‘Sardinemaxxing’, a TikTok trend encouraging consumers to eat as many sardines as possible, has exploded. According to Google Trends, interest in sardinemaxxing increased by 100% between the end of July and the beginning of August 2026.
Sardines were already the focus of extreme diets before this. For example, the ‘sardine fast’, which involves eating nothing but sardines for up to three days in order to force the body rapidly into a state of ketosis, has been popular for months.
The fast has faced criticism from some quarters, including wellness brand Zoe, which points out that eating only sardines ‘is not a balanced diet’ and could disrupt the microbiome and lead to deficiencies in fibre.
Of course, no one is suggesting that eating a diet exclusively made of sardines permanently is a good idea. Yet built into every food ‘maxxing’ trend is an overwhelming focus on a single food or ingredient that cannot, alone, provide everything someone needs for a balanced diet.
‘Maxxing’ can lead to overconsumption
At the heart of any ‘maxxing’ trend is, as the name suggests, an almost monomaniacal obsession with a single focal point, in other words whatever is being ‘maxxed’. In the world of food, these trends take the form of excessive consumption of certain ingredients.
Protein and fibre are the most prominent such trends, although other, more niche ‘maxxing’ trends, such as ‘livermaxxing’, also exist.
Yet the problem of consuming as much as possible of certain ingredients is that most food ingredients are harmful in large enough quantities, even protein and fibre.
For example, studies have linked the overconsumption of protein to poor heart and kidney health. Too much fibre, meanwhile, can lead to bloating, diarrhoea and constipation. Of course, these ingredients are still vital to a balanced diet, but they should be consumed within certain limits.
Most of the world’s health authorities provide upper limits for such ingredients. Yet the idea of ‘maxxing’ creates a risk that some consumers may dispense with the idea of upper limits entirely. This poses real risks.
A diet focused on one ingredient can be nutritionally incomplete
When consumers focus on a single ingredient, this can lead to a nutritionally incomplete diet.
This is obvious when a single food is the focus of the ‘maxxing’ trend. When a consumer eats sardines alone, for example, they do not get any fibre from plants.
Yet focusing on ingredients found in multiple foods, such as protein and fibre, has the potential to lead to nutritional imbalance as well.
If all of a consumer’s focus is on a single ingredient, it is entirely possible that less care will be taken to include all of the necessary nutrients for a balanced diet. Obsessive focus on a single ingredient may lead to tunnel vision, blotting out the importance of all others.
This is not guaranteed, and it is entirely possible to ‘maxx’ protein and fibre whilst also including all the other necessary nutrients in a diet. But once a single ingredient takes a prominent place in the consumer’s mind, the others may seem less important.
Maxxing is not the answer to any question regarding health. No nutrient or ingredient, no matter how beneficial, can make up for a balanced diet.
