The holiday season has officially come to an end; whether you spent it surrounding yourself with family, reflecting on what you’re grateful for, or watching your male family members scream at the football games, chances are there was probably a lot of food. Don’t you wish you could indulge in that sort of meal every night? For some, that’s a reality.
If you aren’t familiar with the concept of mukbangs, they are videos of people eating some kind of food and addressing an audience. On the surface this may seem like a dream job, but they have undergone a strangely dark turn. Some mukbangs are satisfying to watch, but many of them now are oddly messy, and display somebody eating large, unhealthy quantities of food. Even so, these types of videos are still widely consumed and spread across the Internet, promoting these unhealthy behaviors and allowing them to continue. Mukbangs have strayed too far from their initial purpose, and what was initially a wholesome way to interact with an audience has become a cash grab that can be detrimental to the health of both the creator and the viewer.
The first mukbangs originated from South Korea in the 2010s; in fact, the word mukbang comes from the Korean words for “eat” and “broadcast.” These videos were made with the intention of providing a virtual experience in which lonely viewers could enjoy a meal with somebody else. These content creators provided a source of relief from daily stressors, and there was a bit of a greater focus on community rather than sensation. This, however, began to reverse once ASMR sensations gained popularity; mukbang videos prioritized mouth sounds, noisy food, and large portion size. Around the year 2015, mukbang content reached the United States when the YouTube channel REACT posted the video “YOUTUBERS REACT TO MUKBANG (Eating Shows).” This prompted American content creators to make their own versions of mukbangs with American cuisine.
When the COVID-19 epidemic left the world stuck in their homes, increased desires for sweets and junk food influenced what food people would eat in their mukbangs; now, places such as Chili’s, Raising Canes, and Crumbl are most notable for appearing in mukbang videos, and the growing demand for their food has led to a noticeable decrease in the quality of it. Additionally, mukbangers appeal to the guilty pleasures of their audience by adding as many extra ingredients to their food as possible — Chipotle bowls are loaded with every topping, to the point where they barely fit into containers. ASMR still guides the content of these videos, but now the sound and appearance of the food matter more than taste.
While mukbangs appear satisfying and entertaining, they have become flawed and wildly unethical. First and foremost, mukbangers waste a lot of money by purchasing large amounts of food, but because they make even more from their content it isn’t a problem for them. You may be thinking to yourself “Food isn’t a waste of money!” and you would be right, but here’s the thing: most of the time, these people are not actually eating the food. They cut the camera before they swallow what they are eating and spit it out, or they eat a few bites and throw out the rest.
So while it may be fun to watch, it is incredibly insensitive, especially considering the current state of the world; benefits from the SNAP program, which helps low-income households obtain food, are being withheld from an alarming number of Americans, all the while these creators can earn thousands of dollars from a portion of food that they waste. While a Wingstop mukbang might satisfy your current craving, it is important that you also think about how many of those chicken tenders on the screen are actually being eaten, and all the other places that the money spent on them could have gone.
On the topic of how much a mukbanger might eat in a video, it is also important to discuss how these videos may affect the way viewers perceive eating in general. Because most people in these videos only pretend to eat, they often have little physical change happen to them despite the fact that they consume copious amounts of junk food. On a darker note, there are a handful of mukbangers who do eat all of the food they buy, which results in unhealthy weight gain. These types of creators appeal to a very specific audience, one that enjoys watching people eat giant servings of food and gaining weight; in fact, the audience often directly supplies them the money for food via donation. Content creators are being taken advantage of through the screen by their viewers, to the point where the original intent of mukbangs has become obsolete.
On the other hand, there are also content creators that promote incredibly restrictive eating habits, which can be just as harmful. The acronym “WIEIAD” stands for What I Eat in a Day, and these kinds of videos are exactly what they sound like: people showing off the things that they eat. These videos can seem “real” or relatable because they are advertised as daily meals and not huge servings, but they can also be made as a way of displaying a faux sense of control over food and even make others feel bad about their own eating habits. Creators will post snack-sized foods and call them meals, pushing the narrative that eating very little is beneficial. In reality, this can create disordered eating amongst the audience of these videos, especially if they are younger. No matter how healthy or unhealthy the food is, eating too little can be just as damaging as eating too much.
The Internet does not often promote healthy eating, as can be seen by the abundance of mukbang content as well as the widespread community online that demonstrates and urges for eating with alarming restrictions. But sometimes people just want to sit back and watch somebody eat. So, who is there to watch that isn’t problematic?
Not all mukbangers and food reviewers have bad intentions. In fact, Karissa Dumbacher, known as karissaeats on TikTok, uses her mukbangs and food reviews for good. She eats food from all cultures and gives honest opinions on what she gets, and she even promotes restaurants that struggle with business in hopes that her audience will help them. In addition, she uses her content to bring awareness to current events and encourages her followers to take action and support important causes. Although her account is mainly her eating food, Karissa has also made videos showing her workout routine and the ways that she is able to stay active. She is incredibly sweet, and her videos are both informative and entertaining.
Janiedevours is another content creator whose mukbangs are satisfying and not wasteful. She makes sure her audience knows that even if she has a large serving of food on screen, she keeps what she does not eat in the video as leftovers. She also brings awareness to current events and issues while she eats and is respectful of all foods that she tries. Her reviews are detailed, and you can tell that she really does care about the food she shows her audience. Her videos as a whole are not overstimulating, and she speaks to her audience calmly and quietly.
There has been a rise in healthier mukbangs as well. People have become more aware of the harm that unhealthy mukbangs can cause, but they also understand that many people enjoy that sort of content regardless. In attempts to battle this, more and more people are posting mukbangs of healthy, reasonably-portioned meals, in attempts to encourage clean eating. They may not be giant chicken tenders or cookies, but they can be enjoyable nonetheless.
Unhealthy mukbangs will likely always exist, as long as they are being financially supported and bear a large audience. You don’t necessarily need to avoid them altogether, but you should be aware of the fact that they waste a large amount of food and money to produce these videos. Don’t believe everything you see online!