Supermarket beverage aisles are starting to look a lot more like a pharmacy.
There are sodas made with mushrooms that are said to improve mental clarity and juices packed with bacteria that claim to improve digestive health. Collagen-infused water promises better skin, and energy drinks help burn body fat.
Welcome to the frenzy of functional drinks – drinks designed to do more than just taste or hydrate. What began in the late 1980s with caffeine- and vitamin-packed energy drinks like Red Bull has become a multibillion-dollar industry. Hundreds of brands compete for consumers’ attention with increasingly exotic ingredients and marketing focused on well-being.
Feeling stressed? Try a drink with ashwagandha, a shrub widely used in herbal medicine. Want to boost your training? There are drinks that contain chromium, a mineral that can speed up metabolism. Want to get into a party mood without alcohol? Several companies are producing non-alcoholic spirits and beers with ingredients such as guayusa, a leaf that contains caffeine and antioxidants.
Consumer intelligence firm NielsenIQ counted 53,000 UPC symbols in the U.S. functional beverage category last year, including all the different flavors of energy drinks, sports drinks, sodas, waters, shakes and teas that are sold with the premise of improving health. physical or mental health.
Nutritionists say the general trend of consumers seeking healthier drinks is a good one. But experts also say people should be cautious and read ingredient labels, especially if they are pregnant, taking medication or have other health problems. And they should avoid empty calories and sugars that they won’t burn. A 16-ounce Monster energy drink has almost as much sugar as a regular Coke, for example.
“Someone who runs a marathon has different needs than someone who commutes,” said Martha Field, assistant professor in the division of nutritional sciences at Cornell University.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration regulates ingredients and requires drink labels to be truthful, and the Federal Trade Commission can intervene if companies make false claims. In 2013, the FTC ruled that Pom Wonderful pomegranate juice was deceptively advertised as clinically proven to treat, prevent, or reduce the risk of heart disease and prostate cancer.
But functional beverage makers often make less specific claims, and the science behind them is sometimes inconclusive. SkinTe, a sparkling tea, claims it “supports skin hydration and elasticity” with 3,000 milligrams of collagen in a 12-ounce can. But last year, researchers at Harvard Medical School said there is still no solid evidence that collagen drinks or supplements improve skin, hair or nail growth.
Negative reactions can also happen. Panera Bread faces at least two lawsuits alleging its high-caffeine Loaded Lemonade led to the deaths of people with heart problems.
“It is important to remember that everything has the potential to be toxic and safe, depending on the quantities. The dose makes the poison,” said Joe Zagorski, a toxicologist at the Center for Ingredient Safety Research at Michigan State University. “As it is difficult to determine the amount of specific compounds in many of these drinks, it is better to proceed with caution than to consume too much.”
In some ways, there’s nothing new about humans seeking additional benefits from their beverages. Ancient Egyptians and Romans sipped chamomile tea for its healing effects. In 1935, a Japanese microbiologist launched Yakult, a fermented dairy drink now sold around the world as a way to improve intestinal health.
Over the past half century, drinks ranging from Ovaltine to wheatgrass juice have had their moments as lauded nutritional supplements. What’s different now is social media, which allows for the rapid dissemination of information about less familiar ingredients, Cornell’s Field said.
Two of the latest to generate buzz are adaptogens, which are plants and mushrooms that have been shown to help the body respond to stress and fatigue, and nootropics, which are natural or synthetic cognitive enhancers such as caffeine, gingko, and amino acids.
Trends come and go within the category. Sales of prebiotic and probiotic drinks in the U.S. more than tripled last year, while sales in the more mature kombucha category increased just 8%, according to data compiled by consulting firm AlixPartners.
“Consumer knowledge about ingredient functionality has really increased,” said Sherry Frey, vice president of wellness at NielsenIQ.
For some, the health claims on functional drinks are secondary. Amy Cassels, a health and fitness coach from Magnolia, Texas, said functional drinks appeal to her because they typically contain natural ingredients such as fruit juice as a sweetener. She likes Poppi, a prebiotic soda, as a daily treat.
“When I drink something like this, I don’t believe I’m taking care of my health by drinking it. But I’m not harming my health either,” Cassels said. “It’s a guilt-free indulgence.”
A considerable portion of the benefit drinks market is aimed at people who want to reduce or reduce their alcohol consumption. London-based Three Spirit makes non-alcoholic drinks with more than 60 ingredients, including guayusa and schisandra, an Asian fruit, which it says mimics the feeling of relaxation and social lubrication that drinkers get from beer, wine and distillates.
“Fundamentally, alcohol is the ultimate functional beverage,” said Three Spirit co-founder Dash Lilley. “People don’t just drink for the taste. It helps people socialize, relax, cheer up. So we thought we could do that really well by approaching the issue from a new angle.”
Randy Burt, managing director at AlixPartners who studies food and beverages, said functional beverages align with a shift consumers have been making for decades toward healthier diets and habits. He doesn’t see demand for the drinks decreasing. Euromonitor, a market research company, expects global sales of functional drinks to grow 7% annually until 2027.
In the US, sales of functional drinks jumped 54%, to $9.2 billion, between March 2020 and March 2024, according to NielsenIQ. This was faster than the 43% growth of the overall non-alcoholic beverage market. Functional beverages now represent about 10% of the total US non-alcoholic beverage market.
Frey said sales slowed a bit in the U.S. last year, which she attributed in part to the relatively high cost of functional beverages. Twelve 12-ounce cans of Olipop, a prebiotic soda, sell for $35.99 on Amazon.com; a 12-pack of Dr. Pepper costs $6.48.
“Consumers are negotiating, saying ‘Maybe I’ll still buy this, but I won’t buy it as often,’” she said.
Henry Chen, founder and CEO of South San Francisco, Calif.-based ALO Drink, a line of beverages made from aloe vera plants, said the growing number of brands and promised health benefits are overwhelming to consumers. Chen suspects that consumers will eventually tire of specific drinks in favor of simpler beverages.
“There are a lot of narrowly specific functional needs that brands claim to meet, a lot of esoteric ingredients that you need a science degree to understand being added to foods and drinks,” he said.
Even better would be to ignore the functional beverage aisle altogether, said Corrie Whisner, an associate professor at Arizona State University’s College of Health Solutions.
“At the end of the day, if someone asked me, ‘Should I drink this for my health?’ I would probably say no and stick to whole foods as much as possible,” Whisner said. “Just eat real food. So you know what you’re getting.
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Durbin reported from Detroit. Dixon reported from London.
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