Functional beverages
Functional beverages are drinks that incorporate added vitamins, minerals, herbs, and botanical extracts designed to promote health and wellness. Common types include juices, energy drinks, probiotic beverages, and flavored waters. Manufacturers often highlight potential benefits such as memory enhancement, muscle building, stress relief, and increased energy, but they typically avoid making explicit health claims to comply with regulatory guidelines. Ingredients often found in these beverages include herbs like ginseng and ginkgo, which are believed to enhance energy and mental alertness, as well as adaptogens like ashwagandha and rhodiola rosea, thought to help with stress and anxiety.
The popularity of functional beverages surged in the 2020s, fueled by attractive marketing and endorsements from celebrities. However, many claims about their benefits lack substantial scientific backing, and the actual health impacts may not live up to consumer expectations. Safety concerns arise from the consumption of these drinks, especially regarding the potential risks associated with certain herbs, such as kava, which has been linked to liver damage. Overall, while functional beverages can offer some appealing qualities, consumers are encouraged to approach them with caution, considering factors like moderation, allergies, and calorie content.
Functional beverages
- DEFINITION: Juices, waters, energy drinks, probiotic beverages, and sodas to which vitamins, minerals, herbs, and botanical extracts, such as ginseng and ginkgo or other alternative ingredients are introduced to improve health.
- PRINCIPAL PROPOSED USES: Memory enhancement, muscle building, relaxation
- OTHER PROPOSED USES: Immune system enhancement, increased alertness and energy, stress relief, electrolyte balance
Overview
To avoid entanglement with the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which has strict guidelines about product health claims, most manufacturers of functional beverages carefully refrain from making direct promises about curing diseases. However, product labels list ingredients and often outline the general benefits of these ingredients, leaving consumers to draw their own conclusions about the potential health effects of the drink.
Uses and Applications
Common herbal ingredients used in functional drinks (and their claimed associated benefits), as listed by the manufacturers, include ginseng (enhances energy), ginkgo (enhances memory and mental alertness), guarana (enhances energy), gotu kola (enhances alertness), echinacea (stimulates the body’s defenses), St. John’s wort (enhances mood), and kava (promotes relaxation). Other common ingredients include adaptogens, such as ashwagandha, rhodiola rosea, Holy Basil, and reishi mushroom, which can relieve stress and anxiety. B vitamins, turmeric, green tea, and peppermint can also be found in functional beverages.
In the 2020s, functional drinks became trendy, with many products that claimed positive effects and linked to attractive lifestyles. Such drinks, often marketed by high-profile celebrities, claimed non-quantifiable benefits, such as higher mental acuity, increased energy, and reduced stress. In addition, these products employed attractive packaging and utilized bright colors and themes. However, these drinks relied on their categorization as supplements, allowing them to avoid regulation by the FDA. Many of their associated claims were not backed by research. Although many substances contained in functional drinks existed naturally, this did not guarantee their safety for consumption. In reality, their purported benefits fell far below the positive effects actually delivered. These benefits themselves may only have been attributable as placebo effects.
Safety Issues
Questions about the possible risks and benefits of adding herbs to beverages have been raised. Herbs are not essential nutrients. Therefore, a person cannot be deficient in ginseng or echinacea, as one can be deficient in, for example, iron. Foods fortified with essential nutrients can benefit people who do not consume enough of these nutrients.
In some cultures, herbs are prescribed in specific quantities and combinations to treat certain medical conditions. Nonetheless, questions can arise over the efficacy of a minuscule amount of ginseng added to diet iced tea, for example. Other questions concern the long-term effects of consuming these products. Experts warn that functional beverages are developed not by scientists or nutritionists, but by marketing executives looking to turn a profit. While there is most likely little risk to consumers because the vitamins and minerals added are done so in minimal amounts, caution should still be taken.
Researchers are not sure what the benefits, risks, or long-term effects (if any) will be from drinking functional beverages. For now, one should consider the following before drinking these types of beverages:
Moderation. Though the amount of added ingredients is very small, one should not overdo the consumption of functional beverages. Drinking excessive amounts or consuming them regularly over a long period of time may lead to problems. Further, many functional beverages contain caffeine, and the overconsumption of caffeine can lead to health problems.
Allergies. Persons allergic to a given herb may have an allergic reaction regardless of the amount of that herb in a drink.
Extra calories. Some functional beverages, particularly sodas and juices, may contain several hundred calories in a bottle. Persons wanting to consume flavored drinks should try the flavored waters, which have fewer calories.
Kava. This herb has been taken off the market in Canada, Australia, and Germany because it unexpectedly caused severe liver damage in several previously healthy people. Researchers do not know how kava causes this damage, nor do they know at what levels damage occurs. It is possible that even small amounts can cause harm.
Bibliography
"Are Electrolyte-Loaded Sports Drinks Healthy?" Cleveland Clinic, 12 Apr. 2019, health.clevelandclinic.org/electrolyte-drinks-beneficial-or-not. Accessed 9 Sept. 2024.
Durbin, Dee, and Louise Dixon. "With 'Functional' Beverages, Brands Push Drinks that Do More than Taste Good." AP News, 15 Apr. 2024, apnews.com/article/functional-beverages-wellness-drinks-8493fbe5d838bde849768446bea98483. Accessed 9 Sept. 2024.
"Energy Drinks - Healthy Schools." CDC, 15 Apr. 2022, www.cdc.gov/healthyschools/nutrition/energy.htm. Accessed 9 Sept. 2024.
Jacobson, M., B. Silverglade, and I. Heller. "Functional Foods: Health Boon or Quackery?" Western Journal of Medicine, vol. 172, no. 1, 2000, pp. 8-9.
Stiepan, DeeDee. "Mayo Clinic Minute: Can a Beverage Provide a Brain Boost?" Mayo Clinic, 3 Aug. 2022, newsnetwork.mayoclinic.org/discussion/mayo-clinic-minute-can-a-beverage-provide-a-brain-boost. Accessed 9 Sept. 2024.
Strugatz, Rachel. "Beverages With Benefits: Do They Really Work?" The New York Times, 20 Jan, 2022, www.nytimes.com/2022/01/20/style/beverages-with-benefits-do-they-really-work.html. Accessed 20 Aug. 2023.