3 weeks Ago By Amy Denney
Kristina Telhami started drinking prebiotic sodas because she thought they were tasty and healthy for her gut health. “I figured, ‘Oh my gosh, it’s not soda. It must be healthier.
It has prebiotics, and it’s marketed as gut healthy,’” she told The Epoch Times. “I think the marketing got to me at the time.” Prebiotics come from fiber, which is food for the microbes that live in our gut.
Telhami inadvertently put the product to the test on herself, drinking one prebiotic soda nearly every day. Eventually, she realized corresponding bloating and other uncomfortable gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms were related to her new habit. Once Telhami quit drinking the trendy beverage, her gut calmed down.
Formerly a pharmacist, she is now a functional medicine specialist and integrative health practitioner, and she warns her clients that prebiotic sodas aren’t for everyone. She said she’s had many miserable clients who think they are increasing their fiber in a healthy way by drinking them and eventually realize they may be causing or exacerbating GI problems. “Everything that’s marketed as healthy or low-sugar or zero-sugar or prebiotic does not mean it’s healthy,” Telhami said.
“They’re just marketing it really well.” The Epoch Times reached out to poppi and Olipop, the leading prebiotic soda brands, to ask about the research that goes into creating their sodas. Neither responded before publication.
Olipop devotes a section on its website to digestive health, saying it aims to help consumers increase fiber with its blend of chicory root inulin, cassava root fiber, Jerusalem artichoke inulin, acacia fiber, and guar fiber. As an additive, inulin is refined through various methods, such as being heated, cooked, dried, or ground into a concentrated form. Prebiotic sodas and many other foods are enriched with inulin, usually chicory root, which is particularly rich with fiber and affordable.
Adding inulin to processed foods is similar to efforts in the 1940s to “enrich” flour and bread with vitamins and iron to assist people with nutrient deficiencies in meeting daily requirements—particularly if they were mainly eating processed foods. However, Telhami is bothered by the idea that we would address our fiber shortage crisis through sodas. “I just recommend people don’t get these prebiotic fibers and prebiotic-rich foods from processed foods in general,” she said.
“Also, too much fiber isn’t good for you. Some people are overdoing their fiber. Everybody processes fiber differently.
Sometimes, fiber can constipate you. It’s really about finding a balance that works for you.” Inulin is a fructan, a type of FODMAP, an acronym for fermentable oligosaccharides, disaccharides, monosaccharides, and polyols.
These are short-chain carbohydrates poorly absorbed by the small intestine. Two other types of fiber—another single fiber source and a mix of fibers—were also tested in the study. All 18 participants had unique responses to each type of fiber, though overall microbiome diversity fell during fiber supplementation.
A diverse microbiome is associated with better health. “Overall, our findings show the benefits of fiber are dependent on fiber type, dose, and participant—a landscape of factors resulting from interactions between fiber, the gut microbiome, and host. These results have important implications in personalized response and interventions,” the authors wrote.
Telhami said anyone dealing with gut issues is better off refraining from prebiotic sodas—and carbonation in general, which can also cause GI discomfort. Though lower in sugar than traditional sodas, prebiotic sodas may also contain sugar and other ingredients that could irritate gut health. It’s best to get fiber from including fruits and vegetables in your diet, she said.
A biomedical science professor at Georgia State University, he began studying inulin in mice, convinced of the benefits of fiber supplementation. He told The Epoch Times that an early study found considerable benefits, particularly in mice fed an obesogenic diet—that is, a diet that mimics eating fast food, sugary drinks, unhealthy fats, and added sugars. A diet that’s generally unhealthy.
Mice fed a standard diet didn’t get sick. The individual’s gut microbiota. They may not have the right mix of bacteria to digest the fibers.
Immune system makeup. Inulin may dampen the immune system, which would benefit some conditions like chronic inflammatory diseases while being harmful if someone has colon polyps. The only change he had made was taking one tablespoon of inulin with his coffee two years before his second colonoscopy.
“I thought I was doing something good for my body,” Parker told The Epoch Times. “I knew it was acting directly on my colon because there was a period of time when in the afternoon I’d have a lot of gas. I thought, ‘Okay, it’s doing what it’s supposed to do.
It’s being fermented in the colon by native bacteria that live there, and that’s all great and wonderful for you.’” Having an occasional prebiotic soda is unlikely to be harmful, Gewirtz said, adding that it’s not a great idea to drink them as a means to promote your health. “I’m not declaring them dangerous, but I’m just not confident and comfortable that they’re harmless,” he said.
“I think if you’re drinking these, you might be basically becoming an experiment.”.
