{"id":2444,"date":"2026-07-06T14:14:44","date_gmt":"2026-07-06T14:14:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gleamgrid.co.za\/?p=2444"},"modified":"2026-07-06T14:14:44","modified_gmt":"2026-07-06T14:14:44","slug":"6-most-ridiculous-food-trends-that-actually-became-a-thing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gleamgrid.co.za\/index.php\/2026\/07\/06\/6-most-ridiculous-food-trends-that-actually-became-a-thing\/","title":{"rendered":"6 Most Ridiculous Food Trends That Actually Became A Thing"},"content":{"rendered":"

Remember when people thought a $20 slice of toast was a good idea? Or when grown adults were paying for air whipped into a cup? The food industry has a talent for convincing us to spend money on absolute nonsense. Here are six of the most ridiculous food trends that somehow became legitimate phenomena.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Avocado Toast \u2013 The $20 Breakfast That Broke Millennials<\/span><\/h2>\n

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When did smashed avocado on toast become a status symbol? Somehow, a dish that costs about $2 to make at home became a $20 caf\u00e9 staple and the symbol of millennial financial irresponsibility. The trend got so out of hand that a 2017 US study found that over 52% of places serving brunch had it on their menu. At its peak, an Australian millionaire even blamed millennials’ lack of savings on their avocado toast addiction. The hype has died down \u2013 but avocado toast still costs more than it should for what is literally just avocado on bread.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Gold Leaf Burgers \u2013 When Food Became A Flex<\/span><\/h2>\n

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The $5,000 “Douche Burger” in New York wasn’t just a meal \u2013 it was a statement. Topped with gold leaf, foie gras, and truffles, it was created for people with more money than sense. But the gold leaf trend didn’t stop there. It spread to coffees, sushi, ice cream, and even pizza. The 24-karat gold added zero flavour, zero nutritional value, and did absolutely nothing but prove you had cash to burn. Only in the 21st century would people pay extra for something that tastes like absolutely nothing.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Rainbow Food \u2013 When Your Plate Became A Unicorn’s Toilet<\/span><\/h2>\n

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Everything had to be rainbow-coloured in the 2010s. Rainbow bagels. Rainbow grilled cheese. Rainbow lattes. Even rainbow doughnuts that looked like a kindergarten art project exploded onto social media. The trend was pure Instagram bait \u2013 the colours were almost entirely artificial, and the taste was often sacrificed for the aesthetic. While it’s faded from its peak, you can still find rainbow-coloured creations in trendy caf\u00e9s, proving that some bad ideas just refuse to die.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Cloud Bread \u2013 The TikTok Trend That Defied Physics<\/span><\/h2>\n

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In 2020, TikTok lost its collective mind over cloud bread \u2013 a puffy, colourful, cotton candy-like bread made from egg whites, cornstarch, and sugar. The internet was flooded with videos of people baking pastel-coloured clouds that melted in your mouth. The problem? It wasn’t really bread. It was basically a meringue with zero nutritional value and a texture that felt like eating air. It looked cute, but it was ultimately just a sugar bomb wrapped in pastel colours \u2013 and like most TikTok trends, it quickly evaporated.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Activated Charcoal \u2013 The Black Food That Nobody Asked For<\/span><\/h2>\n

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At some point, someone decided to add activated charcoal to food \u2013 and suddenly everything had to be black. Black ice cream, black burgers, black pizza, black lattes \u2013 all because charcoal was supposedly “detoxifying”. The problem? It also absorbs medications, vitamins, and other nutrients, making it potentially dangerous for people on medication. Many restaurants eventually stopped serving it for safety reasons. Eating something that looks like it fell out of a vacuum cleaner and could cancel out your birth control? Hard pass.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Edible Glitter \u2013 Because Food Wasn’t Sparkly Enough<\/span><\/h2>\n

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You thought your food was boring? Add some edible glitter and suddenly it’s “magical.” The trend swept through baking and cocktail culture, with everything from donuts to champagne getting a shimmering makeover. But here’s the kicker: most edible glitter is just sugar, cornstarch, and food colouring mixed with mica-based pearlescent pigments. You’re literally eating crushed minerals for a sparkly aesthetic. It’s a reminder that we live in a world where people will put shiny dust on anything for a social media post.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Remember when people thought a $20 slice of toast was a good idea? Or when grown adults were paying for air whipped into a cup? The food industry has a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2450,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,2,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2444","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exclusives","category-photo-vault","category-weird-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gleamgrid.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2444","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gleamgrid.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gleamgrid.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gleamgrid.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gleamgrid.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2444"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/gleamgrid.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2444\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2453,"href":"https:\/\/gleamgrid.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2444\/revisions\/2453"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gleamgrid.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2450"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gleamgrid.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2444"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gleamgrid.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2444"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gleamgrid.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2444"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}