Featured Image Credit: Jam Press/Science Photo Library - PASIEKA/Getty Images
Topics: Food and Drink, Health, World News, News
Rhianna Benson
Topics: Food and Drink, Health, World News, News
Eating too much food can cause serious health risks, experts say, after a content creator died earlier this month after 'overeating' during a livestream.
Pan Xiaoting - an internet star famed for her 'extreme eating' challenges - was just 24-years-old when she died earlier this month just weeks after being discharged from hospital for gastric bleeding.
The Chinese social media was taking part in a 'mukbang' livestream before she died on 14 July, having accumulated hundreds of thousands of online followers who enjoyed her culinary-based content.
The content creator dedicated to her online channels to producing 'mukbang' content - whereby users are seen to be consuming various quantities of audibly-satisfying food.
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This is often done whilst the user is interacting with the audience by discussing the rich foods they're consuming.
After her discharge from hospital, doctors gave her a serious health warning - however, she continued to create food content.
The Maeil Business Newspaper reported that a subsequent autopsy found Xiaoting's stomach was filled with undigested food at the time of her death.
The streamer's was also found to be severely deformed.
According to Heathline, partially digested food - like that found during Xiaoting's autopsy - can result in gastrointestinal perforation (GP), or intestinal perforation.
This condition occurs when a hole develops in a patient's gastrointestinal (GI) tract which can cause peritonitis, an inflammation of the membrane that lines the abdominal cavity.
Both conditions require immediate medical attention, and due to its life-threatening nature, in most severe cases, surgery will be necessary to repair the hole and treat it.
Not only would surgery fix the anatomical problem of the cavity, but it would see the removal of any foreign material that might cause problems, such as faeces, bile, and food.
Complications with gastrointestinal perforation can also arise, such as bleeding, sepsis, abdomen abscesses, and bowel infarction - which is when a part of your bowel dies.
The site also says that the survival rate of gastrointestinal perforation is 50 to 70 percent, with the risk of mortality increasing the longer the treatment is delayed.
However, chances of recovery are higher with an early diagnosis and treatment.
Some of Xiaoting's most popular streaming content saw her take on potentially-fatal challenges which would see her devouring enormous quantities of food.
In a handful of incidents, the online star was known to have taken on more than 10kg of food per meal.
Local media also reported that the online star had previously attempted to consume food ceaselessly, without break, for long period of time - including for up to 10 hours per day.