Protein Tops Social as Fiber Gains Ground

Protein remains the reigning king of viral food content, pulling more engagement than any other term tracked in Datassential’s latest Social Listening Quarterly report.

Protein mentions climbed 57% over the first quarter, and engagement rose 21% to 51 million, driven largely by time-saving recipes that deliver the macronutrient without sacrificing flavor: “lazy” formats, 30-minute builds, and bold Mexican- and Japanese-inspired dishes did the heavy lifting.

“Over the past two years, high protein has maintained its jump in appeal, and protein content is still very much on consumer minds, with nearly half considering this factor when ordering food away from home,” the report said.

Sixty-five percent of consumers said they love or like high protein by the end of the second quarter, up nine percentage points from the same period in 2023, according to Datassential’s Consumer Preferences data. Separately, 43% of consumers plan to increase their protein intake over the next year, according to Datassential’s Plant-Forward Opportunity report.

Operators are responding on two fronts. New chain releases and limited-time offers featuring protein callouts jumped 245% in the first half of 2026 compared with the same period in 2025, Datassential’s Launches & Ratings showed. Meanwhile, the firm’s Menu Trends platform shows protein callouts are expected to grow another 25% over the next four years.

But protein is no longer running unopposed. Fiber has emerged as the macro that content creators increasingly pit against it, and while it operates at a fraction of protein’s scale, it is growing fast. Fiber mentions rose 66% and engagement more than doubled, to 5.4 million, per the Social Listening report.

Notably, that growth is not tied to a health-food framing. It is coming from hearty, center-of-plate cooking, such as savory oatmeal or stir fries built on cabbage, itself one of the quarter’s highest-volume terms.

Consumers are roughly as aspirational about fiber as they are about protein, but they place less emphasis on it when ordering out, likely in part because restaurant menus rarely carry a nutrition label to guide them on fiber content.

“With social media abuzz about fiber and consumers interested in increasing it, foodservice could find opportunities to connect consumers to fiber-rich offerings through better menu labeling and callouts,” the report said.