While health and wellness dominate global food conversations, “Comida Chatarra” — Spanish for junk food — is making a surprising return in digital culture. Despite receiving only 18 out of 100 points in the Wild Bite Club Trend Monitor, the trend reveals how consumers reconcile pleasure, nostalgia, and rebellion. In parallel, “Comida Saludable” captures the opposite impulse — the pursuit of balance and purity. Together, these twin forces illustrate the modern eater’s paradox: an appetite for both authenticity and indulgence.
Trend Snapshot
| Aspect | Details |
|---|---|
| Trend Name | Comida Chatarra (Junk Food Revival) |
| Key Components | Nostalgia, irony, digital self-expression, rebellion against health culture |
| Spread | Global, with roots in Latin America and viral reach across TikTok, Instagram, YouTube |
| Examples | Retro snack brands, ironic McDonald’s selfies, late-night “food confession” posts |
| Social Media | #ComidaChatarra, #JunkFoodAesthetic, #ComfortCravings |
| Demographics | Gen Z and Millennials seeking emotional authenticity |
| Wow Factor | The ironic glamorization of imperfection |
| Trend Phase | Early mainstream — culturally resonant but commercially underdeveloped |
The Return of Sin
The revival of Comida Chatarra speaks to a fatigue with moralized eating. After years of kale smoothies, protein counting, and “clean eating” mantras, many consumers are turning back toward imperfection — but this time, with awareness. The return of junk food is not about rejecting health; it’s about reclaiming pleasure without guilt.
In the Wild Bite Club Trend Monitor, the trend’s relatively low score of 18 suggests limited market leverage. Yet cultural momentum tells another story. Across Latin America, Europe, and North America, creators use Comida Chatarra as shorthand for freedom — a symbolic act of eating what one truly wants. The psychological undertone is clear: the more restrictive modern wellness becomes, the more consumers crave rebellion in edible form.
Comida Chatarra becomes a social language, a shared wink at collective burnout. Posting a picture of fries at midnight or a bag of Doritos during a “healthy challenge” week functions as a small act of defiance. The sin is no longer private — it’s performative, communal, and deeply human.
The Everyday Aesthetic
In visual culture, junk food has evolved from taboo to aesthetic icon. On TikTok, short clips of melting cheese or dripping soda cans are framed with cinematic lighting. Instagram accounts curate vintage snack packaging as pop art. The once “cheap” becomes “charming.”
This aesthetic revaluation connects to a broader nostalgia economy. Many millennials grew up with brands like Cheetos, Coca-Cola, and McDonald’s — icons that shaped emotional memory. Now, in an era of over-curated wellness feeds, these visuals act as antidotes to perfection. The message is clear: imperfection sells authenticity.
Globally, brands have noticed. McDonald’s reintroduced retro packaging in several markets; Pepsi revived its 1980s logo; and smaller snack producers in Mexico and Spain have launched “throwback” editions that echo childhood comfort. Yet the driving force is cultural, not commercial. The beauty of Comida Chatarra lies in how it redefines everyday food as a medium of self-expression — not just consumption.
Irony and Identity
The psychology behind Comida Chatarra is layered with irony. Eating junk food in 2025 is not simply indulgence; it’s often a form of self-aware humor. Gen Z, in particular, uses irony to navigate contradictions — sustainability vs. convenience, body positivity vs. fitness culture, wellness vs. burnout. Posting a selfie with a greasy burger can mean both “I don’t care” and “I know exactly what this says about me.”
This ironic detachment creates a safe emotional distance. Comida Chatarra becomes a metaphor for controlled chaos — a way to acknowledge imperfection without surrendering to it. The tone online is rarely purely celebratory. It’s a performance of ambivalence, a balancing act between craving and critique.
Interestingly, this humor-driven behavior mirrors the rise of “deinfluencing” and “anti-wellness” trends. People aren’t rejecting health; they’re rejecting moral superiority around it. A post tagged with #ComidaChatarra often says more about cultural mood than dietary choice — it’s about honesty in an era of optimization.
Cultural Echoes
Beyond aesthetics, Comida Chatarra resonates as cultural memory. In Latin America, it carries echoes of street food culture — informal, communal, and democratic. In the U.S. and Europe, it symbolizes comfort and economic accessibility. Across contexts, it represents emotional nourishment that transcends nutritional value.
Brands have learned to tap into this resonance subtly. Rather than promoting indulgence, many highlight emotional connections. Campaigns feature real people, imperfect meals, or late-night cravings shared between friends. The shift is from selling taste to selling relatability.
This cultural reframing aligns with broader shifts in food storytelling. Where “Comida Saludable” promotes aspiration, “Comida Chatarra” promotes belonging. Both operate within the same cultural ecosystem, reflecting a collective desire for balance — health without judgment, pleasure without excess.
The Double Pulse
The coexistence of Comida Chatarra and Comida Saludable reveals an important dynamic: consumers no longer define themselves by a single food identity. Instead, they oscillate between poles — detox and indulgence, smoothie and soda, mindfulness and midnight snack.
According to the Wild Bite Club Monitor’s dual-trend framework, the two trends form a “psychological loop.” One feeds the other. The rise of healthy eating culture makes junk food more emotionally charged; the resurgence of junk food in turn recontextualizes what “healthy” means. Consumers are less interested in binary labels and more in narrative balance.
This ambivalence challenges traditional marketing logic. Brands can no longer rely on guilt or purity alone. They must speak to the spectrum of desire — not just what people eat, but how they feel about eating it.
Further Expansion
Comida Chatarra is unlikely to dominate markets, but its cultural visibility will continue to expand. The trend’s strength lies not in volume but in symbolism. It marks a shift from food as function to food as self-expression — a linguistic, aesthetic, and emotional tool.
In the near future, we can expect to see a hybridization of narratives: “healthy junk food,” “nostalgic indulgence,” and “comfort minimalism.” Each merges the emotional familiarity of Comida Chatarra with the mindfulness of Comida Saludable. The key insight for the food industry is clear: consumers don’t want to choose between good and bad; they want permission to be both.
Ultimately, Comida Chatarra teaches us something profound about cultural evolution. Even in an age of nutrition tracking and biohacking, food remains storytelling — a form of human expression. The junk food comeback is not a regression. It’s a recalibration of pleasure, meaning, and identity in the modern world.