How Mukbang's Cause Eating Disorders
- TheEarlyBard BHSEC
- Oct 30, 2024
- 5 min read
By Raisa Rahim and Melody Murillo
What is mukbang?
Mukbang is a phenomenon that originated in South Korea. This word means “eating broadcast.” Mukbang can be a type of ASMR (Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response). Mukbang is on lots of social media platforms such as TikTok, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube. Some known mukbangers are Nikocado Avocado, Boki, Tzuyang, Sulgi, and many more. These mukbangers are often shown eating large portions of food. This content holds many controversies because of the large amounts of food they eat.
What is an eating disorder?
An eating disorder is an unhealthy way of eating due to depression, body dysmorphia, trauma, and stress. Mukbang's play a role in producing eating disorders because they encourage unhealthy eating practices, like cycles of binging and purging. If you or someone you love might be struggling with one of these harmful diseases, speak with a trusted adult immediately. Eating disorders can cause lasting harm to one’s body and even lead to death.
How do Mukbang's cause eating disorders?
Mukbang's are EATING SHOWS. When a person watches mukbang, they see food that looks appetizing and begin to crave more and get hungrier: a state that can lead to binge eating. At the same time, however, Mukbang can also create anorexia and bulimia. A person watching others eat might use the Mukbang content as a stand-in for eating; they think it's okay to skip meals because the Mukbang's makes them feel full or have a sense that they are eating when they aren’t.
Mukbang’s toxic community
Mukbang also has a very toxic community that can cause eating disorders. Instead of helping those affected by mukbang and its negative influence, the community shames mukbangers for being the way they are. Jelly Bean Sweets, a well-known TikToker who does Mukbang's, would eat large portions of food that caused her health to deteriorate in horrible ways. Instead of helping her, viewers fat-shamed her and made memes of her.
Feederism
What is ‘Feederism’ and how does it contribute to how Mukbang's cause eating disorders? ‘Feederism’ is a fetish for those who eat and then make themselves fat. Feeders fall into the mukbang category since they make Mukbang's for feeders. This can cause people to binge because of the fetish of feederism and make them encourage others to feederism as well. Feederism is a toxic thing and this fetish is very bad. Obviously, those who have fetishes are not horrible people, but feederism itself is a bad thing.
How Mukbang's Cause Eating Disorders: by Melody Murillo
Mukbang's is a phenomenon that originated in South Korea. The word “mukbang” translates to “eating broadcast” During this the person will eat quantities of food for viewers to tune in and watch. Some popular mukabangers are people like Nikocado Avocado, Boki, Tzuyang, and Sulgi. Videos like these can get millions of views. While it is a very popular content style, it is controversial because of how much food is eaten.
Eating disorders are abnormal eating patterns caused by a multitude of reasons. It can be caused by things like body dysmorphia, lack of control in other areas of life, and/or being a comfort strategy. There are many eating disorders such as anorexia, bulimia, pica, binge eating, and arfid. With Mukbang's they can play a big part. It can encourage binge eating because of the amount of food eaten. It can also help those who starve themselves to starve more by living vicariously through the people eating. These eating shows might suppress an appetite. On the flip side, it can cause stronger cravings leading to overeating.
Not only can eating disorders be indulged by this content. Because of the copious amount of food eaten it can lead to sexual satisfaction. This is called feederism. It is a kink that is about eating a lot and getting fat. Some like the idea of it getting so bad it can even cause death. One mukbanger named Pan Xiaoting stomach exploded while on a live. After eating 10 kg of food, she collapsed. In her stomach, there was a lot of undigested food leading to this. More is reported on www.thesun.co.uk. When your content relies on people watching you eat it can get drastic.
These eating broadcasts can dive into the disordered eating realm. Those with eating disorders might come to these videos to suppress their appetite. It might trigger a binge and during it they will eat too much food even after fullness. Other times it can be to fulfill a kink. It is easy to find the content you want. According to www.michigandaily.com 83.5 percent of these videos present overeating. Those who make this content might feel pressured to make this content. It becomes a way of living so they will continue to overeat on camera so they can make a livelihood in content creation.
The community once to provide accompaniment has gained drama. Abuse in the community has been found. One popular content creator named Tzuyang who went viral for how much she could eat came out to say how she was being abused. This type of content creation earns a lot of money, and this leads to her abusive ex-boyfriend forcing her to keep making content. In some videos, you can see things like bandages on her arms and this was because of physical abuse. Another controversial creator is a TikTok creator who will post her eating. Over time people have become more concerned about her weight gain. Before starting this content, she was skinny, and people were worried about this rapid weight gain. Another YouTuber that became popular was Nikocado Avocado who started as a vegan mukbanger but slowly deviated and became morbidly obese. His content was found to be so crazy people kept watching. The money aspect of this job pushes people to keep going in the unhealthy lifestyle because of the luxuries that are able to be afforded.
Mukbang originated as a way to accompany those who are lonely. You might come back from a long and hard workday and feel lonely. These streamers gave comfort and companionship. As time has gone on, we can see the effects it has had on people. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov states that “A total of 34% of participants reported watching mukbang daily or almost daily, with mean watch time per viewing session being 29.94 min (SD = 1.00). Eating disorder symptoms, especially binge eating and purging, were associated with greater problematic mukbang viewing and a tendency to not consume food while viewing mukbang. Participants with greater body dissatisfaction watched mukbang more frequently and were more likely to eat while watching mukbang” As stated before many of these videos show overeating. It can get so drastic it even causes a girl's death. All of this brings up a big concern over the community and how it should be addressed. Given the health complications, it should be addressed.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Sanskriti, Sanskriti, et al. “The Spectrum of Motivations behind Watching Mukbang Videos and Its Health Effects on Its Viewers: A Review.” Cureus, U.S. National Library of Medicine, 30 Aug. 2023. www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10541680/#:~:text=Some%20viewers %20watch%20mukban.
“The Sun.” The Sun, www.thesun.co.uk/. Accessed 29 Oct. 2024.
GONGSAM TABLE 이공삼. YouTube, www.youtube.com/@gongsamtable203, Accessed 29 Oct. 2024.
Nikocado Avocado. YouTube, www.youtube.com/@NikocadoAvocado. Accessed 29 Oct. 2024.
The Michigan Daily. www.michigandaily.com, Accessed 29 Oct. 2024.
PubMed. U.S. National Library of Medicine, https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/, Accessed 29 Oct. 2024.
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