New diet trends keep popping up, and people love trying the latest fad while rarely understanding why they are following it. Trends often over-inflate the importance of certain aspects of nutrition and lead people to overuse things such as probiotics or fibre.
Our ancestors didn’t follow trends; they knew what real food was and how to use it. Reducing food to how much protein or fibre it contains isn’t the way to better health. Our bodies recognise real food best in its whole form, so what are these trends, and why should you consider avoiding them?
Fibre-maxxing
Gut health is obviously a very important part of our health and one that rightly deserves a lot of attention. However, people have seen that fibre is good for gut health and ran with it. This has led to the term “fibre-maxxing”, meaning getting as much fibre as possible into your diet. The goal is to support gut health, but this over-intake of fibre can actually do the opposite.
Yes, we need fibre for our gut, but too much can cause problems by slowing gut motility and causing fermentation to happen in the gut, which can lead to overgrowths and pathogens such as SIBO. The issue commonly arises from a sudden increase in fibre intake compared to what the individual is used to. Rather than aiming for an unrealistically high fibre intake, focus on a balanced intake that fits your needs and diet. Fibre isn’t the only thing we need for good gut health.
High protein
Protein is one of those areas of our diet that has been hijacked to drive sales; they're even adding protein to already protein-rich foods, such as minced beef!
Again, we need protein, but overdoing it can be an issue; too much of one amino acid or the other can shift your body into a sympathetic fight-or-flight stress state.
Protein quality also matters; if most of your protein comes from cheap whey or vegan powders, you likely aren’t getting as many nutrients as you would from whole foods.
Ultra-processed foods have never been so heavily labelled as “high protein”, effectively marketing to and captivating people who know they need more protein but now in a junk-food format.
Instead of trying to maximise protein, set realistic targets based on your lean muscle mass, weight, and workout regime. Protein from whole foods and amino acid-balanced sources such as organs, bone broth, and dairy is far better for overall health than cuts of meat or cheap, unbalanced protein sources.
Low carb diets
Carbohydrates are essential for our health; going low-carb can initially help people feel better, but often because it removes ultra-processed ingredients from their diet rather than because the carbohydrates themselves are the issue.
Our bodies prefer carbohydrates as fuel, and every system and organ needs enough energy; if our cells lack the energy they need, it's no wonder we feel tired.
Low-carb diets force our bodies to use ketones rather than their preferred fuel source - carbohydrates- often resulting in excessive fatigue or what is commonly referred to as “keto-flu”. Our bodies can also enter a stressed state as they shift to the sympathetic nervous system, commonly referred to as fight-or-flight, when we don't get enough carbohydrates and blood sugar levels drop drastically.
Rather than saying one macronutrient is bad or good and needs to be maximised, see foods as containing all three, which they most often do, and support your body by giving it the energy it needs through healthy carbohydrates such as potatoes, squash, rice, sourdough, fruit, fruit juice, and honey.
Replacing nutrient-dense food with synthetic supplements
Thinking you can cheat nutrient intake by getting all your vitamins from synthetic sources rather than real whole foods is a recipe for disaster.
Synthetic vitamins often aren’t as bioavailable as those in whole foods, meaning most of what you consume isn't absorbed during digestion and is therefore wasted.
Whole foods package vitamins alongside cofactors that help the body absorb them and keep them balanced. The modern trend of using a whole stack of supplements to max out vitamins and “cover all bases” often leads people to neglect real food because they assume synthetic vitamins will make up for what they lose. You can never replace a solid whole-foods diet; supplements, if you take any, should only support your real food intake, not replace it.
Summary
Trends will come and go, but what matters most is understanding your own needs and why whole foods matter so much for our health. If you only follow trends, you’ll always second-guess your diet, supplements, and overall health. Instead, turn to what our ancestors did: they ate real food and knew the benefits of foods like organs, bone broth, potatoes, fruit, and vegetables.
They didn't take extreme measures; they ate nose-to-tail and intuitively knew which foods were beneficial, and when you’d had too much of one type. Eating like our ancestors did isn't a trend; it's a way of life.
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