♪ It's a new dawn ♪ ♪ It's a new day ♪ ♪ It's a new life for me ♪ (mouth crunching) - As a society, we can't
get enough food content. For proof, look no further than the fact that watching people eat has become this massive online phenomenon. The mukbang trend. Bizarre as it may seem or genuinely be sometimes, eating with our eyes is nothing new. It turns out that our
desire to watch mukbangs and food content in
general may actually be a biological one, dating all
the way back to our ancestors. But unfortunately, even though a feast for the eyes is calorie free, it's certainly not
without its consequences. Today we're discussing mukbangs
and food content in general. And why we seem to like both
of these things so much. If you've ever watched a mukbang before or you're into mukbangs, you'll notice that there are
two very common comments. Number one, some variation of, "Wow, these videos are so satisfying. I feel almost full from watching them." And number two, some variation of, "Wow, these videos make me extremely hungry. I'm starving now." We're gonna try and answer
what exactly happens when you're watching mukbangs to produce these two totally opposite reactions. The video is a long one, obviously, and it's pretty much split up into two. In the first half we're gonna
be talking about mukbangs and how they became to be
everything that they are today. As well as the appeal of mukbang content and who exactly is watching it and why. And in the second half,
we're gonna be talking all about food and its
relationship to our evolution. I'm trying not to say the
word too much because you know monetization and all of
that, but I'll be saying food content instead, but
you'll know what I mean. I need to save it for when
it's like really necessary to get my point across. Before we get started, I feel like I need to say a few things. A. I'm probably pronouncing mukbang wrong. I'm sorry. I looked it up. But even those text to speech things couldn't really agree
on how to pronounce it. - [Computer Voice] Mukbang. - [Computer Voice] Mukbang. - So I apologize in advance
if I'm butchering it. B. I've tried to keep the eating sounds to as little as necessary because I know some people
really, really hate them. They are there once in awhile
for dramatic effect, but yeah, I've tried to reduce them
and be sensitive to that. And C, I feel like it
would be a little messed up if I didn't at least warn you that this content can make you hungry or at least produce some sort
of physiological response. Food is a very powerful and
underestimated visual stimuli which is really the
point of the whole video. So yeah, let's get into it. As we'll learn in this video there's something innately pleasurable about just looking at food. (cake crumbles) (knife slices) Which is perhaps why
making food look so good your mouth waters on site
has become its own art, science and industry. Food presentation is
everything these days. And as a result, our food
has never looked quite so picture perfect. Major food brands invest
hundreds of thousands of dollars on crazy technology and
Michael Bay-esque commercials. Food stylists primp,
plump and even paint food to ensure it looks impossibly delicious. Robots are used to take epic
action shots and ultimately present the food in the
best possible light. But although all of these
things certainly help, they are not necessary
to create the phenomenon we know today as food porn. Actually, most of the images
currently hashtaged #foodporn were done by amateurs. Your friends are sharing it. Local restaurants are doing it. And bloggers and content
creators have created massive careers out of it. At one time, grainy commercials,
cookbooks and your own less than perfect meals were the extent of the food you see day to day. - And our spaghetti dinner
is ready for you to eat. And it only took about 14 or
15 minutes in total to prepare. (television crackling) - Then came cooking shows with the birth of the Food Network in 1993. The Food Network wasn't
very popular to start. - [Announcer] The TV Food
Network is serving up something for everyone. And while our viewers come
from all sorts of backgrounds they all have one thing in common. They love to eat. - [Kiana] But they started to
take off when they switched their focus from teaching cooking skills to really featuring the enjoyment of food. As shown by the rise in popularity of the charismatic celebrity
chefs and personalities who quickly became their
own household names. - Bam! There you have
it like that, all right? - Bam, bam, bam! - That's right. Bam, just like that. Bam bam bam bam bam bam! (crowd cheering) Bam! You could just give
it one bam like that. Just a little bam bam! Bam bam! (indistinct) - The food network was
really the first time anyone could sit down and watch hours upon hours of food themed video if they wanted to. And they very may well have played a role in this millennial foodie culture we find ourselves in the middle of now. Today the Food Network
continues to turn out hits, but even the most popular
shows on this channel barely make up a fraction
of the food content we're exposed to each and every day. With phone camera's
becoming almost professional and all of us kind of
becoming more invested in sharing the details
of our day to day lives, most of today's food
content skips right over the whole cooking bit and
focuses right in on the food. Even to the point that
social media is said to be changing our food preferences. Chefs oblige Instagrammers
by designing beautiful food made to be photographed. Which often means ridiculous
combinations of foods, colors and lots and lots of calories that people will line up down the block to both see and eat. And the Instagrammers then do their part by taking the best possible picture. Sometimes including lighting, softboxes, and of course filters. All resulting in ridiculously
delicious food images being blasted at us almost 24/7. To the point that merely looking at food has become a legitimate hobby
for some people these days. (computer mouse clicking) Internet brands like Tasty
wrack in billions of views by leveraging our love for food with attention span friendly
clips, nostalgic recipes and original videography. (computer mouse clicking) And food content of all
kinds is consistently among the top viewed
categories on YouTube. Whether you're curious about
what goes on behind the scenes like how cheese is made, (computer mouse clicking) or you'd like to see
different street foods from around the world with Mark Weins. - Wow. (computer mouse clicking) - Maybe you want to learn
to cook a crabby Patty or other pop culture classics with Babish. (computer mouse clicking) Or this very wholesome
young man review different types of foods. (computer mouse clicking) Your favorite stars trying
ridiculously hot wings. (Gordon coughing) - Or you know, you can just
straight up watch people eat. Which of course leads us to the trend we know today as mukbang. Like most things, though,
how we know mukbang now is a little bit different
than how it began. It's estimated that the
mukbang trend began sometime around 2009 in South Korea. Mukbangers, called
Broadcast Jockeys in Korea, would have nightly scheduled eating shows, where they'd often cook and
enthusiastically eat on camera via livestream. Fans would tune in for
an interactive experience where they could chat with each other and the host over a meal. An often rather large meal. These live streams were free to watch, but top mukbang channels were
making thousands of dollars in tips each evening. And it didn't take long
for mukbangs to become such a craze in Korea
that broadcast jockeys were becoming minor celebrities. Major TV stations even
wanted in on the action and began making their
own version of mukbangs. And by 2015, this trend slowly
began to grab the attention of an American audience. Beginning with an upload
on April 2nd, 2015, by The Fine Brothers, titled YouTubers React To Mukbang Eating Shows. - We're just watching somebody eat? This is literally what this is? - Wait. Is he just eating? Is this like a pay-per-view
watching somebody eat? (speaking foreign language) - Looks like a lot of food for her. (woman munching) - I don't really get it. Actually, no, not really
get it. I don't get it. - I honestly, I get it. - I don't find it entertaining. - I don't know. What's the point? - Clearly back then America had no idea how big this trend was about to become. Except for maybe one American,
who just a few weeks later uploaded what would be the
first ever American mukbang. - I saw this thing called mukbang and they would just eat on camera. I thought it was stupid until I realized I was eating a whole thing of cupcakes by myself and that was pathetic. But I have nobody to eat
my cupcakes with, so, I'm eating them with you all. This is so fun. You guys are professional
eaters with me now. - After that, mukbangs
became a regular feature in Trisha Paytas' content. And channels fully dedicated to mukbangs began popping up all across YouTube. Today, watching people eat is
ridiculously popular content in Korea, America and many other
countries around the world. Top creators can regularly
bring in tens of millions of views per video. Mukbanger Bloveslife claimed
she became a millionaire and just 15 months of making this content. And mukbang was even named one of the 2020 words of the year. Clearly for whatever
reason people love to watch other people eat. But for every one person
who's a mukbang fan, there are lots who are
perplexed by its popularity. - I just don't fucking
understand mukbang at all. - There's something about the content that I just don't get it, okay? I don't get it. I don't get it at all. - It's just nuts. And every single bite you can hear, you could feel, you can
smell, you can taste. You can see them eat
sauce all over their face. It's fucking awful. - I'm sorry but, watching this guy eat a Hersey chocolate with chopsticks, it's not doin' it for me. I'm not getting those ASMR tingles. - Why do I want to watch
someone do it for me? It's not like I'm getting
the nutrients vicariously through watching this
person stuff their face. - I can't stand personally. I can't stand the sound
of slurping, smacking, or whatever it is. Just eating on camera in general is something that I try to avoid. Because it's so goddam disgusting. - [Kiana] Unpopular opinion. Mukbang channels on YouTube
are disgusting and sad. Mukbang needs to stop.
Alternate title: I hate Mukbang. I think mukbang is a
gross and depressing view into our society. (woman farting) One person eating a banquet
for eight in one sitting isn't funny or relatable. It's disgusting and incredibly dangerous. Obviously mukbangs are very controversial. Some people can't stand the
amplified chewing sounds. For others, it's the
way the food is eaten. The mess. Still more people think it's the gluttony of the whole thing that just
turns them off completely and disturbs them. I watched a lot of
mukbangs to make this video and to make a lot of my
other videos as well. And sometimes I get it. Like, it looks good. I understand the appeal. And other times I'm
just sitting there like just completely disturbed
and like, what are we doing? Now, some people say that all of this is due to the
Americanization of the trend. It corrupted something
that was pure and good and turned it into something awful. But I also just think
it's kind of the nature of creators competing for
views, competing for your click on their thumbnail and the
function of time, really, on a trend where people
are literally eating food. But whatever it is, mukbangs
have clearly evolved well beyond people just sitting down and sharing their meal with
others through a camera. They've become this whole
spectacle, of people kind of like pushing boundaries further
and further and further. And a lot of what makes this
content so controversial and hateable also contributes a lot to its kind of viral appeal. So back to the question. Why do people watch mukbangs? Well, first off, part of the
mass appeal of this phenomenon is that these videos are over the top. They're way over the top. (man laughing) Some of them feel like
Mr. Beast produced them and yet they're just people
sitting down and eating food. I don't know if it's
because eating as employment is a dream job with a
very low barrier to entry and therefore competition is fierce, but every aspect of these videos has been taken to the absolute extreme. Mukbangs are reliably one of the most over the top extreme genres on YouTube. (electronic dance music) (man screaming) (man laughing) Starting with the enormous portions. In the world of mukbang bigger doesn't seem to be
only better but a requirement. It's been said that if you're
eating a normal portion of food in a mukbang, it's not a mukbang, it's just eating food on camera. Huge quantities of foods
are very common in both American and Korean mukbangs on YouTube. And seem to be a prerequisite
for success in the genre. with creators regularly
sitting down to four, five 6,000 calorie feasts. Healthy and normal portion mukbangs on the other hand seem to be a real flop. Based on their comparative views, no one seems to really be
interested in watching them. Mukbangs are not just eating on camera. They're binge eating on camera. The amount of food
being consumed is crazy. And some people are doing
this every single day. And I don't even necessarily 100% blame the mukbanger either. People are obviously more
interested in watching someone eat a ridiculous amount
of food than they are in seeing someone eat a
normal sensibly-sized dinner. Just not as interesting. People want a show and that's not it. And quantity is really
the tip of the iceberg of the shall we say,
creativity of the mukbangers trying to grab and hold your attention. Novel and exotic foods. Things that people have never seen before are very, very popular with viewers. And because of this, creators, particularly those in the
ASMR genre of mukbang, are always trying to find new
and interesting looking foods to eat on camera. (mouth crunching) Many of these guys even invent
their own brightly colored and interesting foods
out of I'm not sure what. Some of the stuff they come up with is honestly really impressive and takes some serious skill. Even if it does give off
like a TLC kind of vibe. (dramatic music) (Latin music) (moisturizer pumping) (mouth crunching) (tape sliding) (woman munching) My Strange Addiction-esque or not, the best ASMRtists are creating videos that might fit into the category of those oddly satisfying videos. Where something about the unique
textures and sounds really holds your attention and
releases feelings of curiosity and particularly relaxation. People are always commenting, "Wow, this video is so chill. You seem like such a chill person." And meanwhile, the person's
just silently eating their food. These people are here to be relaxed. This seems to be one of
the most common reasons people like watching mukbangs. They find them relaxing. Personally, I don't know
if relaxed is the emotion I feel while looking at things like this. (man munching) - Mm. - But unfortunately
though, for every ASMRtist who's trying to relax you, some are probably going for
the exact opposite effect. (thunder rumbling) Like many people, my first introduction to this entire genre was
through Nikocado Avocado. And up until I created this video, I basically thought this
is what mukbang was. - Popeye's chicken sandwich. Popeye's chicken sandwich. Popeye's chicken sandwich. - At over 2 million subscribers, he's one of the biggest American creators and his entire business
model revolves around being over the top and dramatic on camera to get you to watch his content. But this behavior is by no
means limited to Nikocado. It's actually kind of a running
theme in mukbang content. I mean, just look at the
sheer number of mukbangs have gone too far videos. Shock value and extreme behavior along with the emotion of disgust, grab and hold our attention
just as well as the more pleasurable emotions do. The most harmless example of this are the extreme spice challenges creators regularly participate in. Every mukbang channel has done at least a few of these. Creators are also often
willing to eat bizarre and inedible looking foods
that they clearly do not enjoy in the pursuit of views. But hey, if people want to
volunteer to participate in their own version of Fear
Factor for our entertainment, then to each his own. But, of course, this isn't where it ends. Because some mukbangers
are truly willing to do just about anything to get you to watch. Tragically, mukbang
content has gone so far as to raise concerns about animal welfare. One such person and possibly
my least favorite person on the platform, is a YouTuber
by the name of Ssoyoung. You've probably heard of her. This lady's top 20 videos, all with over 10 million views, are pretty much just her
torturing live animals for your entertainment. You know, in case you
happen to be in the mood to watch the sad, final moments
of various sea creatures before they're eaten alive. I suppose mukbangs were always pretty exhibitionist in nature. You're sitting down eating
your food and sharing it with people and engaging
with them interactively. But it's interesting that what is such, should be such a mundane
everyday activity, we all do it multiple times per day, has really become this spectacle of people pushing the envelope further
and further and further. It begins with the absurd
amount of food that for whatever reason is
the baseline for each and every mukbang video. And just keeps going and going and going from there and like
increasing in ridiculousness. The shock value obviously
contributes to the viral appeal of these videos and makes
for an interesting thumbnail. But if shock value was
really the only thing these videos had going for them, they probably would
have fizzled out by now. So there must be something
more to the genre's absurd popularity. And I think it's this mystery of why it's so obscenely popular, paired with the bizarre and
often over the top nature of mukbangs that really
has people wondering. - Is it a kink thing? If someone just went out and
said, "Hey, you know what? It's a kink." I'd be like, "All right, fine. You know what? You're
weird, but whatever." - She's like checking
how big she can fit it. - Mm. (Man gagging) - Is it a weird fetish. - Yes. (man gagging) It's repulsive. - Usually when it's
something I don't understand on the internet, I write it off as someone's jerking off to it. That makes sense. How could you possibly
jerk off to someone eating with their mouth open and
eating all of this fucking disgusting looking food
in front of a camera where they barely talk and
when they do it's just saying, "Mm, oom, mm." - [Kiana] I mean, it's
really not hard to see why people might come to this conclusion being that mukbang channels don't just eat food. They eat it like this. (woman gasping) - Oh, yes. - Some of them eat food in a way I've never actually seen
people eat food before in real life. - Oh my, yes. Yum. - [Kiana] Between the
ridiculously big bites. Getting the food and all of those sauces all over their faces. - Mm. Mm, mm. - [Kiana] This stuff with the glove. Just stuffing food into their mouths. - Mm. Oh my god. You guys understand how amazing this is. - [Kiana] And moments like these. (man moaning) - So damn good. (man slurping) - It's a lot. And it does make you think, okay, maybe there's something a
little less PG going on here. Before the trend made its way to America, people were so confused
at this whole thing and how popular it was that
there were a ton of articles and even a Vice
documentary that just wrote the entire thing off as
one big, creepy fetish. - [Narrator] It's not hard
to see why mukbang exists. It plays to our voyeuristic instincts. And its interactivity breaks the mold of how we traditionally
engage with food television. Girls watch it. Guys watch it. And for some it's just a way to get off. - Apparently China agreed too, because they actually banned individuals from quote, seductively eating bananas, in an effort to crack down on this. Yeah. This content certainly has a vibe to it to say the least. Sometimes anyway. And on top of all this, there are rumors that certain inexplicably
weird or gross moments within certain mukbanger's
content were created for quote the feeders. And recently someone actually came forward and uploaded a video claiming
that multiple different mukbang channels were
creating feeder content for their boyfriend. - And he showed me the
women that he's following on YouTube. Both of them are catering to feeders. He claimed that he was paying these women for specific content and
he didn't need me anymore because these women were
satisfying him sexually. And at least three
American mukbang creators use this content to advertise
their only fan's accounts. And I've heard that at
least one of them has less than family-friendly versions of mukbangs on there. Besides all of that, there
are obvious parallels between sex and food. (light jazz music) After all, mating and eating are really the two most instinctual
acts known to man. And they don't call it
food content for nothing. I apologize for any trauma
you may have sustained from the clips you've just watched. And actually for this
section in its entirety. But I think that they make the food sex connection quite clear. Food and sex do share many parallels. They are both involving all of our senses and they both engage many
of the very same areas of the brain. Which is largely why we
find both of these things so pleasurable. They're a very basic,
instinctual pleasure. And this basic, instinctual element that both of these things share
is precisely why food content can be so mesmerizing. Which I'm gonna be talking about at length in the food content section of the video. But if you think about it,
we've been selling things to people, through
advertising, with sex, forever, because it's been known to be so powerful. Because of this instinctual root. But we don't really look
at food in the same way. And yet they both are
really on the same level in terms of their power. Now, this is actually the
point in the video where I had originally written that,
despite all the parallels, despite the complaints about
mukbangers enjoying their food a little too much. - Beef brisket. (woman giggling) So tender. - And despite the feeder things
and all that kind of stuff. Even despite articles
with titles like these. Golden Gobble. Mukbang branded sexy turn on by fans. Still thought that the
fetish aspect was overblown and that it made up only a small fraction of the viewership for this content. I went and I looked through the comments and I tried to find evidence of this. I looked for anything that
might suggest, you know, people's intent in watching it. And I didn't find too
many comments, honestly. Some channels got more
comments like that than others. (light dance music) But I didn't find a lot of them. And I thought, okay, yeah,
it's probably just overblown. But as I continued to work on this video I found this next video and all of the videos
on this guy's channel. And I was like, okay, I'm
missing something here. (speaking foreign language) (playful music) - Mm. Yum. (man clearing throat) (ominous music) (speaking foreign language) (man yelling) (man gasping) (man slurping) (man sighing) - It goes on like this for a while. - Oh yes. Strawberry. (man slurping) - All in all is mukbang
secretly a huge kink? I don't know. Honestly, I really don't know. Maybe you can tell me what
you think in the comments 'cause I literally have no idea. Could go either way. I mean, if it's like
anything else on the internet it's at least a chunk,
but it's hard to say if this is a major
contributor to the viewership of this content. A more wholesome view of the appeal of mukbang content is that it helps people to feel a little bit less lonely. The trend is thought to
have sprung out of the rise of one person households in Korea. As of recent data, a
single person household is the most common type
of living arrangement in South Korea. With almost 9 million single
person residents registrations accounting for almost 40% of homes. For Koreans, eating is an extremely social communal activity, which
is why even the Korean word for family means those who eat together. But communal eating certainly
isn't limited to Koreans. Eating together and sharing
food is a human universal seen in every culture in the world and dating all the way back
to our evolution as a species. According to this Medium article in hunter gatherer days, it
would have taken multiple people to make a hot meal. Someone had to hunt. Someone had to gather. Someone had to stand by the
fire and look over the food. And someone had to protect
the cook from possible thieves or predators that may have
gotten attracted to the fire or the aroma of food. Cooking and therefore
eating required people. In contrast, in addition to
eating many of our meals alone, lots of people are spending almost all of their time alone these days. We do most of our socializing digitally. Work longer hours than
ever and sitting down to eat together is becoming
less and less common in general. That is to say it makes
sense why eating alone would be a particularly
lonely moment for people. And not surprisingly, loneliness
is on the rise in general. Some surveys suggest that
millennials and Gen Z are actually among the loneliest
generations of all time. (sad piano music) Based on its role in our evolution anyway, it's totally possible that eating with other people is a psychological need that a lot of us are no longer meeting. And since the Korean version
of mukbang is usually live I mean, I can see some
real utility in that. It's a way to participate
in something and alleviate the loneliness of that moment. And honestly, the family
mukbangs are extremely wholesome. Not the kid mukbangs, though. So those are just really weird. But the family ones are wholesome. Watching someone eat is a
moment you don't normally see of someone unless you're close to them. It's intimate in a way. Though many mukbang channels
are kind of just silent and focused on the food, the ones who do choose
to have conversations with their viewers often
show a very genuine and real side of themselves. It's kind of a throwback to a
more genuine era of YouTube, where the most popular
content was really people just kind of living their lives and chatting with the camera. As opposed to, you
know, like an hour long, scripted video with tons
of research, and yeah. And I think that this
relaxed, casual style of these type of videos can totally feel like you're eating with a friend. All in all the whole
social appeal of mukbang makes a lot of sense. It's really not that
weird that someone would turn on a camera of someone else eating and kind of chatting. People have ASMR
boyfriends, apparently. So. Which finally brings us to the main reason everyone is tuning in. The food. ("Once Upon a Dream", by
Sammy Fain and Jack Lawrence) The majority of people watching mukbangs are here for the sensory experience. (soup swishing) They wanna see delicious
food and someone enjoying it. And mukbang channels don't disappoint. Many of the most popular
ASMR and mukbang channels make their food look extra delicious with amazing camera and mic quality. Some even take that extra step
and incorporate the food prep and set up as a big part of the video. But delicious food in a
mukbang is a given, mostly. Even some of the worst channels
have good looking food. I mean, a lot of the
times these people are all eating the same things over
and over and over again. So it can't just be about the food. At least not for everyone. And if people were just
here to see the food and hear the ASMR sounds,
arguably they'd enjoy one of those ASMR baking videos instead or any of the other
food content on YouTube. But they don't. Because they're not just
here to see the food, but specifically to watch people eat. I know you're probably
thinking, yeah, duh, that's like the point of the whole thing. But I don't know if you
know how deep it goes, because I know I definitely did not. What seems to be more important
than what is being eaten is the way it's being eaten. Reading through the comments, some people seem to find
specific aspects about the way mukbang creators
consume food satisfying. (glove crinkling) (man chewing) To the point that they are
hyper-specific about what is and isn't pleasurable for them to watch. There are certain characteristics
of people just literally eating food that are
and are not pleasurable for them to watch. I know three channels
that actually impressed me with how they eat their food. All the others are either
straight gross or just too formal. Like they don't even enjoy their food. Everyone seems to have different tastes in how they want to see someone eat. But there are a few
characteristics that stand out in the comments as
adding to, or taking away from how satisfying a clip is. (woman crunching) Eating clean is a big one. Which seems to mean not
getting food on their faces and or just daintily consuming food. Taking big bites, even to the point that the jaw seems to unhinge. (man crunching) (man slurping) (man slurping) And very visibly enjoying
the food while eating it, but not too much. All of those things seem
to add to the element of satisfaction for people watching. Apparently, there are also characteristics that can take away from this feeling, even going as far as to
be considered repulsive. These characteristics are
a little more obvious, but I'll mention them anyway. Eating messy is a big one and
really not hard to see why. Over-exaggerating the enjoyment of food including lip-smacking and moaning. - Yes. - And pretty well anything
else that no one should do during a food video. Now it's pretty obvious
why no one would want to see that stuff while watching food videos. But definitely less obvious
that the way someone eats or the way they sound while they're eating or the type of bites that
they take can be satisfying. I wondered what does that mean exactly? What's that translating to. Well, when I first looked
into it, what I found was that we like watching other people
do stuff that we want to do. And this is because we
get a vicarious pleasure as if we were doing it ourselves. And this is especially true for food. People come to watch mukbangs to fantasize about eating as much as they want, and to live vicariously
through the mukbanger. Watching them eat piles
of delicious and unique fantasy foods as if it was
them enjoying it themselves. - Mm. - People in the comments even talk about waiting until they are hungrier to tune in so they could really enjoy the video. And it should come as no
surprise that a large percentage of the mukbang audience seem to be on a diet or otherwise unable
to eat this food themselves. Deciding instead to live
out their binge fantasies through someone else. (woman slurping) And well, it actually
turns out that mukbang fans might be onto something. This feeling of pleasure we
get from just watching someone else eat is attributed to
the mirror neuron theory, which holds that watching
someone perform an action elicits the same neurological response as performing that action ourselves. This effect was first
discovered in the nineties when scientists observed
that when one monkey watched another eat a banana, the
same areas of the brain lit up in both monkeys and in the same way. And according to one of the
very few authors of a paper on mukbangs, this simulated
eating effect can be so strong that it completely satisfies cravings and even people feel full as if they had truly eaten something. This effect has been
named vicarious satiation, and you can see evidence of it throughout the comments, as well. My co-workers keep telling
me not to tempt myself, but this is surprisingly satisfying. I'm working to lose weight. Instead of triggering
my sweet tooth cravings, these videos seem to satisfy them. You know what I realized? Every single time I'm
hungry I watch mukbang, so it feels like I actually ate something. Apparently prolonged, focused exposure where you're imagining
yourself eating the food, being in that person's shoes, can literally make you feel full as if you had eaten it
yourself, which means that some of the differences
in what people like to see and how people are eating
this food, probably come down to recognizing elements of themselves when they're really enjoying
something that they're eating. And this totally explains
why eating messy would be such a turnoff. It doesn't match the
way we imagine ourselves enjoying a food that we really love. Having sauce dripping down our faces would probably take
away from the experience for most people. The vicarious satiation
phenomenon also helps to explain why people
get angry if the people don't finish their food. Apart from obviously the ethics
of like lying and, you know wasting the food and
all that kind of stuff. It would massively take away
from the satisfaction element if you didn't hear or see the swallow. Now, unfortunately for everyone
hoping to use this content for weight loss purposes,
this is by no means the end of the story. And you'll notice that
in the comments, sure, there might be a handful
of people saying, "Wow this content made me feel satisfied. Made me feel like I ate something." But, there are probably many, many more that say that this content
just made them hungry. All these videos do is
just make me super hungry. I don't know why I watch them. Yo, I'm going to get Burger King now. Like these make me so hungry. When you're on a diet but
also watching other people eat your favorite dish. Re: the diet didn't work out as planned. Same. I swear I've gained like 15 pounds since I started watching mukbangs. And this should really
come as no surprise. I was actually shocked to see
that the vicarious satiation phenomenon was even a thing. I assume most people watching this content would just get hungry. And I base that on, I mean,
my experience, obviously. But also on the fact that
fast food companies would not be spending billions of
dollars on advertising if food content made us
feel satiated and full and that kind of thing. For them to be doing so, there must be a link between what we see and what we choose to eat. Food videos can satisfy some,
but begin a domino effect of craving, hunger and
even overeating in others. Start several studies have
shown that visual cues like mukbangs, commercials,
or even this video can excite the brain to the point that it begins to undermine our
control in the face of food. People who experience greater
food reward sensitivity are particularly at risk. For some people, anything that
signals a potential reward, such as, you know, an HD
video of a hot steaming pizza fresh out of the oven, can
lead to intense desires to eat. The Journal Of Neuroscience
found that viewing images of insanely delicious food lit
up the brain's reward center inducing craving, and causing the people with the strongest mental
response to overeat later on. As for who's at risk? Well, there's no set rules
on who is most sensitive to food cues and reward. But typically hungry
people, restrictive dieters, individuals with higher
BMI's, binge eaters, and those with other forms
of EDs are most susceptible. Those sensitive to food reward report bodily changes such as
their mouthes watering, heart rates increasing, and
even insulin release in response as the body reacts to the
potentiality of eating. But, you don't need to be
in any of those categories to be responsive to food cues. An article in The Journal
Of Obesity found that no one is really immune
to the lure of food porn. Even after eating a meal,
seeing images of really really delicious food increased
the hunger hormone ghrelin on average, across the
board in participants. And quote, "The site of appetizing food can evoke a desire to eat even
in the absence of hunger." It's interesting that
food has this ability to affect us and our reactions. So why exactly might this be and what makes food content so compelling? Well, it all comes down
to the power of food porn. The fact that just seeing food even through a screen, can be
such a pleasurable experience, is being called digital grazing,
and is thought to be thanks to our evolution as hunter gatherers. The first sight of food in the
wild would have been a very exciting moment in the
lives of our ancestors. From hunting to gathering their
entire days and essentially lives were dedicated to
ensuring their next meal. Food meant survival. It meant having enough energy
to live a few more days. And thus today, just
the very sight of food is still enough to
release feel-good hormones and make us feel happy and calm. But it doesn't stop there. Our eyes actually play a way
bigger role in our relationship to food than you've probably imagined. Some scientists theorize
that our eyes developed color vision specifically
to help us find food in our environment more efficiently. Meaning our eyes have evolved for and are particularly adapted to noticing any food
that might be around us. Food is uniquely powerful
at grabbing and holding our attention because in many ways, our eyes were truly made for this. To put it this way, the only things on the
same level of interest to our eyes are probably a naked mate, our children, and any signs of
impending, immediate danger. On top of that, we are all the descendants of the people who noticed
the food in the environment. Not the people who didn't. Moreover, the look of
food, the visual appeal, has always been very, very important. Because we needed to be
able to quickly discern whether or not a food could kill us. So foods that were
misshapen or colored off or something like that
would have been regarded with suspicion because they
could have been dangerous. Which is likely why today
ugly food has its own PR team of people trying to get
you to buy more of it. Even though it's harmless, our instincts tell us not to buy it and
it contributes needlessly to food waste. All of this is to say that looking at food can truly be its own thing. And it makes sense that
we would be so interested in doing so based on our biology. But I think we can all agree
that modern food images, modern food videos, are more
than just depictions of food. And this is actually why
they've been coined food porn. The term food porn popped
up sometime in the eighties and people can't seem to
agree on who started it. But essentially it refers
to food imagery that appeals to our basic carnal desires
by being sensually provocative and intentionally glamorized. As demonstrated by every single ridiculous chocolate commercial ever. - [Woman] (whispering)
Prepare your senses. - [Kiana] Food porn differs
from regular old food images in a few different ways. First off, it needs to
look seriously delicious. Exaggerated and glamorized. (speaking foreign language) Better looking than most
foods you've eaten before. The more calories, the better. Lighting is key and
movement is a massive plus. Essentially everything
should be exaggerated and a little over the top. (woman chewing) (speaking foreign language) Now those examples were
particularly dramatic, but at its core food porn is just food looking hyper glamorized
and bigger and better than it would normally. But anyway, we don't
really need the definition of food porn to know it when we see it. And that's because our brain
is a comparison machine. When it sees food, these
images are compared based on your previous experiences
or exposure to similar foods. When you see a burger on
TV or in a commercial, for example, it doesn't just
look like any old burger, but is made to resemble and remind you of the juiciest, plumpest
burger you've ever experienced. When you see it, your brain
compares it to all the burgers you've eaten before. The dried out home cooked mistakes and the best of reel from your
mom, favorite restaurants, vacations, et cetera. Your brain is scanning for
similarities in the images, such as juiciness and
shine, that have previously indicated good taste,
and trying to predict whether or not desiring
this food is worthwhile. According to Dr. Deirdre Barrett, who is an evolutionary
psychologist at Harvard, food porn relies on a phenomenon
called supernormal stimuli, which exaggerates qualities we're already hardwired to love biologically. Usually that translates
to visual cues that a food is high in energy or calories, such as the sheen of sugar
or the pooling of oils, which might explain why
pictures of desserts are most likely to be shared
online, followed closely by cheesy gooey, fatty comfort foods. But what takes some images over the top to be particularly drool inducing? What makes some images better than others? Well, the theory of
supernormal stimuli comes from observing animals and their responses when exaggerating
characteristics they're already hardwired to love. Even if it's to the point
that it's exaggerated beyond well beyond what's expected in nature or what would be
even normal or realistic. For example, birds will
neglect their own eggs to sit on a much larger
egg placed in their nest. Female peacocks are attracted
to male peacocks with larger more extravagant displays of feathers. Even if that male peacock
is just a stuffed animal. Baby chicks will ignore
their own mother's beak with food in it with two lines, to peck from a stick with
four lines painted on it. And when it comes to food,
the devil is in the details. What makes food content
so craveable is that it can call your attention
to way more detailed than is possible even if you had the food right in front of you. It often zooms in and
highlights the very best and most mesmerizingly
delicious attributes. All of that salt, sugar
and fat takes center stage through great lighting, artful
photography and slo-mo video. And in the case of mukbangs and ASMR, the food is often less zoomed in but ample in quantity and
made evidently delicious by the person's reaction and
amplified sound experience. All of this, of course begs
the question, are mukbangs and food porn in general problematic? And I think that the answer
is yes. Very much so. Now first off, of course,
there are people who are turning on this content
every once in a while. They're casual watchers.
They think it's relaxing. They're just casual viewers of the content and it's not that serious. But for a lot of people,
and based on the comments, there is a sizable portion of people watching this content and doing so in a way that might be
considered quite problematic. Now, interestingly, when
I was doing the research for this video, I found that we've always kind of had this interest
in glorifying food. An analysis by the Food
and Brand Lab at Cornell found that historical food
paintings were not actually representative of what the
people at the time ate, but instead featured feasts, exotic foods and other hard to get items. We were painting
essentially food porn pics all the way back in 1500 A.D. And the other day I was randomly watching one of those old
time-lapses where they like, they made it colored and
better for the future. That's a really bad description of it but it was from like the early 1800s, and it happened to be a
video of the woman just staring into the camera and eating, like a mukbang from like 1801 or whatever. Whenever it was from. So obviously in some ways
this is actually a really, really natural desire. So the problem isn't
really so much with that as it is that we've never really had this kind of ability to do it
the way it's being done now. And especially with mukbangs. Epic camera quality. Epic mic quality. Amplifying both the visual
and auditory elements of the food experience to way more than what it would be if you were even sitting down
and eating the food yourself. I literally have never noticed
that ASMR sound while eating. I always thought it was so
strange the way it sounded when they were eating. And now I literally can't
unhear it when I chew. Thanks to mukbangs. We started with food
content where people were teaching you to cook. Or they were competing for something. Where the food and the
enjoyment of that food was an interesting element
in addition to the show. And now with mukbangs, you're not only zeroing in on the food, but also the enjoyment of that food. The whole point is just to watch
someone eat and enjoy food. And unfortunately looking
through the comments, there's a big proportion of people using this in a very, very unhealthy way. It's obvious that a lot of
the people who are really, really into this content have
some serious issues with food. Some people are using it to
trigger themselves to not eat. Other people are using
it as a safer outlet for their cravings. I think even more people than that are watching it frequently
and not really seeing this for the red flag that it should be. And yeah, you're not ingesting
calories or binge eating, but you're certainly giving a
lot of attentional resources and mental space to food and
binge eating in particular. Some people are watching this
content every single day. This is their absolute
favorite thing to do. I saw this one woman on
Reddit who was talking about how she made a separate
YouTube channel account just to subscribe to 50 different, 50 different mukbang channels. And though there seems
to be a large percentage of mukbang watchers, I feel like this is the absolute
worst thing you could do if you already had a complicated
relationship with food. Because in many ways
this content is literally just like an ED wrapped
into a YouTube genre and made socially acceptable. Because number one,
you're watching a binge nine times out of 10. this content normalizes the
shit out of binge eating. Like, you're not just watching
someone eat a regular meal. And sometimes the creator even
looks questionably hungry. Like you're wondering, okay,
did this person not eat all day to make this video? What does this person's
exercise regime look like to keep their body? And some of them are even open about it being one person said they
exercised for like 10 hours a day or something like that. Number two, while you're
watching this content you're simultaneously
engaging in the craving and desire aspect to the wanting the food. And at the same time also
in the body anxieties and not wanting to eat the
food and being concerned about what would happen if you did eat that food and all that kind of stuff. Watching mukbangs if you
have issues with food is kind of like making a hobby
out of visually absorbing yourself in those problems, all in one. It's just, I really feel like it's the absolute worst thing
you could possibly do. One of the most popular
questions on the internet about mukbangs is how does the mukbanger maintain their figure and eat like that. Most popular one of them. And it just shows what's
going through people's heads while they're watching this content. At the end of the day, I just think that people should be mindful of how much of this kind
of stuff they're consuming. Particularly if they're
consuming this content in lieu of food or in lieu of
a craving or something else. I definitely think,
sure, it's calorie-free, but it's not without consequence. And it can definitely
have an effect on you. And you know what else
can have an effect on you? My new behavior change program
that's coming out next week. If you are interested in more info click the link in the
description box to be notified about the launch video
coming out early next week. My behavior change guide is based on everything I've read
and specifically aimed at helping you break longtime
persistent bad habits. Yes. My new behavior change program
is coming out next week or the end of this week. Depends how long it takes
me to finish this video. I'm super excited to
share it with you guys. I'm gonna have a launch
video, but I'm just talking about it now as the sirens go off. Super stoked to show you guys it and tell you guys more about it. I'm really proud of it. It's very long. And I do think it's gonna be pretty sick. So yes. Tell you guys more about
that in the next video and thank you so much
for watching this video and I will see you in the next one. Oh yes. And if you liked it, please like it and share it
and subscribe if you haven't. God, I really wish it
wasn't so uncomfortable for me to say all of those things, but. (light jazz music)
