Eating Chapter 1

Even if it's just a pie in the sky, it's okay 013 / The golden age of mukbang 014 / The other side of mukbang 017 / Oh my, you have to go here, an Instagrammable restaurant! 019 / People who are becoming increasingly ignorant 020 / A familiar landscape of food 021 / Toktok Plus sympathy theory 025 / The disappearing warmth of the dining table 026 / Families who are no longer family 027 / The era of eating alone is becoming familiar 029 / What did you eat today? 031 / A meal made up of delivery food and convenience store snacks 032 / What the average eater eats around the world 033 / I'm on a diet 035 / Modern people's biggest worry, dieting 037 / Becoming beautiful enough to die for 039

Chapter 2: Eating Well

Eat to Live or Live to Eat 045 / Memories of Food and the Pleasure of Eating 046 / We Live to Eat 049 / Interest in What We Eat 051 / Changes in Eating Habits: The Five Stages of Nutritional Transition 054 / From the Hunter-Gatherer Stage to a Grain-Centered Diet 055 / Developments in Agricultural Technology and the Homogenization of Food 057 / The Hope Left in Pandora's Box: 'Behavioral Change' 059 / Increasingly Difficult Choices 061 / What on Earth Should I Eat Today? 062 / Why Choosing Food is Difficult 065

Chapter 3: Eating Wrong

The Elephant in the Room 071 / Things We Don't Talk About About Food 072 / Denaturalizing Food 074 / Is This Really What You Want to Eat? 078 / Tok Tok Plus: The Choice of Taste 079 / Experience Swayes Your Taste 080 / Familiar Flavors Are Delicious 083 / Getting Domesticated to Food 085 / The Same Taste No Matter Where You Go 087 / Planet of the Chickens, Earth 088 / The Tragedy of the World's Average Diet 091 / Seasonal Food Trends, and Their Unhappy Endings 094 / Bloody Avocado 096 / Who's Eating Quinoa? 099 / The Trap of the Popular Superfood 102

Chapter 4 Eating Again

Why is the world getting fatter? 107 / Why obesity feeds on poverty 108 / Why we get fat 110 / Who makes us fat 113 / Is everything forgivable if it's cheap and delicious? 116 / The global food system 118 / The trap of cheap prices 120 / The unstoppable temptation of ultra-processed foods 123 / Our bodies are made of corn 129 / King Corn, the genetically modified corn that has taken over the world's tables 130 / Seed sovereignty and food sovereignty 134 / What to eat 140 / Vegetarianism and meat-eating, the never-ending war 141 / The conclusion of the meat-vegetable war 144 / Toktok Plus cargo cult 150

Chapter 5: Eating Well Again

For an Ethical Diet 155 / The Meaning of Food Ethics 156 / For a Sustainable Food System 161 / Future Food for a Sustainable Planet 163 / Eating Insects? 165 / Wonhyo Daesa's Skeleton Water 166 / Tok Tok Plus: Future Food: Insects 170 / Meat Substitutes and Cultured Meat 172 / If Food Falls from the Sky 175 / What I Eat Changes the World 180 / We All Want to Be Good People 182 / From Conscious Consumers to Participating Food Citizens 185

We delve into modern food culture, characterized by mukbangs and certification shots.

Mukbang, where the main character eats and talks in front of the camera, has become a kind of K-culture and has gained worldwide attention.
As eating shows become popular, cooking shows that show people cooking food are also gaining popularity.
It provides vicarious satisfaction to people who cannot eat or cook for themselves.
Today, more than ever, people are more serious about eating, and thanks to the advancement of media, more and more people are seeking small pleasures by seeking out delicious restaurants.
Of course, a nice certification shot is a must.
It's confusing whether you go to a restaurant to eat delicious food or to brag about having eaten delicious food.
In this modern food culture, the ‘pleasure of the table’ has disappeared.
Not only has the pleasure of conversing with people, savoring the various situations of people, objects, and events while eating disappeared, but the act of connecting people and satisfying the desire for affection has also disappeared.
This book delves into modern food culture and illuminates what we should gain from eating food.


In the past, a "warm meal" prepared with care by someone else, or a "meal" cooked by hand for yourself and your family, would comfort and soothe our weary lives. Now, perhaps we have entered an era where we must find solace in "digitized food."
-From "Eating, Not Mukbang, Not Certification Shots"

Exploring the modern food system and the shadow cast by the giant food industry.

Modern food systems have achieved a near-miraculous increase in food production, feeding 8 billion people.
In order to increase production, we had no choice but to choose ‘economic feasibility.’
I chose food that was cheaper and tasted better than what the food company offered.
We pretend not to know what food companies are doing to promote low prices, thinking that as long as the food is cheap and tasty, that's enough.
To lower production costs, most commodity crops are mass-produced and grown by exploiting the labor of poor countries.
The profits from the crops produced go to the multinational corporations that own these farms, and the farmers do not receive proper wages.
To cut down on production costs, large food companies release products that use the same basic ingredients but have slightly different flavors, making them appear as if they are different foods. We become accustomed to the sales tactics of food companies and naturally become addicted to the taste they find delicious.

Poor people who do not own land have to work all day on the farms of large corporations and still have to buy their own food.
But farmers in poor countries suffering from extremely low wages cannot even afford to buy enough food to eat.

-From "Eating, Not Mukbang, Not Certification Shots"

Uncovering the truth about obesity and dieting, a perennial challenge for modern people.

Most modern people are on a diet or are thinking about doing so.
Although many people still go hungry, obesity has become the biggest concern of modern people amidst unprecedented food abundance.
Recently, as the trend of preferring an extremely thin body has spread, the pro-ana tribe has emerged.
It's no wonder that even third graders are said to be dieting.
Why do we gain weight?
There is a set amount of calories a human can eat per day.
It's a tragedy for food companies, but no matter how delicious something is, once you're full, you can't eat any more.
So food companies are taking note of the human instinct to prefer sweet tastes.
They pour out cheap, sweet processed foods that are mixed with sugar and refined carbohydrates.
These foods are high in calories but have no nutritional value.
Foods that you eat for your health may be the cause of obesity.
This is because we have little basis to judge whether foods advertised as being unconditionally good for our health are truly good for our bodies.
Obesity is no longer an individual problem, but a social problem that must be addressed.


The food industry, which profits from the more people eat, constantly advertises its products and tries to prove that they are good for your health.
And the resulting obesity problem is blamed on individuals, saying it is due to lack of physical activity.

-From "Eating, Not Mukbang, Not Certification Shots"

Speaking about food ethics for sustainable development in the future

In today's world, where we are surrounded by an abundance of food, 'eating well' has become more important than ever.
It's about food ethics, about what and how to eat.
We must be grateful for food and share it fairly and equitably, while also considering food production and selection for a sustainable ecosystem.
We are just 'consumers' when it comes to food.
But if we remain content as consumers, shift all responsibility to producers, and turn a blind eye to unethical choices made in pursuit of lower costs, the abundance of our modern food system will be short-lived.
It's time to consider the impact of the food we eat on our bodies, our communities, and even the planet.


The true meaning of 'eating' is correctly recognized.

"Eating, Not Mukbang, Not Certification Shots" is the second book in the "Teen Talk Series."
The 'Teen Talk Talk Series' is a youth education book created by Cheon Gae-baram in the hope that teenagers and the world can communicate, and contains stories about teenagers that teenagers are curious about.
We have selected topics that today's teenagers need to know and approached them from various perspectives.
This book examines the foolish choices humans have made in our food system and considers what kind of food lifestyle will sustain our bodies and our neighbors.
We can look back on the meaning of 'eating' and think about what it means to 'eat better'.