food is fashion

the slow adoption curve of what we value

Food is fashion; it’s just on a different time scale than, say, clothing fashion. Clothing fashion moves through cycles quickly; we all know the ’90s are back. Some will debate whether that’s good or bad, but the reality is that fashion is cyclical.

Fashion projects how society wants to see itself. It is belonging: dressing similarly to your peers or people you admire. It reflects status: brand, cut, cleanliness, and awareness of what is trending. Along with that can come the subtle signaling of financial status. Fashion also projects values. If you care about sustainability, you may choose one brand. If you care about fitness, you may opt for breathable technical fabrics. Clothing can be functional, symbolic, and a way to express yourself without ever speaking.

Interestingly, food functions much the same way.

Food fashion moves slower than clothing fashion because it is bound by biology, regulation, and infrastructure. A hemline can change in a season. Reformulating a national snack brand takes years of development and waiting for supply chain efficiencies. Clothing doesn’t need FDA claims. Food does. Clothing doesn’t require agricultural inputs locked in multi-year contracts. Food does. Fashion in apparel resets every quarter. Fashion in food compounds through supply chains, retail resets, and capital cycles.

We used to see food primarily as a mode of celebration and community. That still exists (we still celebrate Thanksgiving, for example) but in our day-to-day lives the emphasis has shifted toward nutrition. We hear stories of Babe Ruth consuming incredible amounts of steak, or athletes learning about electrolytes and sugar during competition. Today, that has evolved into tracking precise amounts of protein. We are saturated with optimization rather than communal eating.

From Celebration → Nutrition → Optimization

Previous generations saw food as celebration, ritual, and gathering — whether at a wake or a “be home by dinner” curfew. We read M.F.K. Fisher describing entire days devoted to preparing simple meals for friends. She wasn’t calculating protein macros. She cooked to fill hearts socially and bellies intentionally.

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Sohla El-Waylly on Instagram: "From Serve It Forth by MFK Fishe…

Only fifty years later, gathering around food has increasingly turned into personal hyper-optimization. Targeting macros, hitting protein goals informed by emerging science, and discussing longevity have become embedded in eating. The sociological aspects of food have thinned, ritualized mostly in secular holidays like the aforementioned Turkey Day. Convenience and nutrition now dominate. What you eat is viewed through the values of discipline, control, and health literacy. Rarely do we layer communal meaning onto CPG wellness foods.

Food Has Always Followed Fashion Cycles

Protein has clearly had its day in the sun, as numerous Substack essays and traditional media articles have proclaimed. Initially, niche CPG brands began adding protein to everything. Magic Spoon was genuinely innovative in the cold cereal aisle. Then protein became unavoidable. More numbers were plastered on packaging. Influencers added whey to pasta sauce. The market ballooned with bars, shakes, and fortified snacks offering convenience and nutrition.

Coca-Cola purchased a majority stake of Fairlife In 2020, Coca Cola acquired the remaining 57.5% of Fairlife that it didn’t own, paying $979 million and valuing the brand at $1.7B. What started as a joint venture in 2012 became a behemoth very quickly. An overnight success, eight years in the making.

X-axis is time; Y-axis is amount folks accepting a new innovation, like protein

Similarly, as consumers shifted away from sugary sodas and toward protein-enhanced beverages. Diet soda no longer met the moment. Large players entered later, and we now find ourselves in the late-majority adoption phase. Protein appears in legacy snack brands that would have seemed unthinkable a decade ago. That signals maturity. Some versions will likely remain, while the aesthetic excess fades. It is fascinating how quickly protein moved from subculture to default expectation.

This mirrors the saturated fat cycle of the 1980s. Studies suggested links to cardiovascular disease, and the food system reformulated en masse. Olestra emerged as a fat substitute. Margarine became the default table fat. I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter thrived. Then came backlash. Today, we see renewed interest in saturated fats, with beef tallow having its own moment.

The backlash cycle has begun with protein as well. Ultra-processed plant-based protein products have faced skepticism. Meanwhile, the pendulum swing toward “whole food protein” often relies on consumers not looking too closely at beef protein isolate, which is effectively a second-wave collagen product wrapped in neo-pastoral packaging.

Fiber: The Next Climbing Trend

Fiber is now in the early adoption phase. Innovation initially concentrated in fiber sodas using fructooligosaccharides (FOS)¹ and other soluble fibers, paired with alternative sweeteners. Now that innovation is spilling into snack foods, chocolate, and beyond. Incumbents are beginning to move. Pepsi’s acquisition of Poppi, much like Coke’s investment in Fairlife, shows more than aesthetic appeal. It suggests fiber aligns with modern health literacy.

Fiber will likely climb the adoption curve rapidly. At the same time, I see fiber fanning into distinct subcultures over the next two to five years.

The Whole-Food Purists

This group will oppose isolates like those in Metamucil or soda-style FOS additions from sunchokes. They will prefer eating the whole sunchoke (damn, I love sunchokes). This mirrors seed oil scrutiny less about processing mechanics and more about source. These consumers will emphasize oats, beans, lentils, mesquite, and traditional vegetables.

The Influencer-Macro Majority

This will likely be the largest group. They will not scrutinize fiber source. They will target a number suggested by a podcaster or Instagram influencer. Convenience, taste, and cost will dominate decision-making. Expect green-powder-style fiber blends with increasingly polished claims.

The Bleeding-Edge Optimizers

This group will treat fiber like performance nutrition. They will balance soluble and insoluble types. They will care about agricultural sourcing and microbiome specificity. As probiotic science advances, targeted fiber protocols could emerge something surely already explored in elite athletic and military environments.

Every fashion develops internal sophistication. Some people enjoy Keurig coffee; others source specific lots of geisha beans for home espresso. Both claim to like coffee. The same fragmentation will happen with fiber.

So if food is fashion, how do we choose what to wear?

Fashion is neither inherently good nor bad. It accelerates conversation and adoption among those willing and able to pay. It also amplifies noise, making signals harder to detect.

When food conversations repeat with increasing intensity, we should pause and investigate before adopting them. For me, that means asking:

• Is it actually healthy?

• Does it taste good?

• Is it sustainable?

• Do I genuinely like it?

• Am I choosing it, or inheriting it from someone influential in my media feed?

In fiber’s case, I hope it sticks. Colon cancer rates among people under fifty have risen by 1.1-2% yearly since the year Benefiber came out², and most Americans fail to meet recommended fiber intake levels³. I’m excited about fortified products that help fill gaps when I can’t access fruits and vegetables. There are simply times when I don’t have the time to cook, and I still want to support my long-term health.

Food fashions are rarely just about nutrients. They are about what we fear, what we admire, and what we believe will signal competence in our time. They are not accidents. They emerge from science, capital, media, identity and more simultaneously. The question isn’t whether they exist. It’s whether we understand what they’re signaling about society and what they’re leaving in the scrapbin.

1. This is the fiber that they use in Olipop!

2. Benefiber came out in 1999.

3. Like only 5-7% of do…