provocative, dubbed ‘food porn’ by some, like content creators eating copious amounts of food at one sitting, way more than any person would normally consume.
What are mukbang videos and why are health professionals concerned about this latest tend?
Mukbang is Korean for ‘eating broadcast’ (a portmanteau of meokneun “eating” and bangsong “broadcast”) and mainly consists of the video’s creator eating alone or with someone else while talking to the viewers. Some of the videos are less provocative, like sharing the experience of eating certain dishes, introducing viewers to foods they’ve never heard of or inspiring them to try a nutritious recipe.
However, others are more extreme, such as binge eating or eating exceptionally spicy foods that cause high levels of discomfort or even harm. The latter attract far more viewers which has raised concerns about those videos’ effect on viewers, not to mention the health problems that can result for the creators.
In July this year, a 24-year-old Chinese influencer, Pan Xiaoting, died while streaming a live mukbang broadcast. The young woman, whos was known as ‘the queen of mukbang,’ had previously been hospitalized for a stomach hemorrhage caused by overeating. The practice of creating mukbang content had also caused her to gain excessive weight, reaching more than 660 pounds at the time of her death.
Due to the relatively recent growth in popularity of mukbang, researchers have had little time to analyze the full effects of the social media trend on viewers who are primarily young adults according to one recent study. It authors say that “the motivations behind watching mukbang videos cannot be completely categorized into being positive or negative, since it depends on its usage by the viewers.”
“Mukbang offers digital commensality, entertainment, a para-social effect, escapism from real-life issues, and the opportunity for sexual use,” they explained. However, the flipside of the coin is that “excessive use of mukbang has been linked to a wide variety of health problems, including obesity and eating disorders.”
They argue that more investigation into the phenomenon of mukbang is urgently needed. The findings of which could help clinicians and health professionals to become more aware of mukbang as well as “facilitate the diagnosis of conditions that are linked to it.”