Go easy on food and on those mukbang videos too

Experts flag health risks of overeating after recent deaths of two overseas content creators

- Chin Hui Shan

As mukbang videos continue to rise in popularity across the world, experts in Singapore are advising viewers and those who make these clips to consume food in moderation.

This comes after two mukbang content creators abroad reportedly died in the past three months, and China and the Philippines are considering cracking down on videos in this genre.

Mukbang is a portmanteau of the Korean words for "eating" (meokneun) and "broadcast" (bangsong). It refers to live-streamed or pre-recorded videos of people eating while interacting with the audience.

Such videos originated in South Korea in the early 2010s and their popularity peaked during the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, but they remain popular today.

Compared with the maximum score of 100 on the Google Trends platform in March 2020, the search term “mukbang” reached 88 in July, and was at 65 as at Sept 7. The platform analyses the popularity of top search queries in the Google search engine.

Many international mukbangers have a huge following online and some have chalked up billions of views on their channels. For example, South Korean-American Zach Choi has 29.6 million subscribers on YouTube, with more than 10.2 billion views across 1,433 videos.

In Singapore, Mr Zermatt Neo has 519,000 YouTube subscribers and 583,000 Instagram followers, while Ms Sarah Ow has 1,470 YouTube subscribers. Mr Neo did not respond to an interview request, while Ms Ow declined to be interviewed.

Experts said mukbang can lead to a plethora of health issues as it is usually associated with overeating.

Parkway MediCentre dietitian Candy Goh said the recommended daily caloric intake for men and women in Singapore is about 2,200 calories and 1,800 calories, respectively. In contrast, mukbangers may consume up to 10,000 calories in one sitting, she said.