2 hours ago
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Name: Boy kibble.
Age: It’s new.
Appearance: Like a dog’s dinner.
Isn’t that what kibble is? Traditionally, yes, kibble is dried food for pets in pellet form, made of grains, vegetables and meat. Highly nutritional, keeps for ages.
‘Boy’, though? It has also been referred to as “human kibble” as women have been eating it too, but looking at social media it seems to be mainly a guy thing.
Got it – it’s the latest social media food trend, right? Right. Possibly as some kind of response to “girl dinner” a few years ago.
Remind me what that was again? A snack plate, cobbled together and consumed alone.
Delicious! Go on, then – how do you make kibble fit for human consumption? Food content creator Patrick Kong’s recipe includes rice, chopped vegetables, minced meat and eggs, which he cooks together in one big pan, divides into containers to be refrigerated or frozen, then takes out to eat twice a day …
Twice a day! Where’s the joy in that? You can add different seasonings to relieve the monotony. But to be honest, this isn’t really about joy. Or aesthetics.
What is it about? Trying to reduce body fat while keeping muscle mass. Kong lost 9kg (1st 6lb) over six months. And, judging by his before and after pics, got ripped in the process (he won’t have achieved this through diet alone, obviously).
I guess it might be better than other high-protein diets often regarded as masculine, such as the carnivore diet, which includes only animal products. Dr Emily Contois, the author of Diners, Dudes and Diets: How Gender and Power Collide in Food Media and Culture, told the New York Times that the word “‘boy’ [in boy kibble] softens what could be perceived as toxically masculine consumptive behaviours”.
Interesting. Yes, especially in the context of how diet and fitness – particularly masculine diet and fitness – is muscling its way into US politics.
You’re talking about Robert F Kennedy Jr’s efforts to Make America Eat Meat Again? This, and his and Pete Hegseth’s pull-up competition, the Pete & Bobby Challenge, which requires 50 pull-ups and 100 push-ups in no more than 10 minutes.
I’m feeling tired just thinking about it. At least boy kibble looks easy to make and there are vegetables involved. True: any dish that doesn’t take long, uses one pan and makes a load of food for a week is going to appeal to a lot of boys I know.
Do say: “Here boy, kibble!”
Don’t say: “I don’t have the energy to cook – I’ll just open a tin of Pedigree Chum.”
