The Other Macro

Protein is on water, sweets and coffee. Meanwhile the nutrient most people are actually short of has almost nothing to sell it.

Nutrition researchers reviewing the 2026 food trends keep making the same unglamorous point: people in high-income countries generally get plenty of protein and not enough fibre. And something is shifting — publishers reported roughly a 9,500% increase in page views on articles mentioning fibre. A lot of people have gone looking.

What they find is a list of high-fibre foods and an instruction to eat more of them. Which skips the only part that's actually hard: do that suddenly and you will spend a fortnight bloated, decide fibre disagrees with you, and stop.

Inside:

• Why protein won the aisle — and why a protein claim isn't information about whether you need more
• What fibre actually does: soluble, insoluble, fermentable, and why the type changes how you should start
• What's well established versus what's promising but unsettled — stated separately, because the gap is where products get sold
• The eight-week ramp: one change at a time, fluid first, pulses in week three rather than week one
• Where the fibre actually is — almost all of it in the cheapest food in the shop
• The thirty-plants rule, honestly assessed
• Chapter 7: when more fibre is the wrong advice — the chapter almost no popular fibre content writes

23 pages · Instant PDF download · 2026 edition

Informational purposes only. Not medical or dietetic advice, and not a weight-loss programme. Fibre is not universally good advice: for several digestive conditions, increasing it can make symptoms worse. If you have any gut condition, take regular medication, or have persistent symptoms, speak to a doctor or registered dietitian first.