• Nutrition Research and Practice
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.523-533
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• 2024

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: Given that adolescents watch Mukbang (eating broadcast) more frequently than other age groups, interest in the potential health effects of watching Mukbang and Cookbang (cooking broadcast) is growing. This study aimed to determine the status of watching Mukbang and Cookbang among Korean adolescents and its relationship with their dietary behaviors. SUBJECTS/METHODS: We used data from the 18th Korea Youth Risk Behavior Survey, conducted in 2022 (n = 51,850). The study included the frequency of watching Mukbang and Cookbang and the self-rated impact of watching them. Dietary behaviors included consumption of the following items: fruits (≥ once a day), vegetables (≥ 3 times a day), fast foods (≥ 3 times a week), late-night snacks (≥ 3 times a week), caffeinated drinks (≥ 3 times a week), and sweet-flavored drinks (≥ 3 times a week). Furthermore, obesity, weight loss attempts during the past 30 days, body image distortion, and inappropriate methods to control weight were also included. RESULTS: Among adolescents, 70.6% watched Mukbang and Cookbang, and 13.2% watched them more than 5 times a week. Approximately 27.6% of the adolescents responded that they were influenced by watching Mukbang and Cookbang. Adolescents who frequently watched Mukbang and Cookbang consumed less vegetable and fruit; however, the likelihood of consuming fast food, late-night snacks, sugary drinks, and caffeinated drinks increased. In addition, they were more likely to attempt inappropriate weight-loss methods and become obese. Adolescents who responded that their eating habits were influenced by watching Mukbang and Cookbang were more likely to have unhealthy eating behavior compared to the group who responded that their habits were not influenced by these shows. CONCLUSION: Watching Mukbang and Cookbang is common among Korean adolescents and is associated with unhealthy dietary behaviors. Prospective studies, including broadcasting content, should evaluate the impact of Mukbang and Cookbang on health.

• Nutrition Research and Practice
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.276-285
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• 2020

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.

• Korean Journal of Community Nutrition
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.156-170
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• 2024

Objectives: This study aimed to investigate the association between how often Korean adolescents watch Mukbang and Cookbang videos and their dietary habits. Methods: Data from the 18th Korea Youth Risk Behavior Survey conducted in 2022 was analyzed for this study. The study included 51,850 middle and high school students and assessed various aspects, including demographics, frequency of watching Mukbang and Cookbang videos per week, dietary habits, health behaviors, and mental health factors. Results: Nearly a third (29.3%) of Korean adolescents watched Mukbang and Cookbang videos one to four times a week, while 13.5% watched them more than five times weekly. Females, those with lower academic achievement, and those from lower socioeconomic backgrounds were significantly more likely to be frequent viewers (P < 0.001). Increased viewing frequency was associated with poorer dietary habits. Adolescents who watched more frequently were less likely to eat breakfast and consume fruits and milk, while their consumption of fast food, high-caffeine drinks, sugary drinks, and late-night snacks increased (P < 0.001). Higher viewing frequency correlated with increased feelings of stress, depression, and loneliness (P < 0.001). Logistic regression analysis confirmed these associations. More frequent viewers were significantly less likely to eat breakfast (odds ratio (OR), 0.63; 95% confidence interval (CI), 0.58-0.68), and more likely to consume fast food (OR, 1.85; 95% CI, 1.69-2.02), high-caffeine drinks (OR, 1.43; 95% CI, 1.30-1.56), sugary drinks (OR, 1.54; 95% CI, 1.41-1.67), and late-night snacks (OR, 1.37; 95% CI, 1.25-1.51). Conclusions: Our findings suggest that frequent exposure to Mukbang and Cookbang content is linked to unhealthy dietary habits in adolescents. Educational programs may be necessary to mitigate the potential for these videos to negatively influence dietary choices.

• Journal of Korean Home Economics Education Association
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.131-142
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• 2022

The purpose of this study was to investigate the status of viewing online audiovisual dietary-related broadcast, or Cookbang, by university students. The association between the viewing degree of Cookbang and students' dietary habits was also evaluated. Based on the degree of Cookbang viewing, we divided the participants into a frequently-watched group, a moderately-watched group, and a not-watched group. The frequently watched group showed significantly higher 'watch them for more than 4 days a week (p<.001)', and 'watch them for more than 1 hour a day (p<.01)'. The frequently watched group were significantly higher in 'got better influence on dietary life (p<.05)', 'eat alone (p<.05)', and 'cook on their own (p<.01)'. Concerning dietary habit, the group that frequently watched Cookbang had a significantly higher frequency of the following answers: 'Take vegetables other than kimchi every meal (p<.01)', 'Have fruits every day (p<.001)', 'Do not eat the processed food often (p<.05)', 'Do not eat animal fat often (p<.05)', 'Do not eat out often (p<.05)', 'Do not drink the alcohol too much (p<.05)', and 'General food habit(p<.05)'. In summary, university students who frequently-watched Cookbang showed a higher level of desirable dietary habits. Therefore, the results of this study can serve as basic data for research and education related to the dietary habits of university students.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Culture
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• v.38 no.1
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• pp.61-72
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• 2023

In this study, we identified the differences in food content watching habits and nutrition quotient in adolescent (NQ-A). A total number of 811 subjects were surveyed to establish their general characteristics, food content watching habits, and NQ-A using a self-administered questionnaire. In addition, the mediating effect of watching motivation between the type of food content watched and the NQ-A score was determined. The classification by the type of the food content mainly watched showed that 405 participants (49.9%) watched the Mukbang content, 244 (30.1%) the Cookbang content, and 162 (20.0%) another contents. Among the content watching motives in the Cookbang content group, information acquisition and enjoyment were predominant, whereas emotional satisfaction had the lowest frequency. Compared to the Mukbang content group, when the Cookbang content group mediated information acquisition motivation, the scores of the total, diversity, balance, and practice of NQ-A score areas increased. Compared to the Mukbang content group, the score in the moderation area decreased when the Cookbang content group mediated enjoyment motivation. If food content with accurate information and interesting content are produced and used for adolescent nutrition education, the education will be highly effective.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.19 no.8
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• pp.405-413
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• 2021

This study examined the effect of cookbang cognition on the star chef image and career preparation behavior, and the moderating effect of career self-efficacy. A self-reported questionnaire survey was conducted on 271 college students of culinary arts major in Daegu and Gyeongju area and analyzed using a structural equation model. As results, cookbang cognition showed a significant positive effect on the star chef image, and image also had a positive effect on career preparation behavior. In addition, career self-efficacy has a moderating effect on the relationship between the star chef image and career preparation behavior. Through these results, it is possible to suggest foundation for the related field through theoretical and empirical verification of the process in which the influence of cookbang affects career preparation behavior. In the future, more systematic study in this field is required.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.54 no.1
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• pp.104-115
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• 2021

Purpose: With increased time spent at home due to prolonged online classes, this study sought to determine how the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has impacted the mukbang- and cookbang-watching patterns and dietary life of college students. Methods: All students majoring in food and nutrition (FN) at a college in Gyeonggi, Korea, participated in the survey in April 2019 (M/F = 36/106) and June 2020 (M/F -37/130) and data were analyzed using SPSS 26.0. Results: Compared to students responding in 2019, those in 2020 reported more frequently eating alone (p < 0.01) and cooking (p < 0.01), and evaluated their diets better regarding pleasant mealtimes atmosphere (p < 0.05), moderation in drinking (p < 0.05), and not consuming excessively delivery foods (p < 0.001), processed foods (p < 0.01), foods with animal fat (p < 0.01), salty foods (p < 0.01), and sweets (p < 0.01). Although the proportion of respondents who answered that they watched mukbang and cookbang at least occasionally did not change, greater proportions of respondents reported watching both genres frequently (p < 0.001, respectively) and spending less time/day in watching mukbang (p < 0.05) in 2020 vs. 2019. While they evaluated the effect of mukbang- and cookbang-watching on overall diet similarly, the proportion of respondents that reported feeling as though mukbang-watching prompted them to eat more of less-desirable foods decreased from 54.3% to 41.5% (p < 0.05). Diet improvement of participants due to COVID-19 resulted in that the association between frequent mukbang-watching and unhealthier dietary habits in 2019 was not shown in 2020. Conclusion: Our results suggest that the prolonged at-home stays due to COVID-19 might have improved many aspects of diet and decreased undesirable effect of frequent mukbang-watching in case of college students majoring in FN.

• Korean journal of food and cookery science
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• v.32 no.6
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• pp.773-781
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• 2016

Purpose: This research was undertaken to study the motivational behavioral effects after watching the 'Cookbang'. Methods: Between October 23 to November 7, 2015, 420 adults over the age of 20 were surveyed in the Gyeonggi Province and Seoul. The SPSS Statistics (ver. 18.0) was used for analysis of 401 (95.5%) questionnaires, 19 were excluded on the basis of insincerity. Results: Adult male to female ratio was 150 males (37.4%) and 251 females (62.6%). The maximum adults were in their 20s 166 (41.4%). There were 211 single persons (52.6%). Most of the respondents were employees. Highest number of respondents (192) found Korean cooking to be an interesting field. Many adults responded that they watched the 'Cookbang' program once a week. For companionship, majority of the male and female respondents said that they 'watch alone' and 'watch with their children', respectively. Maximum number of respondents in their 20s-60s said they'watch alone'. There was a significant difference in gender and age. Conclusion: The watching motivations drawn by factor analysis were 'information', 'entertainment' and 'psychology.' Regression analysis showed that 'entertainment' had a big effect on the use of restaurants, the selection of groceries, the desire for gourmet restaurant visit, and the selection of restaurants, whereas 'information' had the biggest effect on nutrition and health care.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.20 no.7
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• pp.534-546
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• 2020

The purpose of this study was to investigate the preference, use motivation about TV food program, and look into the relationship between these variables and tendency of eating alone, interest for food and empathy. The results of this study showed that five factors of motivation were extracted: ASMR pleasure, visual pleasure, emotional vicarious gratification, information seeking and time-spending. The interest for food effects all of five motivation. Tendency of eating alone had no effect on use motivation. The higher the motivation for visual pleasure, the more preference for mukbang entertainment show, TV food drama, internet mukbang. The higher the motivation for ASMR pleasure, the more preference for TV food drama and internet mukbang. As for high tendency of eating alone, preference for cookbang show and TV food drama was high. People with low empathy showed the preference for TV food drama.

• The Journal of the Convergence on Culture Technology
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• v.5 no.4
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• pp.307-313
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• 2019

In 2019, Single person households became the most common in Korea. For those households, so called 'Mukbang' and 'Cookbang', the 'Food' related TV and internet programs are so popular and even became worldwide trends. This study explored how the characteristics of the food related programs on TV and internet influence the constant single person households viewers of the dietary self efficacy. The perceived usefulness and the ease of use shows meaningful influences to the dietary self efficacy in all of the generation groups. In young adult generation from 20s to 30s old, the joyfulness is also effective variables to affect the dietary self efficacy.