Mukbang: “Muk” what? 

As I was scrolling through the headlines on my CNBC app, looking for  the latest scoop on how to make a million dollars, I found a peculiar story about a petite girl in Korea that makes $9K/day eating food online. In fact, she has been so successful with her eating Vlog that she has quit her full-time job. The Mukbang or Eating Show trend started in 2013 and has become so popular that there are about 3000 Youtube broadcasts with an average of 45,000 nightly dinner time viewers. If you are curious enough to go watch one of the broadcast on YouTube, Koreans make the most annoying chewing noises when eating; you have been warned!

It got me thinking about Kobayashi. You know, the Japanese hotdog eating champion? In July 4th 2001, he burst into the American consciousness by gulping down 50 hotdogs in 12 minutes. What I remember about it was that while his hapless competitors were usually overweight and obese, Kobi—I can call him this because we are closer than two peas in a pod—was totally buff, lean, and muscular. He ate more than everyone, including some competitors who weighed over 250 to 300 lbs. And he had abs!

1. “How was this possible?” I asked.
2. And how is he so fit looking and not fat like his competitors?

Well, if I can theorize his meal planning, I’ll have to say he was basically doing a version of intermittent fasting and eating one giant meal a day. One of the Mukbang broadcasters has also said that the her secret to staying thin is to eat once a day and skip eating the next day.

Back to Mukbang

                                                                 “Can you say Korean Carb-up?”

One of the more popular stars of the mukbang trend is Park Seo-yeon or otherwise known as “The Diva”. As you can see above, she has stayed tiny despite the fact that she is seen gorging enough food for five people in about 3 hours. And I would bet the farm that what she eats during the mukbang broadcast is the only food she eats all day.

Not as much food as The Diva but this was my version of “mukbang” last night when Kate made her favorite, “Breakfast for Dinner.” I ended up eating four waffles with maples syrup, eight pork sausages, two strips of bacon, three scrambled eggs, and berries to add a healthy kick to my dinner. To round out my meal, I had cookies ‘n cream ice cream for dessert. Pepper wanted me to share but I wasn’t in the sharin’ mood.