His newest video reveals a shocking transformation and calls into question the morality of mukbang culture
By Sara Orr
On Friday, Sept. 6, popular YouTuber Nicholas Perry, better known as Nikocado Avocado, revealed to the world that for the past two years, he has been uploading pre-recorded content and has secretly been on a weight-loss journey, during which he lost 250 pounds. This shocking revelation calls into question the morality of “mukbang” videos, which are designed to exploit algorithms that push extreme content, encouraging addictive behavior rather than considering the viewer or creator’s well-being.
Perry is known for being a “mukbanger,” which is a category of video content in which someone consumes a large quantity of food. More specifically, he gained attention from his shift in content from eating healthy foods to larger quantities of unhealthy food, which led to his rapid health decline.
Mukbang originated in Korea and is “a video or webcast in which the host eats a large quantity of food for the entertainment of viewers” (Collins Dictionary). It is literally a combination of two Korean words meaning “eating broadcast.” These videos, where people eat a lot of (typically unhealthy) food quickly in one sitting, gained global popularity in the mid-2010s and have now spread to platforms such as YouTube, TikTok and Instagram Reels.
Perry is widely considered to be the most popular American mukbanger, with 4.23 million YouTube subscribers. In his new video, entitled “Two Steps Ahead,” he gives a villain-like monologue explaining how he has embarked on what he says is “the greatest social experiment of my entire life,” where he not only lost all of the weight he gained since starting mukbang, but also did it in secret.
If you scroll down to the start of his account, Perry’s first uploaded video (posted eight years ago) is entitled “Why I’m No Longer a Vegan YouTuber.” In this video, he tells his audience that he has given up his veganism because of the “imbalanced, hostile, militant, and mentally unstable” community. However, the alternate theory was that this shift was due to the fact that he wanted to make more money, get more views, and chase the algorithm.
At the time, Perry was a slim man, weighing around 150 pounds. Over the next few years, as his content shifted to unhealthy, grotesque amounts of food, his physical and mental health declined, as he not only gained over 200 pounds, but would also break down crying during his YouTube videos as he shoveled food into his mouth.
Despite this health decline, Nikocado became more popular and famous than ever.
When referring to his first mukbang video eight years ago, Perry said, “My very first mukbang got like 50,000 views in a few weeks, which was a lot for me at the time, and everyone was asking, ‘When’s the next mukbang?’”
By the next year, Perry was almost only posting mukbang content, reaching over 1 million views. What started as a vegan, clean-eating man, spiraled to a man eating absurd amounts of food to follow the way the money was leading him.
In Nikocado Avocado’s newest video, he makes a fool of those who had, up until a few days ago, been profiting from making commentary content about his health decline. Not only did the video call out those profiting off of commentary content, but it also called into question the morality of his viewers and the social media algorithm, who were giving him views and money and subsequently feeding his addiction even more.
“Just yesterday, people were calling me fat and sick, bore-ey, and irrelevant. People. People are the most messed up creatures on the entire planet,” said Perry in his newest video.
Nickolas Perry’s video caused me to consider not only the negative effects of mukbang on creators, but also the effects it has on viewers.
Dr. Emily Splane, a psychology professor at Flagler College specializing in the psychology of eating, says, “mukbang as a form of entertainment seems harmless, but it could green-light and normalize unhealthy eating behaviors.”
In The Study of the Psychology of Mukbang Watching, the psychological traits of mukbang watchers were called into question. It explains how eating is an inherently social activity, and mukbang videos are a popular way for people who eat alone to feel comforted as they eat.
However, these videos might not be healthy for widespread consumption when considering the subconscious behavior change that the media we consume causes, the sheer amount of (typically unhealthy) food most mukbangers consume, combined with a society with preexisting issues of obesity and food addiction.
Mukbang culture even shares some characteristics with a scientifically recognized eating disorder. “Binge eating disorder is a relatively new official diagnosis, but it is the most prevalent,” says Dr. Splane. “It is characterized by consuming excessive amounts of food, eating for reasons that go beyond hunger, finding comfort and euphoria in the binge, being secretive and isolated while binging, and feelings of regret after.”
Beyond binge eating disorders, our country struggles with an overweight and obesity epidemic.
According to Dr. Splane, around 70% of US adults are overweight or obese. This is associated with serious health problems such as diabetes, hypertension, joint issues, not to mention the mental toll it takes on people. “We live in an obesogenic culture,” says Dr. Splane, “this means that the way our society functions lends itself to obesity. Technology has made us able to work from home, order food to our houses, virtually communicate with our friends and families, and more. We could essentially go a whole day without moving from our bed– other than taking a few steps to go to the bathroom– and still survive.”
She also brings up the popularity of fast food, which not only has high levels of preservatives, unhealthy fats and carbohydrates, but also “addictive qualities and large portion sizes.”
A study by Science Direct showed that almost half of mukbang videos show the “consumption of fast foods, junk foods, or instant foods that have low nutritional values.” It also showed that 84% of videos presented overeating. This not only psychologically cues cravings for the foods presented but also normalizes overeating and binging.
Though mukbang content is not inherently harmful, like most media we consume, it is undoubtedly filled with sneaky rhetoric that must be viewed objectively.
International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction
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