Philippines may ban mukbang after YouTuber’s death

Mukbang videos are said to encourage viewers to eat a lot, which can have a negative impact on public health.

Photograph of Filipino content creator Dongz Apatan’s last mukbang before his death. Photo: PEP

The Philippine Department of Health (DOH) is considering banning “mukbang” videos, after a 37-year-old food content creator died of a stroke.

“This is a bad habit because people create content by eating too much, and eating too much is not healthy. It will lead to obesity, hypertension, cardiovascular problems, non-communicable diseases, and even heart attacks,” the Philippine Daily Inquire newspaper quoted Health Secretary Teodoro Herbosa as saying.

Herbosa issued the warning following the death of mukbang vlogger Dongz Apatan (real name Manoy Apatan) on June 14. A day earlier, he posted a video of himself cooking and then eating many pieces of fried chicken with white rice. The Vlogger in the city of Iligan, with 460,000 followers, suffered a heart attack and fell into a coma before dying of a hemorrhagic stroke.

“We need to first study why this person died, and find out whether we, the regulator of health practices, can ban such activities because it is unhealthy,” Herbosa said.

Mukbang, a portmanteau of the Korean words “meokda” (eat) and “bangsong” (broadcast), are videos, often streamed, in which the protagonist eats a lot of food while talking to an audience.

If the Health Ministry’s investigation determines that Apatan’s death stemmed from eating for mukbang videos, the agency will push for a ban on mukbang on local websites and social media platforms.

“You are promoting unhealthy behavior to Filipinos. So I can propose banning mukbang. I could even ask the DICT (Ministry of Information and Communications) to block those websites because it’s basically food provocation. They’re making people eat like gluttons,” Herbosa said.

However, Mr. Herbosa also said that people who make content about eating can still continue, as long as their content does not pose a health risk. The Philippines’ health secretary said it would issue a public health warning and possibly an administrative order to ban overeating.