What is a Mukbang:
The term Mukbang is a Korean term for 'eating show', originating from South Korea has in recent years become a popular trend/challenge to eat copious amounts of food while filming yourself. In 2020 during the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, the 1-gallon pickle jar challenge became prevalent on the internet mukbang community.
The 1-gallon Pickle challenge:
The average jar of pickles contains 210mg of sodium per serving. In a 1-gallon jar of pickles, there are approximately 70 servings, equating to 14,700 mg of sodium. To maintain the homeostasis in the human water-salt balance we only need 500mg of sodium, Americans on average ingest 3400mg of sodium. In October of 2021, a popular YouTuber posted a video reenacting a case study that he had encountered the previous year concerning the challenge causing nearly fatal hypernatremia.
Overview: A mukbang fanatic watched the pickle challage done previously expressing the health benefits of pickles, and how there was only health benefits concerning the challange. Excited the woman went to the grocery store bought her gallon jar of pickles and began to set up her camera. In the course of an hour the woman injested all of the pickles withen the jar, and finished the video off by drinking the juice. My previous calculations dont concider the sodium amount in the brine, so it is safe to estimate that this particular indevidual consummed well over 1500mg of sodium. The patient in question becan to experience extreme diarrhea, her muscles began to cramp and her head started hurting. Shortly after being delivered to the hospital began so experience sesures. The salt intake was too much an effectively caused her kideys to fail as water was leeched from her body. Thankfully, doctors were able to reestablish salt water balance via intervenous fluids.
Allie, thanks for writing about this. Mukbang started out as a people eating food on camera to now become money making business for many YouTuber. Nicholas Perry, better known by his online alias Nikocado Avocado became common name on YouTube community in 2016 when he appeared on YouTube and filmed himself eating spaghetti with his parrot pet on his shoulder. A playful, musically inclined and fun YouTuber who entertained everyone for many years started gaining unusual amount of weight and now weighs over 300 pounds and have seen a lot host of personality changes.
ReplyDeleteHis videos were fun and easy to watch, but now they have become insufferable. With over 3 million subscribers on his channel currently, he continues to post daily videos and gaining popularity even more. People continue to watch his videos and he has been financially benefiting with his YouTube Advertisement. In a podcast with Trisha Paytas, he confessed to being depressed since he was 7 and this online attention has provided him a escape from reality.
watching his video, it is undeniable that he suffers from negative media attention, but he continues to make video of him eating and being abusive towards others. It makes me question, how has his YouTube popularity impacted his mental health? Why do people continue to watch his channel and support his channel? What is the price of being famous? Who should be held responsible if others follow his videos and suffer health problems?
YouTube itself was a great place for educational videos and for DIY fixing household appliances when it first became public but now consumed by advertisements and revenue and it is moving towards even more dangerous space for kids. As you mentioned, there are many challenges that young kids are following and have proved dangerous. Washington post reports there were over 7000 cases of young children eating tide pods and 6 children died due to tide pods in mid 2015. Tide pod company had to add warning label in their product in addition to adding chemicals that taste bitter so kids would not consume tide pods. I personally believe YouTube needs stronger regulation on videos posted, but if they are benefitting from negative press would they ever stop videos that gains big profit margins?
This goes against all the biomedical ethics but the most important one is non-maleficence and beneficence. Thanks again for bringing attention to this topic!
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2018/01/16/there-were-over-10000-poison-control-calls-for-people-eating-laundry-pods-last-year/
Link to the podcast: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZyAn9uIO-o
Sabitra, I have heard about that man! it is absolutely sad to see how much food he gorges himself on while there is so many that go hungry.
ReplyDeleteNot to mention as we have been learning in biochemistry, he now puts his health at risk. As we have been discussing in class someone who is obese is at risk for many complications including arthritis, diabetes, atherosclerosis, heart attacks, and stokes.
I am very uncomfortable by mukbangs personally because it does seem they always go to the extreme. Maybe growing up poor my relationship with food is different now than some other individuals.
I still think there should be a conversation about overeating with doctors and Pts but that may only be reserved for those with eating disorders, or suspected eating disorders. The ethics however, keep on piling up as the conversation goes on.
Hi Allie, great post! Personally, I enjoy watching mukbangs, however it makes me uncomfortable when people go to the extremes like Nicholas Perry also known as Nikocado Avocado as mentioned above. I typically watch mukbangs when I’m eating alone and I found a couple of articles that are quite interesting relating to that. Kircaburun et al. (2021) discusses how isolated eating is growing more common around places in the world like South Korea. Mukbangs provide a sense of social unity when people are eating alone, therefore mukbang viewers feel as if they are dining with someone. Choi et al. (2021) conducted a study where they analyzed 590 elderly women aged 65 and older in a cross-sectional study. The elderly women were assigned to an eating-alone group or an eating-with-others group. The results revealed the women who ate alone had poorer nutritional intake than the women who ate with others. Additionally, there was a strong association between the women who ate alone and the prevalence of angina. This opened my eyes about how my health may turn out if I continue to frequently watch mukbangs on YouTube while eating alone.
ReplyDeleteReferences
Choi, H. G., Kim, H. J., & Kang, S. J. (2021). Association between eating alone and cardiovascular diseases in elderly women: a cross-sectional study of KNHANES 2016 data. Menopause (New York, N.Y.), 10.1097/GME.0000000000001887. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1097/GME.0000000000001887
Kircaburun, K., Harris, A., Calado, F., Griffiths M. D. (2021). The Psychology of Mukbang Watching: A Scoping Review of the Academic and Non-academic Literature. Int J Ment Health Addiction 19, 1190–1213. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11469-019-00211-0