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Would you consume four bags of salt for internet fame?

For a TikToker in Indonesia, the answer is "yes".

In a 41-second TikTok video, @anggun_supriadi appeared to eat four bags of salt without consuming any water.

The video

On Mar. 17, 2021, the man known as Anggun posted a video of himself performing the act.

The video starts with an unseen narrator who is outside of the frame pushing a tray containing four packets of salt and a stack of cash saying, "If you can finish four bags of salt, I'll give you 30 million rupiah (S$2,792.77)."

After a close-up of the contents on the tray, Anggun replies, "Okay, then I will eat these four packets without drinking [water] at all."

He then starts cutting each packet with a pair of scissors and pours all the salt into the tray.

Anggun proceeds to eat what looks like salt in the tray with a tablespoon, making scrunched-up faces at the camera.

White powder spills out of his mouth with every spoonful he takes.

He then puts the spoon aside and uses his hand instead as a finishing move.

When he has finished swallowing his final mouthful, he declares, "The salt is finished, the challenge is complete," before picking up the stack of cash and exiting the frame.

The video has garnered 1.5 million likes and 54,000 comments.

Most of the comments are in Bahasa Indonesian with the top comments translating to:

"Waiting for the doctors to respond to this video"

"For money, you're sacrificing your body."

"Acid reflux becomes salt reflux."

Not everything on the internet is real

One should note that eating food in an extreme manner in exchange for cash appears to be a standard narrative that Anggun adheres to for most of his TikTok videos.

This means that the stack of cash may just be a prop for the purpose of the video, and not that Anggun actually won the sum.

The ease of technology at our fingertips also makes it hard to tell if it is an editing trick, or if the TikToker had replaced the "salt" with other substances.

Anggun's TikTok account has 3.2 million followers at time of writing.

Other food challenges he has done include eating a cow's head down to the bone and eight Carolina Reaper peppers that are known as the world's hottest chilli pepper.

The practice of consuming food in large amounts on video, particularly on a live stream while interacting with an audience, was popularised in South Korea in 2010 under the term "mukbang".

Top images via @anggun.supriadi on TikTok.