EVERY month, a new superfood bursts onto my feed \u2014 promising eternal youth, glowing skin, and sunrise yoga energy, all from some obscure seed, berry, or root.<\/p>\n
You know the drill: Goji berries, acai bowls, sea moss, and ingredients that could clog a Henry vacuum.<\/p>\n
But there\u2019s one trend that\u2019s actually a strategy and not a food \u2014 fibremaxxing.<\/p>\n
Fibremaxxing is when people \u2014 usually TikTokers and Instagrammers in lovely soft lighting \u2014 start loading their diets with extreme levels of fibre to \u201chack\u201d their gut health.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Instead of gradually improving your diet like a sensible adult, fibremaxxing is all about going from zero to porridge in 60 seconds.\u00a0<\/p>\n
We\u2019re talking about psyllium husk smoothies, chia seed puddings, flax crackers, chickpea pasta, lentil wraps, and powders with names like \u201cIntestiBloom Cleanse+\u201d that cost \u20ac37 and smell like compost bins.<\/p>\n
The idea is to ramp up both soluble fibre, which slows digestion and stabilises blood sugar, and insoluble fibre, which bulks out your stool and keeps things moving, so your gut microbiome can supposedly flourish.<\/p>\n
If you\u2019re lucky, it might mean more energy, better digestion, and fewer mood swings. If not, it means wondering how to tell your boss you can\u2019t come in because your insides are staging a protest.<\/p>\n
My first brush with this trend happened before it had a name. We were sent a hamper of chia seeds while I was doing breakfast radio.<\/p>\n
I found a bag that claimed to have been used by Aztec warriors, and thought: \u201cThat\u2019ll do.\u201d<\/p>\n
I poured about 200g into a water bottle, swished it around, and drank the lot. Lottie Ryan tried to stop me. She failed. My intestines did not.<\/p>\n
For the next week, my body had the fibre intake of a herd of elephants. And that, dear reader, is where this fibre odyssey began.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s something suspicious about how quickly we crown new health royalty.\u00a0<\/p>\n
One month it\u2019s turmeric, the next it\u2019s charcoal \u2014 which, by the way, is just burnt toast with notions.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Fibre, however, is the Beyonc\u00e9 of nutrition. It\u2019s been here the whole time \u2014 just not getting the spotlight.<\/p>\n
Fibremaxxing took that and ran with it, turning an old friend into a full-blown TikTok icon.<\/p>\n
The trouble is, social media wellness trends come with style but not safety warnings.<\/p>\n
People down fibre powders like they\u2019re protein shakes. It\u2019s the PR machine that\u2019s the problem. Gut health sounds gentle and nourishing.<\/p>\n
But what they don\u2019t tell you is if you go from zero fibre to max fibre in one day, you\u2019ll hear noises from your stomach that resemble a battle scene from Game of Thrones.<\/p>\n
Superfoods are great, but they\u2019re not miracle workers, and they don\u2019t deserve to be trusted more than your own intestines.<\/p>\n
Chia seeds are the gateway drug to fibremaxxing.\u00a0<\/p>\n
They\u2019re everywhere \u2014 sprinkled into smoothies, yoghurts, overnight puddings, and in every second influencer\u2019s \u201cgut-friendly brekkie bowl\u201d.<\/p>\n
They\u2019re small, flavourless, packed with omega-3s, and they expand into a weird jelly substance when wet \u2014 like frogspawn with a marketing budget.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Aztecs believed they were sacred. I believed I was invincible. I was wrong.<\/p>\n
Now I treat chia seeds with respect. Two teaspoons into yoghurt, leave them overnight in the fridge \u2014 lovely.<\/p>\n
You can\u2019t just cram your body full of lentils and expect your life to remain unchanged.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Fibre moves things, quickly, and not always at a time of your choosing.<\/p>\n
One of the key mistakes in fibremaxxing is timing. Social media makes it look effortless \u2014 they add a \u2018gut shot\u2019 to their morning routine, as if it were toothpaste.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But if you try that without a carefully planned schedule and access to your own toilet, you\u2019re dicing with danger.<\/p>\n
Fibremaxxing should come with calendar alerts: \u201cDo not attempt if you have: A funeral, a Zoom presentation, the school run, or a three-hour GAA match.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fibre respects no one\u2019s plans and it certainly doesn\u2019t care about the NCT queue.<\/p>\n
This is the bit nobody warns you about: Once the fibre hits, your bathroom habits become a matter of personal triumph.<\/p>\n
Not in an emotional sense, but in the way you feel you\u2019ve achieved something the world should know about.\u00a0<\/p>\n
You study your work. You analyse it. You develop opinions. Gross, yes, but here we are. And don\u2019t shoot the messenger.<\/p>\n
But like all wellness trends, it\u2019s not the food that\u2019s the problem.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It\u2019s the all-or-nothing mindset that leads people to drink three tablespoons of psyllium husk and then film themselves crying in a kimono.<\/p>\n
Start slow. Listen to your gut \u2014 literally. Remember: If your new routine requires a map of Ireland, it might not be sustainable.<\/p>\n
Fibre doesn\u2019t need to be fancy, it just needs to work. And trust me \u2014 when it does, you\u2019ll know.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EVERY month, a new superfood bursts onto my feed \u2014 promising eternal youth, glowing skin, and sunrise yoga…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":50458,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[64,63,137,532,42666],"class_list":{"0":"post-50457","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nutrition","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-health","11":"tag-nutrition","12":"tag-this-much-i-know-column-shape-i"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50457","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50457"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50457\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50458"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50457"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50457"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50457"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}