Boki, a young Korean YouTuber, sits in front of a huge plate of noodles topped with fried eggs and a variety of dumplings and kimchi (fermented vegetables).
It’s the kind of feast that could feed a small family, but this meal is not meant to be shared.
In a video posted on her extraordinary channel ‘Eat With Boki’, the slim young woman pours herself a giant glass of cola, takes a big gulp and then starts picking up noodles with her chopsticks and piling them into her mouth. All of them.
For ten uninterrupted minutes, Boki drinks mouthful after mouthful, slurping loudly but somehow barely smearing her red lip gloss.
Only when he finishes eating does he look into the camera and announce to his ten million subscribers: “I finished it all! I ate well. Bye.”
Welcome to the world of mukbang, a global culinary phenomenon that has millions of regular viewers hooked, especially women.
Boki, a young Korean YouTuber, devouring a huge amount of food, also known as a mukbang challenge for live audiences
Combining the Korean words for “eat” (meokneun) and “broadcast” (bangsong), mukbang shows its stars consuming large amounts of food on camera before posting clips for their followers.
And they do it because it’s lucrative, as there are thousands of “mukbangers” on YouTube and TikTok now competing to outperform their rivals and earn advertising revenue. Some are said to be millionaires.
But there is a dark side to this obsession. Last month, Chinese mukbanger Pan Xiaoting died while gorging himself on 10kg of food. The 24-year-old, who suffered from morbid obesity, died from a suspected stomach “tear”.
Xiaoting collapsed, live on camera, during a ten-hour binge of chocolate cake, chicken strips and seafood.
China has already banned such videos, but even the authoritarian Communist Party has been unable to stop Xiaoting and others from livestreaming meals (rather than posting the clips afterward).
But mukbang poses a threat to public health beyond China and Asia, spreading to the United States and even Britain, and now several countries are cracking down on the phenomenon.
Dr Andrew Harris, a professor of psychology at the University of Nottingham, warned: “Mukbang videos focus on consumption and indulgence, potentially reinforcing a cycle of overeating or unhealthy food relationships.”
Boki gulps down a large pint of Coca-Cola as he prepares another giant plate of food for his fans.
For ten uninterrupted minutes, Boki drinks mouthful after mouthful, slurping loudly but somehow barely smearing her red lip gloss.
Chinese mukbanger Pan Xiaoting (pictured eating a Burger King) shockingly died while gorging himself on 22lbs (10kg) of food live on camera
Pan Xiaoting (pictured eating fast food) died after a ten-hour binge of chocolate cake, chicken strips and seafood in front of a live online audience.
The trend first emerged in South Korea, where communal dining has a cultural significance. With the rise in the number of young Koreans living alone (due in part to COVID and plummeting marriage and birth rates), there was a demand for “virtual” dining companions.
In addition, more than a quarter of South Koreans aged between 20 and 30 have temporary jobs and making mukbang videos has become a way to earn extra income.
This was the case for Jeongae Kim, who worked two jobs to support her mother.
Winning over viewers is not just about knowing how to eat, but what to eat. Jeongae’s 2.9 million subscribers like to watch her feast on seafood or spicy food, she says.
Before her YouTube fame, she lived in a tiny apartment and would record videos at 3 a.m. to make sure there was no background noise. Thanks to mukbang, she now lives in a spacious apartment.
How much do these professional mukbangers earn? YouTubers with more than a million subscribers can expect to earn around £62,000 a year, while top creators (those with more than ten million subscribers) can earn up to £310,000 a month. It’s no surprise that the appetite for mukbang has grown beyond Asia.
Trisha Paytas is a Los Angeles-based YouTuber who films herself devouring everything from scrambled eggs to buckets of fried chicken for five million subscribers. “I did a Pizza Hut video where I eat like five different pizzas,” Paytas told ABC News. “And I think I made like $50,000.”
Although she may be making a lot of money, she has had to pay a price. The mother of two has battled depression and an eating disorder that has pushed her weight up to over 15 stone. Online bullying exacerbated her insecurities.
“The comments I hate the most are ‘Miss Piggy’, ‘You’re fat’ and ‘Keep shoving food in your mouth’,” she said. “As these comments continued to increase, so did my weight.”
Nikocado Avocado, or Nicholas Perry in real life, was vegan when he lived in Colombia with his husband Orlin Home
But the 32-year-old has amassed a net worth of £3million by gorging himself on camera in front of millions of people (pictured on a scooter with handfuls of Taki’s).
After eating 10,000 calories a day (pictured eating noodles and Takis), Perry suffers from obesity and respiratory problems.
Her struggle with her size prompted her to undergo liposuction in 2017, but she gained weight back, especially since eating is, in fact, her job.
Then there’s Nikocado Avocado, 32, or Nicholas Perry in real life, who has a net worth of around £3m. The American now consumes more than 10,000 calories in one sitting almost every month live on camera.
Perry went from weighing 5.5kg in 2016 to around 11.5kg. He suffers from obesity and respiratory problems, and in his videos he often appears wearing a mask for his sleep apnea.
Fans had reportedly warned Pan Xiaoting about the harm she was doing to her body, but her portions became larger as her popularity grew.
Which brings us to another element of mukbang’s appeal: People can “eat” vicariously. They indulge in the pleasures of others’ food without any negative consequences, such as weight gain.
Researchers monitoring the brain wave activity of mukbang spectators found that the nucleus accumbens (the subcortical brain structure known primarily for its roles in pleasure and addiction) was more responsive to the consumption of high-calorie foods by others.
It’s not uncommon to see comments like, “Is anyone else watching this to stop themselves from eating?” on online mukbang videos.
A video blogger named Lydie, who became Britain’s first mukbang star in 2016, believed her YouTube channel helped those struggling with eating disorders.
More than 100,000 people watched the 25-year-old translator from Yorkshire devour McDonald’s burgers, fries and chicken nuggets. “I know that when I watch mukbang, I don’t feel like eating anymore,” she said in an interview.
But health officials around the world are now warning that the growing interest in mukbang poses a real danger to influencers.
Trisha Paytas (pictured in video) is another prolific American mukbanger who confessed to making around $50,000 by buying five pizzas at a mukbang.
Although the mother of two is making a lot of money, mukbanging, as she previously confessed, is a practice that causes her to suffer from an eating disorder.
Her struggle with her size prompted her to undergo liposuction in 2017.
In 2018, as adult obesity approached 40 percent, the South Korean government launched an anti-obesity plan citing “the harm caused by media that encourages gluttony, such as mukbang,” and saying there was not enough monitoring around such online content.
Meanwhile, China declared a crackdown and shut down 13,000 mukbang accounts in 2020. At the time, there were around 395,000 videos that received nearly 30 million views.
And last month, it was reported that the Philippine government is considering banning content after one creator, Dongz Apatan, suffered a fatal stroke after gorging himself on fried chicken.
But in a world increasingly connected virtually but disconnected from reality, the appetite for mukbang videos (and the wealth they can generate for their creators) is unlikely to wane anytime soon.