Recently, a well-known food blogger in Hangzhou, Zhejiang, staged a thrilling "rescue" after going offline - he tried to induce vomiting with a toothbrush after overeating, but accidentally slipped his toothbrush into his throat and went straight to his stomach. Fortunately, the foreign body was successfully removed through emergency gastroscopy surgery at the hospital. It is reported that the blogger is known for his "Big Stomach King" challenge. After each live stream of overeating, he often uses a toothbrush to stimulate his throat and induce vomiting in order to relieve bloating and maintain his figure. After this incident was exposed, it once again aroused public attention to the "Big Stomach King" eating broadcast. The Anti Food Waste Law clearly stipulates that "it is prohibited to produce, publish, or disseminate programs or audio and video information that promote excessive consumption, overeating, and other wasteful food". The "Action Plan for Grain Conservation and Anti Food Waste" issued by the General Office of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and the General Office of the State Council clearly states that "it is strictly prohibited to produce, publish, or disseminate programs or audio and video information that promote food waste behaviors such as overeating and binge eating". Under the ban, why does the "Big Stomach King" continue to eat and broadcast despite repeated bans? The reporter conducted an investigation and interview on this matter. At midnight, "Love Food XX" started live streaming on time. Three or four jin mangoes, five or six yellow peaches, a dozen soft Century egg... With the introduction, the anchor delivered the goods one by one. Besides carrying goods, she kept eating other things. As soon as he finished speaking, a few thick cut salmon, prawns, and skin shrimp entered his belly. The above is what she ate within 15 minutes of broadcasting. According to the reporter's rough statistics, in about two hours of live broadcast, the blogger ate more than 20 kinds of food: four or five kilograms of mango, four or five kilograms of litchi, four or five kilograms of crawfish, four or five kilograms of Preserved eggs, five kilograms of hami melon, boneless chicken feet, passion fruit, Luosifen... The gross weight of the food eaten during a direct broadcast was estimated to be 40 or 50 kilograms. According to the reporter's observation, she has been live streaming like this for 6 consecutive days. To avoid the audience questioning whether this is a recorded broadcast, she still has a sign behind her with the date of the day written on it. It is reported that since 2020, the central and local governments have carried out multiple special actions to rectify the chaos of "Big Stomach King" eating and broadcasting. The Cyberspace Administration of China has dealt with over 13600 illegal accounts, and the Anti Food Waste Law and the "Anti Food Waste Work Plan" have also explicitly prohibited the promotion of content related to binge eating. However, recent investigations by reporters have found that the "Big Stomach King" eating broadcast is still popular on some short video platforms. The live streaming and sales anchor "Love XX" has millions of fans who use "eating" to attract traffic. They update one or two eating videos every week, including those who eat at home and those who go to restaurants to discuss self-service meals with their bosses. At the beginning of their eating videos, there are clips of them devouring various foods in large bites. In a video posted by him of going to a crayfish restaurant, the video begins with a table filled with a pile of food, and the clerk exaggerates, "You definitely can't finish it all by yourself. Subsequently, the main film began, and the anchor began ordering a large amount of food in one go. During the process, the staff kept confirming, "Can you really finish that much?" The anchor said there was no problem. The first dish was a plate of more than 20 crawfish Potsticker. The anchor first took one mouthful and then strung several Potsticker together with chopsticks. One didn't swallow it and the other quickly pushed it into his mouth, filling his mouth with food. Then he added another set of sheep stick bones, and the anchor quickly eliminated four or five pieces of them, one by one. At this moment, several shop assistants brought 11 pots of various flavors of crayfish. At the beginning, the anchor was still peeling shrimp while introducing the taste. As the camera turned, all the crayfish and shrimp meat were peeled out, and several bowls of crayfish rice and a large bowl of crayfish noodles were added... After finishing 11 bowls of crayfish, the anchor was still unsatisfied and asked the waiter to continue adding crayfish. From the content displayed in the video, the anchor also ate a lot of oysters, scallops, handmade noodles and other foods, as well as drinks such as coconut milk and mineral water. After the meal, the anchor stood up to show that his belly had been stretched even larger than that of a pregnant woman at four or five months. The reporter observed their account for several days in a row and found that "Love XX" would occasionally broadcast live meals. It is normal for them to eat several times the amount of food consumed by ordinary people in just one or two hours of live broadcasts. Afterwards, live streaming content is often edited into short videos and published, with many likes and comments exceeding 10000. There are many anchors who use the "big stomach king" binge eating as a selling point. In some short videos, the host is faced with a large amount of food, piled up like a mountain, and the display is almost out of the picture. For example, in the video of "XX classmate", the anchor sits in front of the table with a pot of Spicy Hot Pot, and the barbecue rack on the table is full of sausages, grilled chicken wings, tiger skin eggs, etc. The anchor remained silent throughout the entire process, using subtitles to write about the food and taste at the bottom, and then ate all of these foods. When night falls, many "big eater" anchors transform into sales anchors. For example, during the live broadcast of "Hui X", they will continue to eat the turkey noodles they sell for one or two hours; There are also many anchors who, in addition to eating, use provocative language to interact with the audience, attracting a large number of netizens to watch and comment. Binge eating and vomiting are harmful to health. In order to prove that one is really eating, many videos posted by "Deng XX" will take a weight scale to a restaurant and measure their weight on the spot before and after meals. In his video released on June 15th, he weighed 138.9 pounds before eating and 154.6 pounds after eating, indicating that he had eaten at least 15.7 pounds of food in one meal. A reporter's investigation found that it is common to eat more than ten pounds or even more of food at once like this in videos broadcasted by "Big Stomach King". Can a normal person eat more than ten pounds or even dozens of pounds of food in one meal? What kind of impact will it have on the body? The capacity of a normal adult stomach is 1 to 2 liters. Although the human stomach has a certain capacity and elasticity, it is difficult to accommodate such a large amount of food even if it expands excessively after overeating. Very few people may have a fast stomach emptying, but in a short period of time, it is almost impossible for them to eat more than ten or even dozens of pounds of food at once. If eaten, it may lead to excessive gastric dilation, causing acute pancreatitis, gastric rupture and perforation, as well as intestinal obstruction, rapid increase in blood sugar and blood lipids, and long-term increase in the risk of digestive system diseases and cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases. ”Zhong Jiawei, deputy chief physician of the Department of Gastroenterology at the First Affiliated Hospital of Nanchang University, told reporters that it is impossible for ordinary people to eat more than ten pounds of food every few days without inducing vomiting, fake eating, and other methods, let alone experiencing long-term binge eating and losing weight instead of gaining weight. The reporter noticed that there are many voices online questioning the exaggerated and unreasonable "Big Stomach King" eating broadcast. In fact, some food broadcasters have been caught for inducing vomiting or fake eating. For example, a UP host on Bilibili named 'Sun Gouzi XX' mistakenly uploaded an unedited video. In the video, he spat out a mouthful of food and was discovered by users. After that, the UP owner cancelled his account. Some livestreamers were also caught by netizens taking screenshots of their stomachs bulging like pregnant women during live broadcasts. However, after a few minutes of going out, their stomachs became flat when they returned, and they were questioned for "going to induce vomiting". Zhong Jiawei reminds that long-term emetic stimulation may lead to tooth decay and gum recession; Can damage the esophagus and throat, leading to esophagitis and pharyngitis; In severe cases, it can cause tearing of the cardia, leading to massive gastrointestinal bleeding and endangering life; It can also affect gastrointestinal function, leading to peptic ulcers, etc. Even if vomiting is stopped later, there may still be some sequelae, such as long-term vomiting causing relaxation of the cardia, leading to stubborn reflux esophagitis, thinning of the esophageal and gastric mucosa, and increased risk of recurrent peptic ulcers and indigestion. To avoid regulatory errors, the reporter consulted with staff from multiple short video platforms and consulted relevant regulations. It was learned that the platform has certain restrictions on eating and broadcasting, such as strictly prohibiting any anchor from overeating, extravagance and waste, eating significantly too much food, and eating and broadcasting drainage behaviors during the live broadcast process and video content, such as placing more than a reasonable amount of food on the table. The reporter noticed that some food broadcasters deliberately add text prompts around them to avoid video censorship, such as "reasonable diet to prevent waste, the food in the video is not eaten by one person" and "author statement: fictional interpretation, for entertainment only", etc., downplaying their "big stomach king" persona. However, in the video, only the anchor appears, and the entire video is still the anchor eating a large table of food alone. In the view of Shi Zhiguang, a lawyer at Yinghe Law Firm, the behavior of "Big Stomach King" eating and broadcasting is essentially a massive waste of food in public, violating the provisions of the Anti Food Waste Law that prohibit the production, publication, and dissemination of programs or audio and video information that promote excessive eating, overeating, and other wasteful food. Moreover, such videos seriously contradict the traditional virtues of diligence, thrift, and frugality in China, and are contrary to public morality and social values. Shi Zhiguang introduced that if the "Big Stomach King" food broadcast creates the illusion of "overeating" and "real consumption" through editing, inducing vomiting, etc., and then binds food and products for marketing, it is a false and untrue advertising promotion, which violates the Advertising Law. If the behavior is serious and may constitute the crime of false advertising, criminal responsibility should be borne. Consumers can demand compensation in accordance with the Consumer Rights Protection Law. As a content dissemination medium, platforms should bear joint and several review obligations, and those who fail to fulfill their responsibilities should be punished with platform account bans, rectification, and other penalties. It is worth noting that the 'Big Stomach King' food broadcasting content conveys the wrong value of 'attracting attention regardless of consequences' to teenagers through the logic of' attracting attention with large quantity 'and' entertaining with waste '. Easy to lead to the risk of dietary comparison and imitation. ”Shi Zhiguang said. For the 'Big Stomach King' eating broadcast, some live streaming platforms have regulatory blind spots. Platform regulation relies on keyword filtering and manual spot checks, but some live broadcasts are conducted at night with large content, and the short videos published will evade system detection through text labeling, such as labeling 'not for one person to eat' and 'eliminate food waste'. ”Shi Zhiguang also mentioned that anchors often appear in the form of "eating broadcasts+sales", making it difficult for platforms to determine whether it is a pure eating broadcast or sales behavior. This kind of borderline behavior has also increased the difficulty of regulation. (New Society)