Watching Eating Videos Was Linked to Body Image and Eating Concerns in Young Adults

The study included 446 people ages 18 to 35: 257 participants from Australia and 189 from China. Most participants, 82.3%, were women. Everyone completed an online questionnaire at one point in time.

Researchers asked about watching several kinds of eating-related social media content, including mukbang and eating challenges. Mukbang generally refers to broadcasts in which a host eats a large amount of food. Eating challenges can also feature unusually large amounts of food or other extreme eating tasks.

The questionnaire also asked participants about body image and eating-related concerns. These included thin-ideal internalisation, meaning how strongly someone takes in the idea that a thin body is an ideal to aim for. It also covered appearance comparison, or comparing one’s looks with other people’s, as well as food cravings and bulimia-related symptoms.

People who watched content such as mukbang and eating challenges more often tended to report more concerns in several of these areas. The study found positive associations between viewing these videos and body image and eating concerns, including thin-ideal internalisation, food craving and bulimia.

The researchers also examined possible indirect pathways. Appearance comparison and thin-ideal internalisation accounted for significant indirect effects in the relationships between watching certain eating videos and both disordered eating and food cravings. In everyday terms, the results suggest that comparing oneself with people in the videos, and absorbing narrow appearance ideals, may be part of the pattern connecting viewing habits with these concerns.

The study also compared the Australian and Chinese groups. Chinese participants reported watching eating videos more frequently. Australian participants reported more body image and eating concerns. The abstract does not explain why these differences occurred, and it cannot determine whether culture, social media use, or other factors played a role.

Importantly, these findings show relationships, not cause and effect. Because participants reported their viewing habits and concerns at the same time, the study cannot tell whether watching eating videos contributed to these concerns, whether people with existing concerns were more likely to seek out the videos, or whether another factor shaped both.

The study also relied on self-reported questionnaire answers. The supplied abstract does not provide details on recruitment, the platforms people used, how often they watched each type of video, or the size of the associations. It does not establish that participants had clinical diagnoses.

The researchers say further research is needed to clarify the direction of these relationships and to understand how people from different cultural backgrounds may be affected. They also point to a need for interventions that address problematic eating-video content. For now, the study adds evidence that this popular online content may be connected with how some young adults think about their bodies and food, while leaving important questions unanswered.