Do 'functional' drinks really work?
Functional or "healthy" drinks claim to calm you down, boost your energy, or improve brain health. Celebrities from Katy Perry to Bella Hadid have embraced them. But are they actually worth it?
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00:00The US healthy drinks market is valued at $9.2 billion.
00:08That's 10% of the drinks industry.
00:10And it hasn't always been that way.
00:12It has ballooned 50% since the start of the COVID pandemic.
00:17These drinks are gaining steam
00:18as we become more health conscious as a society.
00:22But are they actually healthy for you
00:24and are they worth the extra dollars?
00:27I'm Mia DeGraff and I'm a health editor at Business Insider.
00:33Functional drinks are drinks that have a supposed
00:37added benefit to your experience of drinking them.
00:40So think about coffee, energy drinks, alcohol, soda.
00:45These are all things that give you a kind of buzz.
00:47They have caffeine, they have sugar, they have alcohols.
00:50That's a function.
00:51But we are moving towards a different kind
00:54of functional drink, which is marketed
00:56as a replacement for those.
00:57Now, functional drinks is a code word for healthy drinks.
01:02The ingredients of these might be something like probiotics.
01:05That's supposed to heal your gut.
01:07Adaptogens, supposedly good for calming you.
01:10Nootropics, supposedly good for your brain health.
01:13CBD, which is supposed to relax you.
01:16Functional drinks have been around for centuries.
01:19Tea, coffee, these are drinks
01:22that have been giving humans a buzz
01:24for years and years and years.
01:26But functional drinks as an industry
01:28really got started in the 1980s with Red Bull.
01:32Red Bull was invented by this Austrian toothpaste salesman
01:35who went to Thailand in 1982
01:38and discovered that there was this popular drink
01:40among Thai truck drivers that seemed to give them energy
01:43as they were on the road for a long time.
01:45He thinks, this is great for blue collar workers in Thailand
01:49but I think I can market this
01:50to white collar workers in Europe.
01:52This could be a compliment to your fast paced life.
01:56He comes back to Austria, comes up with Red Bull
01:59and it's a huge hit.
02:00Red Bull gives you wings.
02:04Red Bull is the poster child for functional drinks.
02:07It has caffeine, it has sugar replacements,
02:09it's got B vitamins, it's got some taurine.
02:12It was very cleverly marketed as something
02:15that would enhance your endurance,
02:17reaction speed and concentration.
02:19But there was actually no evidence for that.
02:2340 years later,
02:24the appetite for functional drinks is still there
02:27but what we want is slightly different.
02:30People are way more aware of the health downsides
02:33of ultra processed foods,
02:35the health downsides of pollution,
02:36everything that you're surrounded by
02:38that is so hard to avoid.
02:40And there's so much appetite for something
02:41that you could just switch in your life
02:43that would help you a little bit.
02:46COVID was when you really started to see
02:48this kind of functional beverage explode as an industry.
02:52Drinks that are marketed as not bad for you,
02:55but good for you.
02:56Drinks that potentially cut out toxins
02:59and add health benefits.
03:01This market is growing and it's growing fast
03:04and brands are rushing to adapt to this market.
03:07They're trying to put out drinks that really speak
03:09to our desire to hack the gut brain connection.
03:13So there's this idea that perhaps
03:15if you nourish your gut health,
03:16it will also improve your mental wellbeing
03:19and your overall wellbeing.
03:21A telltale sign that this is the area
03:24of the drinks industry that is really buzzing right now
03:27is the fact that celebrities are flocking into it.
03:30There are so many celebrities
03:32putting out functional drinks lines.
03:34Cheers with my frosted grape.
03:36The Rock, Katy Perry and Bella Hadid.
03:39Everyone's jumping on this, everyone's excited about this,
03:42but there isn't really any scientific evidence
03:44that these properties function for you in a drink.
03:47Celebrities are also obsessed
03:49with the drink called kombucha,
03:50which is a type of probiotic drink.
03:53Probiotic drinks are huge and growing fast.
03:57The probiotics drink industry
03:58is valued at $40 billion worldwide.
04:01And by 2033, it's expected to be valued at $99 billion.
04:06This area of the drinks industry
04:08essentially contains two types of drinks.
04:10Prebiotic sodas are supposed to essentially prepare
04:14your gut to better consume nutrients.
04:17Probiotic drinks are supposed to fill your gut
04:19with healthy bacteria to enhance your health.
04:22Both of these types of drinks are in theory
04:25meant to nourish your gut health.
04:26So are these drinks good for you?
04:29That's actually a really hard question to answer.
04:32Firstly, none of these drinks are regulated by the FDA
04:35and they're making some pretty hefty claims
04:38about enhancing your health
04:40without having to work within a scientific framework.
04:43Packaging also plays a huge role here
04:45and brands are speaking to our appetite
04:48for some of these ingredients like probiotics,
04:50nootropics, adaptogens, CBD,
04:53but they don't have to meet
04:54any kind of scientific requirement
04:56in terms of what's included,
04:58what the strain is, what the concentration is.
05:00And they don't really have to put much detail on the label.
05:03Lastly, we still don't know very much
05:06about how to influence our gut health.
05:08And the issue here is that these drinks
05:10are really making bold claims
05:12that they can improve your gut health,
05:14can improve your brain health,
05:15can calm down your nervous system
05:17when we actually know very little about how to do that.
05:20We also haven't really studied these ingredients very much.
05:23So it's a lot of uncertainties for drinks
05:26that are three times the price of soda.
05:29Here's how you can make a decision
05:30about what drinks to buy
05:32when you're going down the supermarket aisle.
05:34Firstly, check the label.
05:35Keep an eye out for drinks with vague claims.
05:39So things like supports skin elasticity
05:43or enhances brain health,
05:45these are really vague terms that don't mean anything.
05:48So probiotics, many drinks just say probiotics,
05:52but they don't say what kind of probiotic is in it.
05:55So I would recommend picking a drink
05:57that names the probiotic
05:58and knowing what that probiotic is before you drink it.
06:01If you are trying to be healthy
06:03by picking one of these drinks,
06:04do check the label and make sure they are lower in sugar.
06:07Soda is a very easy way to consume way more sugar
06:10than you realize you're consuming.
06:12So there is little to no hardcore science
06:15behind these drinks.
06:17That doesn't mean that they don't have any benefits.
06:20A lot of these drinks do contain ingredients
06:23that have been used for centuries
06:25in cultures around the world,
06:27like green tea, ashwagandha, ginseng.
06:30The thing to be aware of is brands capitalizing
06:34on our natural health concerns
06:36by making bold claims that go way beyond what we know.