Gut health is having quite the moment. People are increasingly turning to prebiotic sodas, marketed as healthy fizzy drinks with gut-boosting benefits. Leading the movement are brands Poppi and Olipop, whose popularity is rapidly growing. Both were ranked among the top 10 fastest-growing brands of 2024, and Olipop just announced that its value reached $1.85 billion.
As competition has heated up between Poppi and Olipop—with Olipop going on the offensive over Poppi’s over-the-top attempt to appeal to TikTok influencers in the lead-up to the Super Bowl—the two brands have a new competitor: Coca-Cola’s Simply Pop.
The soda giant has been paying attention to the rising interest in prebiotic sodas and has created a new line of sodas with a mix of fruit juices and prebiotic fiber under its Simply juice brand.
But as popular as these sodas have become, are they actually healthy?
Here’s how prebiotic sodas stack up against the Sprites and Pepsis of the world—and against their own claims.
What prebiotic sodas claim
Poppi, Olipop, and Simply Pop are all “prebiotic” sodas, meaning they theoretically feed the good bacteria in your gut with the fiber they contain (as opposed to kombucha, which contains probiotics, which are themselves beneficial bacteria).
Newcomer Simply Pop has hopped on the gut-friendly marketing bandwagon, with the Coca-Cola website claiming that the sodas “support gut health” from the six grams of fiber derived from soluble corn fiber. Each 12-ounce can has 10 grams of sugar—twice the amount of competitor Poppi. The brand also says that the drink has vitamin C and zinc to “support immune health.”
Poppi markets its soda with the invitation for consumers to get “all the soda feels with 5g sugar, ingredients you can love and prebiotics.” Poppi contains about two to three grams of fiber per can (about 10% of recommended daily fiber intake) in the form of organic agave inulin, five grams of sugar—34 grams of sugar fewer than a 12-ounce can of Coca-Cola—along with other ingredients like apple cider vinegar, stevia, and apple juice.
Poppi’s previous health claims—the cans used to say “be gut healthy”—led to a class-action lawsuit last year, where one woman sued the company after buying the drinks for their advertised gut health benefits, only to learn that those are negligible from its couple grams of prebiotic agave inulin fiber.
The other prebiotic soda giant, Olipop, calls itself “a new kind of soda” that “supports digestive health.” Its website describes the product as “a leading research-backed functional beverage that actually tastes good while supporting your gut microbiome, and digestive health.”
To back up its gut-health claims, Olipop has its own proprietary blend—called “OLISmart”—of cassava root fiber, chicory root inulin, jerusalem artichoke inulin, nopal cactus, marshmallow root, calendula flower, and kudzu root. It boasts the lowest sugar of the three prebiotic sodas—four grams of sugar—and the highest fiber amount at nine grams, which is almost a third of your recommended daily fiber intake.
But are prebiotic sodas healthy?
The answer is twofold, says NYU Professor of Nutrition and registered dietitian Lisa Young.
“If you want to have something that has a little bit less sugar than soda, by all means it’s fine,” Young tells Fortune. “But it’s highly unlikely that it’s going to do a whole lot for your gut.”
While Young is skeptical of prebiotic sodas’ gut health claims, she does think they offer a better soda alternative. “They’re healthier because they have less sugar,” she says, comparing them to conventional sugar-packed sodas. Young also thinks they are a better alternative than diet sodas made with controversial artificial sweeteners like aspartame, which became classified as “possibly carcinogenic to humans” in July 2023 by the World Health Organization.
But what bothers her is that the health claims are largely tied to the idea of being gut-friendly—meaning they are supposed to boost the health of your gut microbiome, which has been connected to improved mental health and lower colorectal cancer risk, among other key health benefits.
First, Young doesn’t think the sodas have enough fiber to support your gut—especially Poppi, which has two to three grams of fiber per can, which is only about 10% of the daily recommended fiber intake based on the U.S. Department of Agriculture Dietary Guidelines. Poppi’s can also notes on the nutrition label that it is “not a significant source of fiber.”
Olipop and Poppi did not respond to requests for comment on this article.
Poppi’s health claims and low fiber content even led to a class-action lawsuit last year, where one woman sued the company after buying the drinks for their advertised gut health benefits, only to learn that those are negligible from only a couple grams of prebiotic agave inulin fiber.
Olipop, on the other hand, has a much higher fiber content—nine grams per can, which is nearly a third of the recommended daily fiber intake.
Even so, Young says that the sodas’ sources of fiber are not the best way to get your fiber or its benefits. Because the fiber comes in an extracted form—like chicory root fiber or cassava root fiber—you’re not getting all of the nutritional benefits that come from high-fiber, whole foods like fruits and vegetables, she says.
“When we talk about gut health, you’re talking about adding a wide variety of fruits and vegetables” containing prebiotics that support the bacteria in your gut, Young says.
“Having a sparkling soda that has some apple cider vinegar and some chicory root fiber and then putting a claim on it—it’s really defeating the purpose,” she adds. As a dietitian, she says, she would much rather see people looking to improve their gut health drink water, eat an apple or a sweet potato (which naturally contain prebiotics), and consume probiotic-rich fermented foods like yogurt or kimchi.
Young also warns that chicory root fiber—found in Olipop—can actually irritate some people’s stomachs, especially those with irritable bowel syndrome or who need to adhere to a low-FODMAP diet.
“It’s fine to have it once in a while, but don’t think that you’re going to be any healthier by having it,” Young says. “There are actual foods to really improve your gut health.” Those include probiotic-rich fermented foods, like kefir, yogurt, sauerkraut, tempeh, and kimchi, and prebiotic-rich, fiber-packed foods like whole grains, leafy greens, and soybeans.
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