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In recent times, Australians have faced challenges in purchasing Greek yogurt, with a particular scarcity in lighter and high-protein options.
Major retailers like Woolworths, Coles, and Aldi have acknowledged the situation, stating they are collaborating with suppliers to address the surge in demand.
Online discussions have quickly pointed fingers at the Japanese cheesecake craze, a culinary trend where biscuits are blended into Greek yogurt to create a unique dessert.
However, the shortage isn’t limited to yogurt alone.
Aldi has also noted a spike in the popularity of cottage cheese, linking it to “viral trends and evolving dietary preferences.”
Coles has said that “high protein foods across multiple categories have surged in popularity over the past 18 months, driven by health-conscious Australians and protein-focused social media content”.
Dr Fiona Willer — the president of Dietitians Australia, the peak body for dietitians and nutrition professionals — told SBS News that “we’ve got a couple of trends colliding”.
“One is the cheesecake, yoghurt, TikTok phenomena … colliding with this, kind of, trend towards higher protein intake,” she said.
While the cheesecake trend took off in early 2026, the promotion of protein-heavy diets has steadily grown over the years, reaching peak levels in 2025 — and it’s showing no signs of slowing down in 2026.
A social media-driven trend known as ‘protein-maxxing’ — essentially, the promotion of high-protein diets to support fitness goals, improve metabolism and reduce hunger, among other ostensible goals — embodies this phenomenon.
Dr Willer said high-protein diets are a “social media phenomenon rather than [one] driven by science”.
“The national guidelines have not changed. The human body’s protein requirements have not increased recently, but there again does tend to be a trend towards people being concerned about [protein],” she said.
“As dietitians, we’re not really concerned about the protein intake of Australians; we really have very rarely dipped below what we need biologically as a population.”
Meanwhile, companies have been cashing in on the demand, adding protein to everything from chips to desserts — there’s even protein seasoning and protein water.
Dr Willer said manufacturers are “benefiting” from the trend by “putting protein labelling all over everything”.
“Our legislation around food labelling tends to be a pretty slow beast to change, and so the trends happen before the regulation happens when it comes to those kinds of claims,” she said.
“We certainly have regulations around being able to call something low salt, and other various sorts of nutrient amounts. We’ll see whether the protein gets its own entry level in the food standards code in due time.”
How much protein do we actually need?
Dr Willer said the recommended daily amount of protein a person should eat is 46 grams for a woman and 64 grams for a man.
But she said there can be other factors.
“It does depend on sex and size of the person and how muscular they are, how much muscle tissue they have to maintain,” she said.
According to Dietitians Australia, a person’s exact protein requirements depend on a variety of factors, such as age, gender, height and weight.
The Department of Health and the National Health and Medical Research Council provide more information here.
Dr Willer also warned that high-protein diets also pose risks for those with chronic kidney disease, which affects about 1 per cent of Australians in 2022, though up to 1 in 7 adults may show signs of it.
“If you are considering trying a higher protein intake, for whatever reason that might be, I’d love you to see a dietician, but at least see your GP to check that your kidneys are working properly, because you may actually be causing yourself active harm by chasing after that goal,” she said.
What’s next for the trend?
While protein continues to trend, high-fibre diets are also having their moment in the spotlight.
Many videos promoting ‘fibre-maxxing’ have also been trending, often in response to typically low-fibre, high-protein recipes.
Dr Willer said interest in fibre tends to “wax and wane”, but recent interest could be due to the death of James Vanderbeek from bowel cancer.
“I suspect that the fibre focus is reminding people that there are direct links between fibre intake and particularly bowel cancer, not that it’s the 100 per cent cause, but it is certainly a risk factor,” she said.
“So, to reduce your risk of bowel cancer across decades, regularly consuming a high fibre diet will reduce that risk.”
Both protein and fibre are known to cause flatulence, with Dr Willer saying that “bowel bacteria are happy either way”.
“I can say that bowel bacteria everywhere is happy with both trends because, of course, our farts come from the gas produced by our bowel bacteria, and so if we’re feeding them well, they’re happy and they’re partying down there, and that’s where lots of gas comes from,” she said.
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