Nutrition Research and Practice

The Korean Nutrition Society (한국영양학회)
권호 표지
DOI QR코드

DOI QR Code

Mukbang- and Cookbang-watching status and dietary life of university students who are not food and nutrition majors

  • Yun, Sowon (Graduate School of Education, Daejin University) ;
  • Kang, Hyunjoo (Department of Food & Nutrition, Bucheon University) ;
  • Lee, Hongmie (Graduate School of Education, Daejin University)
  • Received : 2019.11.07
  • Accepted : 2020.02.25
  • Published : 2020.06.01
Download PDF
⟨ Previous Next ⟩

Abstract

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: As watching food-related programs has become very popular among the young generation in Korea, this study sought to compare the Mukbang- and Cookbang-watching status of university students with their dietary life. SUBJECTS/METHODS: The participants were 380 students who were not majoring in food and nutrition at a university in Gyeonggi, Korea. Based on self- reports, the participants were grouped according to their frequency of watching Mukbang or Cookbang: frequent-watching (FW) 21.1% and 5.3%, respectively; moderate-watching (MW) 43.9% and 27.9%, respectively; and not-watching (NW) 35.0% and 66.8% respectively. RESULTS: In the FW group, up to 88.8% and 70.0% of participants reported watching Mukbang and Cookbang, respectively, ≥ 3 days/week. Almost all participants in the FW and MW groups reported intention to keep watching these shows. The most frequent watching route was "YouTube" and the most important criterion to select a program was "food". In the case of Mukbang, but not Cookbang, the participants in the FW group scored their diet significantly worse than those in the NW group (P < 0.05). A greater proportion of participants felt that watching Cookbang improved their diets rather than worsened them (14.3% vs. 0.8%, respectively), while more participants said that watching Mukbang worsened their diets rather than improved them (8.1% vs. 2.4%, respectively). In both cases, greater differences were shown in the FW groups compared to the MW groups (P < 0.05 and P < 0.01 for Cookbang and Mukbang, respectively). Moreover, the participants answered that Mukbang-watching prompted them to eat more of less desirable food, such as through eating out and purchasing convenient and delivered foods, whereas Cookbang-watching made them want to cook more of their own food. CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggested that Korean university students who frequently watch Mukbang, but not Cookbang, may be a nutritionally vulnerable group that needs attention.

Keywords

References

  1. Wikipedia. Mukbang [Internet]. [place unknown]: Wikipedia; 2019 [cited 2019 October 10]. Available from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mukbang#cite_note-26.
  2. Hakimey H, Yazdanifard R. The review of Mokbang (broadcast eating) phenomena and its relations with South Korean culture and society. Int J Manag, Account Econ 2015;2:444-56.
  3. Kwaak JS. In South Korea, eating-shows or 'Mokbang'-are hits on the web: 'eating broadcasts' focus on chowing down [Internet]. New York (NY): The Wall Street Journal; 2014 [cited 2019 October 10]. Available from: https://www.wsj.com/articles/in-south-korea-eating-showsor-mokbangare-hits-on-theweb-1394415607.
  4. Jang YJ, Kim MR. Need for interaction or pursuit of information and entertainment?: the relationship among viewing motivation, presence, parasocial interaction, and satisfaction of eating and cooking broadcasts. Korea J Broadcast Telecommun Stud 2016;30:152-85.
  5. Na EK. "Eating broadcasts" and "cooking broadcasts" exploratory study on food media trends: sociocultural backgrounds and new media use factors. Kookmin Soc Sci Rev 2015;28:183-215.
  6. Lee JH, Lee JH. Convergence study on health risk behavior among Korean college students: Seoul vs. non-Seoul area. J Digit Converg 2015;13:345-56.
  7. Hu W. Body image perception, weight control and dietary behavior of some university students in Daejeon [master's thesis]. Daejeon: Chungnam National University; 2015.
  8. Lee SK, Kim SM. A study on the food habits and nutrient intakes according to breakfast frequency for male and female college students in Daegu area. Gwahaknonjip 2008;34:19-38.
  9. Korean Statistical Information Service. The survey on smartphone overdependence [Internet]. Daejeon: Korean Statistical Information Service; 2019 [cited 2019 October 10]. Available from: http://kosis.kr/statisticsList/statisticsListIndex.do?menuId=M_01_01&vwcd=MT_ZTITLE&parmTabId=M_01_01&parentId=I.1;I2.2;110_12019.3;#110_12019.3.
  10. Kang HM. The relationship between health promotion behavior and psychological well-being of university students in independent residence according to residential types. J Sport Leis Stud 2019;75:301-16. https://doi.org/10.51979/KSSLS.2019.02.75.301
  11. Ministry of Health and Welfare (KR). Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES VII-2) [Internet]. Sejong: Ministry of Health and Welfare; 2019 [cited 2020 April 2]. Available from: file:///C:/Users/USER/AppData/Local/Microsoft/Windows/INetCache/IE/NQ7QSA0U/영양조사_식생활조사_2017.pdf.
  12. Choi HM, Kim JH, Kim CI, Chang KJ, Min HS, Yim KS, Byun KW, Lee HM, Kim KW, Kim HS, Kim HA. Essentials of Nutrition. Paju: Kyomoonsa; 2016.
  13. Yoon S. A study on the influence of information characteristics of TV cooking program on its information acceptance and dietary change [dissertation]. Seoul: Cyber University; 2017.
  14. Jin JX, Hwang HS. Effects of the food web casting on college student's viewing happiness and attitude towards obesity. J Internet Comput Serv 2019;20:103-11.
  15. Ministry of Health and Welfare (KR). Obesity management comprehensive measure (2018-2022) [Internet]. Sejong: Ministry of Health and Welfare; 2018 [cited 2019 October 10]. Available from: http://www.mohw.go.kr/react/al/sal0301vw.jsp?PAR_MENU_ID=04&MENU_ID=0403&CONT_SEQ=345515.
  16. Han DH. ["Mukbang" is a proper noun overseas. Mukbang regulation is a burning issue] [Internet]. Seoul: The Chosun Ilbo; 2018 [cited 2019 October 10]. Available from: http://news.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2018/07/29/2018072900941.html. Korean.
  17. Lee SB, Kim DH, Kim HS, Kim HS, Song HR, Kim KH, editors. The effect of diet and watching "Muckbang" video on the appetite. Proceeding of 2017 annual conference of the Korean Psychological Association; 2017 Aug 17-19 Seoul, Korea. Seoul: Korean Psychological Association; 2017.
  18. Choi Y. Why are viewers enthusiastic about television eating (cooking) programs?: the effect of stress release and the political economic approach. J Politi Commun 2017;44:121-50.

Cited by

  1. Dietary life and mukbang- and cookbang-watching status of university students majoring in food and nutrition before and after COVID-19 outbreak vol.54, pp.1, 2020, https://doi.org/10.4163/jnh.2021.54.1.104