From cupcakes covered with glitter to milkshakes topped with full desserts, food trends have officially gone off the rails. What once started as a creative expression of culinary skills has now turned into impractical, overpriced, and often tasteless gimmicks. These trends may look great in photos, but behind the sparkle and excess is a serious lack of flavor, nutrition, and common sense. In this article, we’re serving up 12 food fads that need to exit the menu fast.
Cloud Eggs
Fluffy to the eye, flat on flavor, cloud eggs are the culinary equivalent of a beauty filter. This trend asks you to whip egg whites into stiff peaks, mold them into nests, and bake with precision. Only to end up with dry, rubbery pillows that taste like air.
Sure, they make a great photo, but traditional eggs—scrambled, poached, or sunny-side up—deliver far better taste with far less drama. Let’s stop chasing likes and start serving breakfast that’s worth eating.
Avocado Overload
It’s official—avocado has infiltrated every corner of the menu. What began as a nutritious toast topping has morphed into a culinary obsession, surfacing in smoothies, brownies, cheesecakes, and even ice cream.
While it’s undeniably healthy, the trend has reached saturation, pushing the humble fruit into places it doesn’t belong. Avocado’s versatility is impressive, but when it’s the default ingredient in everything from brunch to dessert, it’s time to ask: Are we innovating or just overdoing it?
Charcoal Craze
Activated charcoal may look edgy in ice cream and lemonade, but it’s a gimmick with serious downsides. Touted as a detox hero, it actually disrupts nutrient absorption and can interfere with medications, including birth control.
Worse still, it adds no flavor, no nutrition, and no real benefit. What started as a cool visual trend has morphed into a health hazard wrapped in stylish packaging. Your body’s detox system works just fine on its own. There’s no need to add fireplace soot to your dessert.
Cloud Bread
Don’t let the pastel swirls and airy texture fool you, cloud bread is more meringue masquerade than meaningful meal. Made from egg whites, sugar, and cornstarch, it offers Instagram appeal but lacks nutritional value.
It’s low in fiber, protein variety, and essential vitamins, and poses risks for those with allergies or specific dietary needs. Bland in flavor and lacking real benefits, this low-carb fad floats high on trendiness but falls flat on taste and substance. Reach for real bread instead.
CBD Infused Foods
CBD may have wellness potential, but incorporating it into cookies, ice cream, and lattes isn’t the most effective way to achieve results. Most CBD-infused foods contain barely detectable amounts, yet come with inflated prices and unproven health claims.
Worse, there’s no FDA approval or dosage regulation for using CBD as a food additive, so you’re often paying for hype, not help. If you’re genuinely interested in CBD’s benefits, skip the sugar-coated gimmicks and stick to trusted, properly formulated sources.
Edible glitter
Edible glitter has sprinkled its way into everything from cocktails to cake pops, promising visual magic but delivering little else. Beneath the shimmer lies corn syrup, synthetic dyes, and sometimes even unsafe, non-food-grade ingredients.
The FDA has had to step in, and consumers report lingering glitter in their mouths and mild digestive woes. If your dessert needs a glitter bomb to impress, maybe it’s time to rethink the recipe. Sparkle responsibly, or better yet, skip it altogether.
Rainbow Foods
From bagels to smoothie bowls, rainbow-colored foods have saturated our feeds and our plates. Sure, they’re bright and fun, but beneath the vivid swirls lies one consistent truth: they’re often bland, sugary, and nutritionally empty.
This trend prioritizes visual impact over genuine flavor, transforming meals into photo opportunities with little payoff beyond likes. When food becomes more about filters than taste, it’s time to dial down the dye and bring real ingredients back into focus.
Mug Cakes
The beloved mug cake promises instant gratification, but often delivers messy mugs and mediocre flavor. Many recipes involve raw eggs and uncooked flour—two ingredients that pose real health risks if not handled properly.
While the concept sounds convenient, the end result can be rubbery, bland, and potentially unsafe. Cleaning the aftermath adds insult to injury. Want a better idea? Skip the microwave chemistry set and opt for real cake.
Weird Pasta Trends
Pasta’s versatility has spiraled into culinary absurdity. From spaghetti-wrapped meat bombs to red velvet ravioli, the internet’s quest for novelty has left good taste behind.
Pasta chips promise crunchy convenience but often serve up greasy disappointment. And dessert-themed pasta? Let’s not confuse ravioli with cake. These viral recipes chase shock value over substance, proving that just because you can make it doesn’t mean you should.
IV Drip Cocktails
Turning medical equipment into party props, IV drip cocktails push the limits of gimmick culture. Served in plastic IV bags with tubing, they offer no flavor upgrade—just awkward sipping and a heap of unnecessary waste.
Beyond the environmental cost, the aesthetic trivializes real-life medical experiences that many endure daily. It’s an insensitive and overpriced stunt designed for social media buzz. It’s time to pour drinks back into glasses and leave hospital gear out of happy hours.
Monster Milkshakes
What once was a creamy, sippable treat has ballooned into a towering chaos of cake slices, cookies, candy bars, and a sprinkle avalanche. Over-the-top milkshakes now cost as much as a full meal and deliver more mess than satisfaction.
The shake itself is buried beneath a sugary mountain built for likes, not taste. Most end up half-eaten and wasted. It’s time we retire these dessert skyscrapers and revisit the milkshake’s original charm—simple, sweet, and straw-friendly.
Edible Dishware
Edible dishware sounds earth-friendly in theory, but it rarely survives the reality of mealtime. Cookie cups disintegrate in hot drinks, bread bowls collapse under soup, and sugar spoons melt before a second stir.
These gimmicks often taste strange and sabotage the very food they aim to serve. While sustainability matters, practical, reusable alternatives like stainless steel or glass outperform these trendy, single-use snacks. Eco-efforts should reduce waste, not turn your dinnerware into dessert.
