背徳飯

• Reading: はいとくめし
• Romaji: haitoku meshi
• Kanji breakdown: 背 (turn away) + 徳 (virtue) + 飯 (meal/food) → a meal that turns away from virtue
• Pronunciation: /hai.to.ku me.shi/

Meaning

A sinfully indulgent guilty-pleasure meal — the kind of food you know is terrible for you but tastes heavenly.

背徳飯 literally means 'immoral meal' and describes food that is deliciously unhealthy — think deep-fried everything, cheese-laden pasta at midnight, or a mountain of rice with fatty toppings. It is used with a mixture of self-aware guilt and unapologetic pleasure. The term became popular through YouTube cooking channels and late-night food content.

Examples

1. 深夜のカルボナーラは最高の背徳飯だよね。 A midnight carbonara is the ultimate guilty-pleasure meal, right?
2. ダイエット中なのに背徳飯食べちゃった、もう知らない。 I'm supposed to be on a diet, but I ate a sinful meal anyway — whatever, I give up.
3. 背徳飯の動画見てたら止まらなくなって結局自分も作った。 I was watching guilty-pleasure meal videos and couldn't stop, so I ended up making one myself.

Usage Guide

Context: friends, social media, food videos

Tone: self-deprecating, indulgent

Do Say

• 今日は背徳飯の日にする、ダイエットは明日から。 (Today is guilty-pleasure meal day — the diet starts tomorrow.)
• この背徳飯レシピやばい、カロリー考えたくない。 (This sinful recipe is insane — I don't want to think about the calories.)

Don't Say

• 他人の食事を「背徳飯だね」と言うと失礼 (Calling someone else's meal a 'sinful meal' can be rude — it implies their food is unhealthy)

Common Mistakes

• Using 背徳飯 for any indulgent food — it specifically implies a self-aware, almost theatrical level of guilt and excess

Origin & History

From 背徳 (immoral/sinful) + 飯 (meal). Gained popularity in the late 2010s through YouTube cooking channels and food media that celebrated unapologetically indulgent recipes.

Cultural Context

Era: Late 2010s, popularized by YouTube cooking content

Generation: Millennials and Gen Z

Social background: Universal among food-content consumers

Regional notes: Used across all of Japan. Associated with late-night cooking videos and social media food content.