Healthy Soda?

 

Carbonated prebiotic sodas with names like Olipop, Poppi and Vive Organic that promise to boost your fiber intake – and your health – by feeding the trillions of microorganisms that live in your gut. Even Coke and Pepsi are muscling their way into the fiber game.

"There's been so much research that has shown that if you consume more fiber, you are healthier," says Hannah Holscher, an associate professor of nutrition at the University of Illinois. She says fiber does way more than just help keep us regular. It helps control blood sugar levels and lower cholesterol and inflammation. A review of 185 studies and dozens of clinical trials found that diets rich in fiber were linked to a lower risk of major health problems like obesity, Type 2 diabetes, cancer and cardiovascular disease. 

Say no more! Big Soda's marketing experts are on the case! Now your fizzy, sugary indulgence comes with inulin, a pre-biotic fiber. Healthy soda is here at last!

Not so fast.

Justin Sonnenburg, a professor of microbiology and immunology at Stanford University says when it comes to added fiber in foods, "the intuition in the field is that that's probably better than nothing."

But it's not at all clear that prebiotic fibers added to processed food and drinks have the same health benefits that come from eating a variety of whole foods that are naturally high in fiber. For one thing, says Sonnenburg, the purified fibers that are added to foods are much simpler structures than fiber naturally found in plant foods. And this means they get fermented faster, by microbes that live near where the small intestine meets the large intestine. That means those purified fibers might not reach the microbes living further down the large intestine – and they need to be fed, too.

Translation? Less unhealthy does not equate to healthy.