The Food Expert: This Diet Slowly Kills You - Avoid These Meals! | Sonny Food Review

In this in-depth conversation, Sonny, the creator behind one of YouTube's most popular food review channels, shares his multifaceted experiences with unique cultures and uncommon foods from over 60 countries. The discussion covers his extreme food adventures, the ethical and cultural nuances of eating practices worldwide, the challenges of creating engaging content, health and travel considerations, and the business side of running a global digital food exploration brand. Along the way, Sonny also offers insights into food cultures, risky delicacies, personal philosophy, and digital nomadism.

Dangerous Culinary Experiences

Sonny delves into the most perilous food he has ever consumed—puffer fish from Malaysian Borneo, prepared by the Baja people. Unlike the highly regulated fugu in Japan, this preparation lacked certification and involved the accidental inclusion of the fish's highly toxic liver. He narrates feeling numbness and tingling in his mouth during consumption, symptoms indicating potential paralysis with no available antidote. The episode underlines the calculated risks Sonny takes, balancing the thrill of rare experiences with precaution and trust in local preparation, yet acknowledging the unpredictability of such foods. He also recounts eating bat meat in Malaysia, specifically near Brunei where alcohol restrictions lead locals to cross borders for nightlife and unusual meals.

The Cultural Significance of Food

Throughout the conversation, Sonny articulates food as a universal human connector transcending geography, language, and belief systems. He highlights how communal eating acts as a social fabric in every culture, contrasting modern American tendencies toward solitary or convenience-based meals. The role of food in bonding families and communities emerges as a recurrent theme. Comparing humans with animal behavior, Sonny observes the rarity of shared eating in the wild, underscoring humans' unique social relationship with food.

Instinctual vs. Cultural Food Preferences

Sonny emphasizes the overwhelming influence of culture on taste and food acceptance. Drawing from his experiences teaching children in Korea and observing tribal communities in Tanzania, he argues that food preferences are largely learned behaviors rather than innate instincts. The example of a Tanzanian child rejecting Western candy but embracing raw organ meats exemplifies this cultural shaping of taste. Furthermore, Sonny describes experiments offering Western processed foods to indigenous groups, noting varied reactions but a common local practice of relating new tastes to familiar flavors.

Ethical and Controversial Foods

The discussion ventures into taboo and ethically complex foods, including human meat, dog meat, and endangered species. Sonny shares historical context on cannibalism among Papua New Guinea tribes, emphasizing shifts driven by missionary influences. He admits personal openness to documenting such rare practices but hesitates to partake. Regarding dog meat, he explains its continued consumption in parts of Southeast Asia, distinguishing between cultural tradition and illegal black-market capture of pet dogs, which he condemns. His personal perspective balances respect for cultural practices with humane treatment of animals and acknowledgment of modern moral standards.

Experiencing Unusual Textures and Flavors

Sonny reflects on acclimating to unfamiliar food textures, such as sea cucumbers' gelatinous yet firm consistency and fried insects' papery crunch. He stresses that initial disgust tends to fade with repeated exposure, framing adventurous eating as part of his professional commitment. The episode also touches on the psychological aspect of tolerance, where the job expectation discourages outright rejection of new foods to maintain authenticity and viewer trust.

Food Challenges and Physical Consequences

Sonny critiques the prevalent trend of extreme eating challenges, citing his negative experiences with ultra-spicy hot wings that caused throat swelling and vomiting. He reveals the often-hidden tactic of competitive eaters vomiting to manage food volume. Contrasting this with his preference for culturally significant foods, he distances himself from purely sensational challenges, prioritizing authenticity and safety.

Reflecting on Poverty and Global Lifestyles

The dialogue encompasses Sonny's encounters with impoverished communities, including those consuming 'pog pog,' a dish made from scavenged, re-fried discarded fast food. Rather than viewing poverty through a simplistic lens of American advantage, he admires the strong sense of family, community, organic lifestyles, and happiness found in traditional societies. He critiques America's individualism and food isolation, suggesting Western societies could learn from these more connected and holistic ways of living.

Food Authenticity and Variation Across Borders

Sonny contrasts authentic food culture with American adaptations, explaining that dishes like Vietnamese pho or Mexican cuisine often differ drastically outside their origin countries. He details how ingredients, preparation methods, and freshness factors—such as fresh versus dried noodles—affect flavor and authenticity. He celebrates American variations like Chinese-American dishes while recognizing they are distinct from their native counterparts.

The Unhealthy Reality of American Food

Addressing why American food often appears less healthy than global counterparts, Sonny attributes this to massive industrialization, extensive processing, and scientific engineering designed to maximize palatability. He observes that excessive accessibility to engineered foods and portion sizes contribute to widespread obesity, noting that this trend is expanding in developing countries as well.

The Origins of Sonny's Food Exploration

Sonny traces his inspiration to Food Network and travel series like Anthony Bourdain's "Bizarre Foods" and Andrew Zimmern's adventurous eating. Early in his career, he mimicked travel vlog styles while injecting humor but gradually shifted toward letting food and culture take center stage. His journey involved starting with niche ideas like American fast food in Korea and evolving into global cultural exploration with a comedic twist.

Transition to Full-Time Content Creation

He recounts his initial years working part-time with financial constraints, gradually moving to Vietnam with modest income from local tour videos. It took nearly two years before he could sustain himself solely through his personal channel. The increase in production scale and professionalization followed economic stability, reflecting the challenges of turning passion into a viable career.

Video Production Workflow and Costs

Sonny explains the detailed logistics behind each video—from country research, scouting fixers, and scheduling every hour, to shooting with multiple cameras, and extensive post-production involving story assembly, editing, voiceover scripting, color mastering, and animation. Budgets vary widely depending on location, ranging from under $5,000 to upwards of $100,000 for expensive trips like Greenland. Salaries for a 20-person team are not included in this production cost but constitute a major operational aspect.

Navigating Extreme Risk Locations

Discussing the decision to film in dangerous environments like Afghanistan, Sonny expresses cautious respect. Despite popular perceptions, he finds security decent under current regimes but acknowledges the inherent risks including potential kidnapping. He weighs these dangers alongside the unique cultural insights and food experiences gained, noting the need to carefully vet local fixers and sources of information.

Food Taboos and Illegal Foods

He shares instances where foods technically fall into legal grey areas, such as coconut worms in Vietnam, which are illegal due to their impact on agriculture but still served openly. Sonny's approach balances cultural respect with adherence to law and ethics, always prioritizing research and minimizing harm.

Eating Live and Exotic Animals

Sonny talks about eating live seafood in Japan and the ethics surrounding such practices. While empathetic toward mammals and aware of animal cruelty concerns, he admits greater leniency toward fish and insects. He highlights the complexity of moral boundaries, noting societal variations and the often-controversial consumption of animals like horses, dogs, and rabbits.

The Role of Stamina Foods and Placebos

Discussing local beliefs in "stamina foods" such as rooster testicles and cobra heart shots, Sonny acknowledges the widespread lore that consuming animal parts enhances corresponding human functions. However, he dismisses these as placebo effects, citing the availability of pharmaceutical alternatives, and classifies these foods as largely cultural and symbolic "dude foods."

Health and Wellness on the Road

Sonny emphasizes the importance of regular exercise and sufficient sleep while traveling. Generally avoiding volume-based eating challenges, he tries to maintain health amid a demanding schedule. He shares practical tips like focusing on bottled water, skepticism about ice, and caution with local liquids, which are common sources of gastrointestinal illness such as "Bali Belly." Despite precautions, he admits to occasional bouts of travel sickness and discusses coping strategies.

Nigerian Hospitality and Hospitality Challenges

He notes the difficulties of honest food critiques when eating in front of hosts, especially in high-tension environments like Afghanistan with armed locals nearby. Sonny highlights his diplomatic communication style, expressing appreciation while being tactful even toward less palatable dishes.

Navigating Burnout and Content Volume

Sonny candidly describes the stress of producing more than 150 videos annually across two channels. He shares his strategy for managing burnout by reducing output, postponing posts during low-revenue periods, and creating compilations to maintain engagement with less new footage. The tension between ambition and capacity reflects his personal and business evolution.

Business and Revenue Streams

Most of Sonny's income derives from YouTube ad revenue, followed by sponsorships, Facebook, Snapchat, and other platforms with smaller percentages. Attempts to launch additional channels or food-related products like Vietnamese coffee proved resource-intensive with marginal financial gains, leading to a focus on core strengths and minimizing "hassle" over pure return on investment.

Standardization and Delegation in the Company

Having grown to a team of around 20 full-time employees, Sonny recognizes the need for better operational procedures and delegation to avoid managerial burnout. While reluctant to fully outsource creative control, he is actively working on implementing clearer standards and entrusting staff to maintain quality without constant personal oversight.

Digital Nomad Lifestyle and Global Living

Given his experience living in Vietnam and frequent travel, Sonny discusses the viability of Southeast Asia for digital nomads, appreciating affordable living, culture, and quality of life. He acknowledges other popular destinations like Malaysia, Thailand, and parts of Latin America but notes Americans' general hesitance to fully relocate overseas. The cost arbitrage of earning American wages while living abroad provides a promising retirement or lifestyle option.

Legal and Immigration Challenges

Sonny recounts his early years living in Korea on tourist visas, performing "visa runs" by traveling to Japan every 90 days to avoid overstaying, and working illegally in under-the-table teaching gigs. He describes the anxiety of immigration scrutiny and the relief of later moving to Vietnam with a more stable status.

Encounters with Mad Honey

Sonny describes the hallucinogenic and toxic effects of mad honey collected from Nepal's mountain beekeepers, warning about its unpredictable potency. His personal and family experiences include mild intoxication as well as severe hangover-like symptoms, underscoring the dangers of consuming naturally toxic foods without full knowledge.

Ethical Reflections and Cultural Respect

Throughout the talk, Sonny repeatedly stresses his mission to document and share global food cultures with empathy and without judgment. He aims to present authentic stories to foster understanding, leaving moral conclusions to viewers while maintaining a personal ethical stance favoring humane treatment and environmental responsibility.

Food Preferences and Throw Meal

Answering a lighter question, Sonny lists his ideal "throw meal" combining premium sushi varieties (like toro and salmon nigiri), American staples such as stuffed crust pepperoni pizza, and stamina foods like oysters, reflecting his diverse palate shaped by his travels.

Audience and Collaborations in the Food YouTube Space

Sonny acknowledges frequent interaction with fellow YouTubers and the varying approaches among content creators. He describes his ambitious production schedule and thorough processes, contrasting them with quicker, simpler edits seen elsewhere. He expresses interest in collaboration concepts where YouTubers experience challenging foods together, adding fresh dynamics for viewers.

The Business of Content Creation Workflow

Sonny walks through his channel's detailed workflow from planning and research to filming, editing, mastering, and publication. He highlights the professionalization and time-intensive nature of producing high-quality cultural food content, which ranges from several weeks to months in completion. He contrasts this with more informal second-channel videos which are faster and more spontaneous.

Live Streaming vs. Edited Content

Despite acknowledging the rise of live streaming, Sonny prefers edited videos to mitigate on-screen insecurities and maintain quality control. His background in directing and editing allows him to shape the viewer experience meticulously, an advantage in his genre where storytelling and visuals are paramount.

Food as Cross-Cultural Exchange

Sonny shares examples of introducing American food to indigenous communities and vice versa, highlighting moments of shared curiosity and cultural bridging. While sometimes controversial, he views these exchanges as opportunities for dialogue and mutual understanding rather than imposition.

Final Thoughts on Eating and Exploration

Sonny concludes by emphasizing the importance of open-mindedness, cultural appreciation, and personal challenges within his work. He continues pushing culinary boundaries while balancing risk, respect, and professional dedication to share food's universal stories with a global audience.