Mukbang culture has ravaged the internet for over 20 years. Between a table full of Buldac noodles and Wingstop, or a bag full of seafood boil in the car, people are eating absurd amounts of food in one sitting, all for a 15-second TikTok or YouTube video. These videos glamorize binge eating behaviors and leave viewers with unrealistic standards regarding health, how much they should eat, how they should eat it, and what their body should look like.

Seeing enormous proportions of food for one meal not only tells adolescents that they should eat that much, but it also teaches them that each meal should be a 5-star product. 

These videos display beautiful plates of sushi, giant Chipotle burritos and Chick-fil-A chicken sandwiches with mac and cheese spilling out of the sides. 

My friends and I would watch these videos before lunch period, knowing we would be consuming lukewarm pizza and slightly cold milk, as opposed to these magnificent meals. 

These Mukbangs can make a normal type and amount of food seem almost boring. They often slurp and crunch the food in an exaggerated way and spill sauces down their arms, eating very messy to further romanticize the eating experience. This romanization of eating copious quantities of food can lead to the start and continuation of binge eating patterns. 

A study conducted by the University of California San Francisco showed that with every hour an adolescent used social media, their risk of binge eating increases by 62%.     

The National Library of Medicine conducted an experiment to test the relationship between mukbangs and eating disorders. They found that the greater the amount of mukbang viewing the participant did, the more eating disorder symptoms they had, and the more likely they were to not eat while watching mukbangs.  Watching these videos is being used as an unhealthy coping mechanism to create the disillusion that hunger is gone. Yes, the viewers’ bodies are still hungry, but their minds are being constantly fed at a rate that distracts them from the pain in their stomach. 

Mukbang watching can also cause body image distress amongst viewers because mukbangers eat large quantities of calorically dense food multiple times a week without visibly gaining weight.

Many mukbangers engage in extreme caloric restriction on non-filming days, excessive exercise, chewing and then spitting out the food and throwing up the food after eating it (also referred to as purging). This is not only damaging to their health and well being, but also to that of their viewers. 

Many teens think eating these amounts is healthy because they equate their slim figure to quality of health, although most mukbangers aren’t open about what’s going on behind the scenes and are often participating in disordered eating habits themselves. 

This can increase body image distress in those watching and further perpetuates the idea that eating massive portions of food is normal. 

While some are using these videos as a way to find companionship, like sharing a virtual meal, others are using this as a way to satiate hunger or as a demonstration of healthy eating habits. Both are not healthy ways to form a good relationship with food.