Chinese woman, 24, dies during live broadcast of eating challenge

A young woman in China has died of a suspected stomach tear during a live broadcast of an extreme eating challenge. WARNING: Disturbing.

WARNING: Disturbing.

A young woman in China has died during a live broadcast of an extreme eating challenge.

Popular streamer Pan Xiaoting died last week of a suspected stomach tear, The Daily Mail reports, while partaking in a 10-hour binge of 10kg of food, including cake, chicken fingers and seafood.

The 24-year-old’s stomach became severely deformed and filled with undigested food, according to her autopsy results, indicating that the organ could have burst, causing stomach acid and food to then leak into her abdomen.

Ms Xiaoting rose to fame on social media by livestreaming mukbangs, a trend which involves creators eating significant amounts of (typically unhealthy) food.

She had reportedly previously been hospitalised due to gastrointestinal bleeding.

A young woman in China has died during a live broadcast of an extreme eating challenge. Picture: Supplied

Pao Xiaoting, 24, rose to fame by posting mukbangs online. Picture: Supplied

She was reportedly undertaking a 10-hour challenge when she died. Picture: Supplied

Senior lecturer of psychology at the UK’s Nottingham Trent University, Dr Andrew Harris, warned of the dangers of mukbangs, telling The Daily Mail the format “potentially reinforces a cycle of overeating or unhealthy food relationships”.

“While some studies suggest that watching mukbang videos can alleviate feelings of loneliness by providing a sense of social connection or companionship, others indicate that excessive consumption of these videos may exacerbate loneliness by substituting deeper real-life social interactions with more superficial virtual ones,” Dr Harris said.

Registered dietitian, Katie Lopez, told the outlet mukbangs are an example of “the glorification of self-harming behaviour”.

“More specifically, these people are at risk for stomach perforation, significant elevations in glucose and lipids, acid/base disorders, electrolyte shifts, dehydration, and heart rate abnormalities,” she said.

Ms Xiaoting is not the first binge eating creator to die from such a challenge. According to The Indian Express, 20-year-old Hyderabad man, Sai Sampath, died of eating too much strawberry ice cream in 2021.

A Filipino content creator also died in recent years of a haemorrhagic stroke after consuming a large amount of fried chicken and rice for a video.