Menu wording ups plants
A behavioral study shows simply renaming plant‑based dishes more attractively significantly increases selection—an easy nudge to shift intake toward higher‑fiber, lower‑processed meals Irish Times. Meanwhile, ‘fibremaxxing’—a social trend emphasizing high‑fiber choices—has gone viral as a practical tactic to boost gut health and support weight control The Week.
A quasi‑experimental field study led by Anna Gavrieli et al. (link.springer.com) that swapping “basic” dish titles for systematically crafted appealing names produced a 54.5% increase vs 10.6% for basic names—a 43.9% relative uplift that equated to a 7% rise in grams taken per plate. (link.springer.com) The trial ran in four corporate cafeterias in Chicago, Sydney, São Paulo and Singapore, tested three plant‑rich dishes per site across repeated four‑week cycles, and estimated portions by weighing total food taken divided by plate count to calculate the effect. (pdfs.semanticscholar.org) Operators are already translating the research into practice: UK hospital caterer Medirest began a six‑hospital plant‑powered menu trial with behavioural‑science partner Greener by Default in February 2026 to measure uptake, carbon footprint and patient/staff satisfaction. (hospitalityandcateringnews.com) The social trend tied to this shift, “fibremaxxing,” surged on TikTok in late 2025 and has been framed by outlets like The Week and Marie Claire as a practical push to load meals with high‑fibre plants for gut health and satiety. (theweek.com) Public‑health context: Dietary guidance recommends roughly 25–38 g of fibre a day, yet average intakes hover around 14–16 g and more than 90–95% of U.S. adults fall short of targets, a shortfall cited by Harvard Health and the Dietary Guidelines. (health.harvard.edu) Nutrition experts cautioned that fibre increases should be gradual—adding one extra high‑fibre serving a week is advised by sources including Harvard and reporting by CNBC—because abrupt jumps can cause bloating and other GI symptoms, a risk flagged by ScienceAlert and other outlets. (cnbc.com)
