Mukbang madness: Why do viewers have such major appetites for binge-eating content?

A report in 2016 attributed the growing popularity of mukbang due to viewers feeling the loneliness of living in a single-person household. — Image by freepik

The Health Ministry in the Philippines has asked content creators in the country to take a healthier approach when it comes to making food-related videos in a report yesterday (July 9).

This comes after the Health Ministry reportedly mulled banning videos featuring creators consuming large amounts of food in one sitting, a social media trend popularly known as ‘mukbang’. According to the Inquirer, the country’s health secretary Teodoro Herbosa proposed a study on the need to ban mukbang content after the death of popular vlogger Dongz Apatan.