Mia de Graaf, Health Editor, Business Insider: The American market for healthy drinks is valued at $ 9.2 billion.
That's 10 percent the entire drink industry.
It wasn't always like that.
Its value increased by 50 percent. From the beginning of Coronaviru's pandemic.
These drinks are gaining popularity, because as a society we become more aware of health issues.
Are they really healthy?
And is it worth spending a few extra dollars on them?
My name is Mia de Graaf and I am an editor for health affairs at Business Insider.
Functional drinks are drinks that allegedly drinking additional effects.
It's about coffee, energy drinks, alcohol or carbonated drinks.
They all give us a kind of noise in our heads.
They contain caffeine, sugar or alcohol.
They fulfill a function.
However, we are heading towards a different type of functional drinks that are sold as substitutes for the above mentioned.
Currently, functional drinks are the code name for healthy drinks.
Their components may be, for example, probiotics, which are to treat the intestines.
Other ingredients are adaptogens (allegedly good to calm down), nootropy (allegedly good for the brain) or cannabidiol, which is to have a relaxing effect.
Functional drinks such as tea and coffee have existed for centuries.
These are drinks that have been providing people with energy for years.
The functional drink industry really began, however, in the 1980s with Red Bull.
Red Bull was invented by the Austrian seller of toothpaste, which in 1982 went to Thailand.
He discovered that among Thai truck drivers a drink is popular, which seems to give them energy when they are on their way for a long time.
He thought: “This product works great for manual workers in Thailand, but I think I can advertise it to mental employees in Europe.
This can be a complement to the fast pace of life. “
He returned to Austria and introduced Red Bull to the market, which became a great hit.
Advertisement: Red Bull will give you your wings.
Mia: Red Bull is a perfect example of functional drinks.
It contains caffeine, sugar substitutes, vitamin B and taurine.
He was very cleverly advertised as something that increases strength, reaction speed and concentration.
However, there was no evidence.
40 years later, the appetite for functional drinks still exists, but we want something a bit different.
People are much more aware of health defects related to ultra -processed food, pollution or everything that surrounds us and what is so difficult to avoid.
We are looking for changes in our lives that could affect its quality.
Coronaviru's pandemic was the moment when the explosion of the industry of this type of functional drinks began to be seen.
These drinks are sold as harmless and even good.
They are to potentially eliminate toxins and give health benefits.
This market is growing quickly, and companies try to adapt to it.
They try to release drinks that speak to our desire to hack the intestinal-brain axis.
The point is that if you take care of your intestines, you can also improve your well -being.
A sign that this drink industry has become really popular is the fact that celebrities gather around it.
Many celebrities release their own functional drinks.
The Rock, actor: Cheers.
Mia: The Rock, Katy Perry and Bella Hadid – everyone enters this industry and is excited about it.
However, there is no scientific evidence that these properties act on people.
The stars are also obsessed with a drink called Kombucha, which is a probiotic drink.
The industry of these drinks is huge and develops quickly.
It is globally valued at $ 40 billion, and by 2033 it will reach $ 99 billion.
This industry area includes two types of drinks.
Prebiotic drinks are to prepare the intestines for better absorption of nutrients.
However, probiotic drinks are to fill the intestines with healthy bacteria to improve health.
Both of these types of drinks are to improve bowel health in theory.
So are these drinks good for you?
The answer to this question is really difficult.
None of these drinks is regulated by the American Food and Drug Agency.
In addition, companies make quite strong claims that they improve health and do not have to perform research to prove it.
Packaging also plays a huge role.
Companies speak to our appetite for some of these ingredients, such as probiotics, nootropy, adaptogens and CBD.
However, they do not have to meet any scientific requirements in the context of the content of bacteria, strain or their concentration and do not have to give too many details on the label.
In addition, we still don't know much about how to affect the health of our intestines.
The problem is that companies make really bold claims that these drinks can improve the health of the intestine, brain or calm the nervous system, and in reality we know very little about how to do it.
These ingredients are also not very examined.
These are many unknowns three times more expensive for drinks than carbonated drinks.
Here's how you can decide what drinks to buy in a supermarket.
First, check the label.
Watch out for drinks with unclear statements such as “supports skin elasticity” or “improves brain health”.
These are unclear terms that mean nothing.
On many drinks there is information that they contain probiotics, but it is not known what specific.
So I would recommend choosing a drink that contains the name of the probiotic and finding out what a probiotic is before you consume it.
If you try to be healthy, choosing one of these drinks, check the label and make sure they have a low sugar content.
Choosing carbonated drinks is a very easy way to eat much more sugar than we are aware of this.
To sum up, there is no science behind these drinks.
This does not mean, however, that they have no advantages.
Many of these drinks contain ingredients used for centuries in cultures around the world, such as green tea, Ashwagandha or ginseng.
It should be remembered that companies use our natural health fears by putting bold claims that go far beyond the state of knowledge.
Crowd: Piotr Nazek
