We’ve all been there: after a long day at work, you come home, realize you’ve skipped the supermarket again, and settle for a subpar dinner—a box of ramen, a bowl of buttered pasta, or even a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. The meal is regrettable and adds only a little sustenance at best. You promise yourself you won’t stoop to that level again. But a viral trend is now touting that very simplicity, and the result is something akin to the human equivalent of dog food.
“Boy kibble” is one of the hottest food trends on social media today. Fitness influencers are cooking up a simple combination of ground beef and rice for a quick, low-calorie hit. But gen Z men aren’t cooking the meals out of laziness. Rather, they see it as a reliable source of protein.
The downsides of ‘proteinmaxxing’
While the trend offers a simple and cheap way to max out protein consumption, some dietitians are concerned it’s leaving out other nutrients.
To be sure, many devotees tout the trend with a half-joking air. Some TikTokers also include vegetables like kale and spinach, while others treat themselves to seasoning or hot sauce.
But for many of those hopping onto the trend, it’s that blandness and simplicity that gives boy kibble its appeal.
Sharp, who has over 1 million followers on TikTok where she reviews user’s eating habits and popular dietary trends, warned that the commitment to the meal could slip into dangerous territory.
“This kind of moralizing of food, or turning suffering through meals into a badge of honor,” she said, “can map on to some kind of disordered eating patterns and risks, no different than, say, orthorexia,” or an obsession with food that one considers healthy.
