Actress Nam Gyu-ri recently appeared on a variety show and, contrary to her innocent beauty, boasted her carnivorous appetite by revealing that she grills whole pork belly every single morning. Nam Gyu-ri explained that she has a very active metabolism and eats pork belly almost every day to maintain her physical strength.
The public responded enthusiastically to this unexpected charm, with some saying, “I thought she would only eat salads, but she’s a ‘real woman’ who only deals in meat,” while others expressed envy over her natural constitution, commenting, “It’s amazing that she’s so thin even though she eats pork belly every day.”
There is a clear reason why these “extreme diets” of celebrities attract so much attention daily. For modern people living in fear of blood sugar spikes and weight gain, seeing a celebrity enjoy the “freedom to indulge in food” while maintaining an underweight physique provides a sense of vicarious pleasure. Furthermore, some analyze that this effect elevates celebrities as beings who are qualitatively “different” in taste and metabolism from ordinary people, becoming a new tool for “entertainment industry mysticism.”
The problem is that “context editing” often occurs unconsciously while viewers watch and consume this content. The invisible capital and effort, such as hours of high-intensity exercise, dermatology procedures, and close care from professionals, are completely filtered out. Consequently, the public is left with a deceptive cause-and-effect belief that “you can maintain that body even if you eat like that,” or the illusion that extreme eating habits are a solution for self-care.
An industry insider expressed concern that this could become a way for ordinary people to justify harmful or unbalanced diets, stating, “The public needs to be cool-headed and discern the harsh truth hidden behind the edited fantasy.”
