Simple Nutrition Insights

Functional Drinks Decoded for Better Health

• Leonila • Episode 40

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Ever wondered if those colorful, enticing bottles labeled as "functional beverages" are truly beneficial, or just another marketing gimmick? In this episode of the Simple Nutrition Insights Podcast, hosted by registered dietitian Leonila Campos, we unpack the myths and realities behind the booming functional beverage industry. Discover the types of functional beverages flooding the market, from energy drinks and performance boosters to prebiotic sodas and fortified waters. We’ll scrutinize their purported health benefits and question whether you really need that sports drink after your workout or if a well-balanced diet might be your better option. Learn about the vital role of fiber in your diet and how certain beverages could potentially help fill nutritional gaps.

But that’s not all – we’ll also venture into the fascinating realm of probiotics and prebiotics. Get the lowdown on gut health and the power of fermented foods like kombucha, kimchi, and yogurt. We’ll highlight specific functional beverages like aqua kefir and Olipop, discussing how they can complement your diet with essential nutrients and beneficial bacteria. Whether you’re trying to boost your fiber intake or simply curious about the latest trends, this episode is packed with practical insights and tips for making informed choices about functional beverages. Tune in to elevate your understanding and make better dietary decisions for optimal health!

Functional Beverages
What Are Functional Beverages

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Speaker 1:

Hey, welcome back to another episode of the Simple Nutrition Insights Podcast. I am your host, lenina Campos, registered dietitian, and in today's episode I'm going to talk about functional beverages. Now you might ask what in the world is that? So it's actually a term that has been developed over the years, right, obviously more so now with the emphasis and the focus on overall health, holistic, you know, well-being and just really emphasizing on our health. And so, according to the Journal of Clinical Nutrition and Dietetics, a functional beverage is a standard liquid or liquid food that is sold with the intention of highlighting particular product ingredients or claiming to have health benefits. Dairy drinks, sports and performance drinks, energy drinks, ready-to-drink teas, smart drinks, fortified fruit drinks, plant milks, milks and enhanced water are some examples. Now I am going to link this article so you can, you know, go back to it, read it, um, and find out more information about it, and then I'll link other information to you. Now, um, the market is increasing right, in big companies like Coca-Cola and Pepsi, they're jumping on the wagon right, because it is an industry that is growing, and so you know when there is a trend and people there's a demand for it. Obviously, you know there's going to be more focus, more marketing and all that. Obviously, you know there's going to be more focus, more marketing and all that, and so you know it's interesting because we can say, okay, do they really work? Right, or what's the purpose of these drinks? Right, and so there could be different claims.

Speaker 1:

When we think about sports drinks, right, these are drinks that essentially were meant for athletes, right. If you think of Gatorade, right, or Powerade, because they add it's not just water, right, it's not just juice. They have added electrolytes. Right, flavoring sugar, and the main focus is for athletes to recover, right, which they do need it. So if you're an athlete and you're exercising for over 60 minutes, you need to replenish those electrolytes. That's why, essentially, these drinks were created for athletes. But when you think about the people that will also buy them it's pretty much the general population, right. Do they need them? Not necessarily, right, because if we're not exercising at that level, right, we're not sweating or you know, if we don't need to replenish our electrolytes, there's no need to add them. Right and so, but there is a market for it. The research hasn't been there yet. Right To say, okay, yeah, all these drinks right, or all these functional beverages that are coming out have some kind of a health effect, right, and so there hasn't been a research there yet.

Speaker 1:

Obviously, when we think about electrolytes, right, replenishing them is necessary for athletes, but we can get them in different ways, not necessarily doing a functional beverage, but, yeah, again, it is something that is increasing. You know, when you think about, okay, do I need to add them? Do I need to, you know, think about adding them to my, to my grocery list, that's really up to you and also the reason for it, right, like you really have to look at. Okay, do I want to add more fiber? Right, which is, I think, the trend now, these soda beverages, prebiotic soda beverages that are going to give you that fiber, and so, um, in this case, right, it's, it's not a it it might be a good idea if we are struggling to get fiber with our foods, which the majority of Americans do. Right, the general recommendation for fiber for women is at least 20 grams a day, 30 grams for men. Usually we can get more, even better, because fiber plays a huge role in overall health, from better bowel movement, better digestion, better gut health you know, absorbing the excess cholesterol to balancing blood sugars, right, and so fiber plays a huge role and we, as Americans, are not getting enough, and not to say because we don't have the opportunity, it's because oftentimes our meals are not balanced.

Speaker 1:

Right, we're getting fiber only comes from plant sources, right, and so we need to add our fruits, we need to add our vegetables, we need to add our whole grains, nuts and seeds to be able to get a variety of fiber. And so, if we're not doing that right, or if we're following these, you know wild trends of avoiding food groups. You know, from keto to carnivore, you know we're we're eliminating a lot of food groups, and most of these food groups are going to be plant sources where you're going to get your fiber. And so there is an issue there, right, because, again, fiber plays a huge role in our overall health and our overall well-being. There are massive amounts of research that support them.

Speaker 1:

If we're working on that, right, these drinks can be considered like a supplement, right, meaning that we're going to supplement what we're not getting from food, but not to say that we're going to replace them from. You know getting that fiber from food. So, for example, if I'm going to show you, right, you can always go back to. You can always go to my YouTube video and see what I'm showing you. But you can also look at these functional drinks and then kind of have an idea of what I'm showing you. But you can also look at these functional drinks and then kind of have an idea of what I'm talking about. But in here I have this drink that is called Vita Life root beer soda and when we look at it says prebiotic.

Speaker 1:

When we look at the nutrition facts label right, there are 40 calories and there are 14 grams of total carbs, 9 grams of dietary fiber, which is a high amount, right. When we think about the nutrition facts label, if something is 20% or higher in this case it's 32% that's considered high, right. In this case, fiber is great, we want fiber to be high. So when we think about, okay, I'm struggling to get fiber, you know, adding a drink to give me nine grams, right, which is almost could be equivalent to about um a cup of beans, then there's that option. Right, but that doesn't mean, okay, I, okay, you say I need 28 grams because I'm a female, that means I can have three of these right, or four of these or whatever. Because then when we think about the sugar right, four grams of added sugar, so it's not significantly high, right? But then now I'm getting 12 grams of added sugar if I have three of them. 12 grams of added sugar if I have three of them.

Speaker 1:

What I'm trying to say here is that we can add them, not to replenish or not to replace, right, the foods that we should be adding that are high fiber. It should be a supplement, right? So if, for example, okay, let's say for breakfast, no, I'm sorry, for lunch, maybe I'm having just a sandwich, right, and I won't have a chance to add extra veggies or fruit, right? Okay, I'll have one of these drinks because it's going to give me that high amount of fiber that I'll get, at least to help me with my daily amount, right? Keeping that in mind, right? I'm not saying don't have it, but I'm also not saying just replace all your fiber with all these drinks, because when you think about fiber and where fiber comes from again from your plant sources you're not only getting fiber, you're getting antioxidants, you're getting phytochemicals, you're getting other vitamins and minerals, versus having something that is just a drink, that, yeah, it's going to be high in fiber, but when you look at the vitamins and minerals, there's hardly any, right, and that is pretty much it. So that's how we can really look at these drink drinks, these beverages, right again, thinking taking them as just, as a supplement, right, right, it's not going to replace actually eating food, right, because essentially that's what we want to do, but they can complement our meals. So that's one example, right.

Speaker 1:

Another example is kombucha right, it's a fermented drink. It can give us some probiotics, right, and so we get probiotics. Are the good bacteria in our gut. I actually did an episode on gut health. Definitely we have a chance to go back and listen to that. But we are pretty much made out of microbes, right, good and bad bacteria, germs, whatever and so when we have gut issues, there could be different reasons why that is happening. But adding some variety of probiotics can help with that growth of those good bacteria, right. So kombucha is one of them.

Speaker 1:

You can also add other fermented foods. You can also add yogurt, right, that has live active bacteria. What else you can add? Kimchi, right, that's another fermented food Starcrot, and so it's going to give you usually both prebiotics and probiotics, and so those are some foods that we can add.

Speaker 1:

But we can also add some kombucha, right the drink, or we can add something like this that is called aqua kefir, and this one is actually plant-based, right, when we think about kefir, okay, is that made out of dairy? Some of them are, some of them are not, and so if you're plant-based, you can add it. But when you look at you know the nutrition facts label. It's going to give you life, bacteria, bacillus, right, lactobacillus bacterium, and so those are some of your probiotics. It also is going to have three grams of added sugar and then to increase that sweetness, right, they add a sugar, alcohol, erythritol, erythritol nine grams. And so you know you can add it if you like, half of it or whatever, to add some, some of that good bacteria.

Speaker 1:

But again, you know, if you're thinking about, okay, should I just add a drink or should I focus on something else, if you're able to add other foods, right, that have these probiotics, then again you're not only getting the probiotics, you're getting other nutrients too, right, if you add kimchi, or if you add sauerkraut, right, you're adding fiber, you're adding vitamins and minerals. So, thinking about it that way too, I know there are other more common um prebiotic, right, I don't anything I have. I don't think I mentioned what a prebiotic is, but prebiotic is the fuel right or the food that feeds the probiotics, so usually it's a type of fiber. And so one of the other drinks or brands that is pretty common right now is Olipop right. That also has about nine grams of sugar. I'm sorry, sorry, nine grams of fiber. That's another option too. Or if you feel like you know what I am trying to replace my diet soda, I want something else. Maybe giving these, giving one of these drinks a try right, might be an option. At least you're getting some kind of nutrition with those drinks. That can help as well.

Speaker 1:

So again, we're essentially talking about what functional beverages are right, and it's just, you know, some type of drink that they have added or the food industry has added added, or the food industry has added some kind of ingredient right Added ingredient could be electrolytes, could be the prebiotic or the probiotic right, antioxidants or something like that to make it functional. Now I am going to link another article that talks about like different categories that functional beverages can be divided into, and there are seven classes um, sports and performance drinks we talked about, like gatorade, powerade, energy drinks right. Sometimes when you look at your energy drinks, they're going to have, like taurine and warana, which are going to help with the learners and increase your heart rate. Caffeine right, they're going to have your B vitamins, supposedly for your energy, but again, we can get all these things from food, right. Then you're also going to have ready-to-drink teas, right. Milk-based drinks, you know, when you think about, maybe, protein drinks, protein shakes, that could also be a functional drink. Fortified fruit drinks right, if they are fortified with, like, calcium and vitamin D usually they're not. Usually these juices or these fruit drinks don't come with it, right, they have to add these vitamins and minerals, so that is considered a functional beverage. Soy-based drinks and fortified water if you've heard of, you know, water that they add other ingredients like vitamins or such, it's also considered a functional beverage. Um, let's see here. So, yeah, I'll make sure to add this article for you, um as well, so you can look at that again. It is a trend. These are, these beverages are increasing in popularity. Uh, for many, many reasons. Obviously, you know, when you think about functional drinks, you should again think about sports drinks, right and so.

Speaker 1:

But nowadays there's so many and the most current ones are your prebiotic drinks, right, that are going to add that fiber, um, which you know, as mentioned, could be a supplement, could be a complement of your other foods, right, maybe to help you add that extra fiber that you need, or you're, you know, again, you're maybe pretty close and you're struggling to get more. Hopefully you're not right, because when we think about balanced meals, if we really make them balanced right, where we have our two cups of veggies at least a lunch and dinner, we have about two to three pieces of fruit, right. And then if we are adding some kind of grain, if it's a whole grain, then we should be getting that amount of fiber that we need, those requirements and more, right. But if we're struggling to make those balanced meals, ideally that's where we want to start, right, that's where we want to make those changes because, again, you're not only going to get fiber, you're going to get so many other nutrients too right, that you're going to start to feel better. So if you were relying on energy drinks because you were tired all the time, by changing your nutrition, right now you're getting those B vitamins, right Now you're getting some fiber, some antioxidants, some other nutrients that are going to help you recover and repair better and so you're not going to need, right, maybe, these functional energy drinks. So, when you think about it that way, right, it makes total sense. But, again, if you need them, just use them as a supplement to complement your meals and your nutrition, but not to rely on them, right? Again, I wouldn't suggest, you know, having four of these drinks that are going to give you 32 grams of fiber, right, because you're going to have that added sugar and nothing else, and that is just a lot. So, again, I am going to link these resources for you.

Speaker 1:

This is a quick one. I just wanted to just talk about these functional beverages. So, if you've considered them, or if you've tried them, or you're wondering, like, what is all this about? That's pretty much what it is. Right. A functional drink is just some kind of liquid that industry has added some kind of other nutrient right to it and that becomes functional. What else? Yeah, if you have any other questions, right, uh, send me a text. When you go into apple podcast, you should be able, you should be able to see send, send us a text and you can send me a text there.

Speaker 1:

This article that I'm going to link that is called functional beverages in the 21st century. It's really, really good talks. All about energy drinks, right, and all the energy drinks are out there, uh, which is really interesting, right, because the the effect that it has in in your cardiovascular health and um, and how it affects you know other parts as well of our bodies. Definitely, take a look at that Again. I'll link it and then we'll talk to you soon. Stay safe and stay strong, my friend. Thank you so much for your time. Talk to you soon. Bye-bye for now.