Disclaimer: This story mentions the topic of eating disorders
While scrolling on TikTok, viewers have likely encountered videos of creators eating large meals in their cars or homes. It is a hard trend to miss, as the hashtags associated with these “mukbang” videos have drawn 8.9 million posts on the platform.
The video genre emerged in South Korea around 2009, though its popularity rose in the 2010s. The term itself combines the Korean words “mukja,” meaning “let’s eat,” and “bangsong,” meaning “broadcast.” The words showcase exactly what these videos are about: a broadcast of someone eating food. As the trend crossed over to Western audiences, this Americanized version of the genre shifted to showcase massive quantities of popular fast-food meals from brands like Chipotle, McDonald’s and Taco Bell.
Behind the viral numbers, university professors warn that the rise in popularity of this content can alter psychological and dietary habits of both the audiences watching, and the creators behind the videos themselves.
“As a culture, we have always been influenced by the media’s representations of eating and body image,” psychology professor Rachel Torello said. “This includes social media. It would make sense that we might see people experimenting with their eating based on representations of both ‘healthy’ and ‘unhealthy’ eating behaviors.”
According to Torello, exposure to these videos can lead young people to engage in extreme eating behaviors, such as binge eating or restricted eating. This risk is due to the fact that eating, unlike other behaviors, is an unavoidable part of daily life. Additionally, this content’s influence connects further because many use “social media as a means to escape or avoid one’s real life,” she said.
“Because our survival depends on eating, we may be at increased risk of having these images influence this particular behavior,” Torello said. “Unlike other behaviors, such as substance use, for example, this daily activity (eating) can’t be avoided. However, we might have some control over how much we see.”
Academic research mirrors these concerns. A 2025 study published in the journal, Eating and Weight Disorders, evaluated the digital habits of 329 university students and found a link between compulsive mukbang viewing and unhealthy food relationships. The data revealed that scores for mukbang addiction, uncontrolled eating and emotional eating were higher in those who exhibited disordered eating behaviors.While the researchers took note of an association between problematic viewing habits and altered eating attitudes, they said that it remains unclear whether the videos directly cause these habits or if they are a symptom of preexisting conditions.
While these videos can psychologically impact viewers, the content creators themselves endure physical tolls to maintain the illusion of these extreme eating broadcasts.
Christopher Carnright, a practitioner in residence in the department of rehabilitation sciences and wellness, said that while the stomach itself cannot expand in capacity, repeated binge-eating episodes can alter its smooth muscle elasticity.
“This could possibly influence stomach capacity to the effect that smaller, or ‘normal’ sized meals no longer have the same effect on satiety (feeling ‘full’) that the person was used to prior to binge eating habits,” said Carnright. “Long term, this could promote excessive calorie intake even when not partaking in ‘mukbang’ activities.”
In these videos, thin creators frequently consume thousands of calories in a single sitting on camera. However, Carnright said that viewers should not immediately believe what they see, noting that a creator’s appearance is often the result of camera deception or dangerous off-screen behaviors.
“Just like we used to say before the advent of the internet- ‘Don’t believe everything you see on TV,’” Carnright said. “There is a high likelihood that many mukbang social media influencers are using the same camera tricks that have been used in television for years.”
Carnright also said clever video editing, such as jump cuts to spit out food or time-lapses, are used to manipulate footage of the massive portions being consumed.
“Unfortunately, some influencers may actually be consuming the entire portion of food on camera, but then purging what they ate once the camera is off,” said Carnright. “One influencer was noted to need dental reconstruction after years of mukbang content.”
According to Carnright, damage to tooth enamel is a sign of chronic bulimia, an eating disorder where people eat large amounts of food in one sitting and then attempt to vomit or misuse laxatives to remove the food and calories from their bodies.
“In short, it is not realistic to expect to be able to emulate the chronic binge-eating behaviors of these influencers and still be able to maintain a ‘lean’ body weight unless you are using the same clever off-camera tricks or unhealthy purging behaviors,” Carnright said.
To combat the influx of the extreme food imagery mukbangs provide, Torello suggests viewers should manage their digital environments.
“One’s individual algorithm will influence exactly how much of the content is on any given topic,” Torello said. “For college students who have concerns that they are viewing too much food/eating-related content, it may be advisable to proactively curate one’s own algorithm to limit exposure to potentially harmful or extreme content.”