Stressed Out? Bad Knee? Try a Sip of These Juices
By JULIAN E. BARNES and GREG WINTER
To the befuddlement of scientists and regulators, many of the largest food manufacturers
are embellishing their products with the active ingredients found in dietary supplements
and traditional herbal medicines, some of which may not be effective, or even safe.
Major brands like Snapple now promise to "enlighten your senses" by brewing herbs like
ginkgo biloba into bottles of iced tea. Celestial Seasonings urges consumers to steep away their
stresses with kava, a sedative root from the South Seas now found in its Tension Tamer
cocktail.
Even Coca-Cola and Procter & Gamble are working on fruit-flavored tonics to soothe the
pain of aging baby boomers with stiff knees by adding glucosamine, a building block of
cartilage. The SoBe beverage line of PepsiCo offers elixirs with herbs like St. John's wort,
appealing to New Age enthusiasts looking for Wisdom and Karma, as the drinks are called.
And Dannon is working on a new superyogurt intended to enhance the immune system.
The migration of herbal medicines from chalky pills sold in health food stores to a rainbow of
fruity juices and snacks has been slowly gathering momentum for years. But with the marketing
muscle of the nation's biggest food makers behind them, these products are quickly catapulting
out of their niche markets and into the coolers of every supermarket and convenience store in
the nation.
The market for functional beverages — drinks that promise health benefits beyond their
inherent nutritional value — has nearly doubled in the last four years, from $2.68 billion in 1997
to $4.7 billion in 2000, according to Frost & Sullivan, a market research firm. Sales of
functional foods have followed suit, rising from $11.91 billion in 1995 to $23.4 billion last year.
Both categories are expected to grow by at least 20 percent this year, according to Frost,
offering a serious lift to a food industry that has been a bit listless of late.
The Food and Drug Administration has never approved many of the herbs and other
substances in the new products as allowable additives. And while the agency has never
determined that they are safe to eat, it has not sought to ban them, either, so food companies
have the right to add them to their products.
Agency officials said that they had not meddled with most products because there had been no
reports of consumers being seriously hurt by them.
"There's a gray area here," said Dr. George Pauli, an F.D.A. food safety official. "There's no
reason that we would expect any acute reactions. What we're more concerned about is if
people consume this over their lifetime, will it eventually catch up with them?"
In a report last July, the General Accounting Office criticized the F.D.A. for providing "limited
assurances" of the safety of functional foods.
Moreover, if consumers had been hurt by any such foods, the F.D.A. might never know about
it, the report said. Food companies are not required to disclose that information. Under the
law, they need only determine, to their own satisfaction, that the ingredients they put in foods
are safe.
Unlike the many herbal medicines that contain the same ingredients, the new drinks rarely carry
recommended doses on their labels. Even labels that note how much of a particular herb is
inside often remain quiet about the concentration of the extract.
"For substances that cause physiological effects, there is sometimes a small margin between an
effect that is safe and one that is harmful," Dr. Pauli said.
Ever since the advent of vitamin- enriched white bread and fortified milk, companies have been
bolstering drinks and foods with vitamins and minerals, drawing on decades of scientific
research. This new wave of novel additives, by contrast, is accompanied by only a meager
understanding of their efficacy and side effects. Indeed, many products make it to market well
before any definitive studies on their ingredients take place.
Some scientists, lawyers and critics have noted that the big companies have been adding herbs
in such low doses that they probably pose no risk at all. But that also means the herbals may
be of little benefit.
"I would argue they are putting one over on consumers either way," said Henry I. Miller, a
fellow at the Hoover Institute and a former F.D.A. official.
Pepsi's SoBe Lean boasts on a product tag that it "acts like liquid liposuction." Made from the
rind of garcinia cambogia, a pumpkinlike fruit with a questionable reputation for promoting
weight loss, the product supposedly suppresses the appetite and inhibits the body's synthesis of
fat.
"Is it really going to be a liquid liposuction?" said John Bello, SoBe's founder. "We don't claim
that, it's just a playful theme."
Initial steps taken by Coke and Pepsi into nutraceuticals, as the new foods and beverages are
called, could not have been more different. Pepsi acquired the South Beach Beverage
Company last October. Since then, it has brought drinks like SoBe Adrenaline Rush, which
contains the stimulant guarana, into dozens of new markets, hoping to attract the college crowd
in search of a late- night lift.
On the other end of the spectrum, Coke formed a partnership with Procter & Gamble earlier
this spring. The companies are now preparing to introduce a drink called Elations, which
promises to ease the aches and pains of the nation's aging population.
Each bottle of Elations contains 1,500 milligrams of glucosamine, a dietary supplement that has
been popular among people with arthritis for years. A study published this year in the British
journal Lancet suggested that glucosamine slowed cartilage erosion, and Elations is being
tested in Cape Coral, Fla., under the slogan "Joy for Joints."
Douglas N. Daft, Coke's chief executive, has depicted Elations as the equivalent of youth in a
bottle, and hopes it will eventually be available in every gas station, supermarket and
convenience store in America.
"Baby boomers don't want to grow old," Mr. Daft said. "They're looking for the very thing that
will help that desire, something that will make the joints ache a little less."
Procter officials insist that sound science is what distinguishes Elations from the many herbal
concoctions currently transforming the market. In fact, in Cape Coral, Elations is sold alongside
dietary supplement pills, not near the juice or soda. Still, some scientists worry that
glucosamine could elevate blood sugar levels in diabetics. A warning label on Elations bottles
advises diabetics to talk to their doctor before consuming it.
The National Institutes of Health is conducting a four-year study on glucosamine. But neither
Coke nor Procter felt they could afford to wait for the results.
"The game will be over if anybody isn't in it by then," said Dr. Greg S. Allgood, assistant
director of Procter's Nutrition Science Institute.
Some large companies already feel overtaken by smaller food companies that have seized
upon the growing consumer fascination with foods that carry a healthful aura.
"We have to wake up and re-establish our credibility here," said Eric Leventhal, a Dannon vice
president. The company is testing a superyogurt packed with 10 billion live bacteria cultures,
which supposedly stave off sickness.
The big food and beverage companies have generally stayed away from the additives that most
concern scientists. But even the ingredients they do use can cause problems. Studies have
shown that St. John's wort, for example, reduces the efficacy of nearly 50 percent of
medications.
And some scientists and government officials are worried that numerous smaller companies are
adding far more dangerous supplements to drinks.
A number of less common teas and sports drinks contain ma huang and guarana, a
combination that some scientists say could in rare cases lead to permanent injury or death.
In 1998, Shane Garrett, a 21-year- old dental lab technician, drank a bottle of Ripped Force,
a drink containing both ingredients, and then started working out. Thirty minutes later, he went
into cardiac arrest, leading to permanent brain damage that left him with no short-term memory
and the intellectual capacity of an 8-year-old, according to his lawyer. The drink, sold at gyms
and the GNC chain, sells under the slogan "Thunder through your workouts."
Mr. Garrett has filed a lawsuit against the manufacturer of Ripped Force, Weider Nutrition
International, which declined to comment because of the litigation. "It's marketed like a sports
drink and consumed like a sports drink," said Andrew W. Hutton, Mr. Garrett's lawyer. "But it
is dangerous."
Scientists note there are also potential problems with drinks that have less dangerous stimulants
like guarana, a natural form of caffeine, or sedatives like kava, both of which are found in SoBe
and Snapple drinks. In California, prosecutors brought charges against two motorists last year
for driving under the influence of kava tea, prompting a consumer products trade group to
warn that the calming root can lead to drowsy driving.
Some experts argue that with larger companies entering the market, the momentum will build to
describe the contents and suggested doses of functional foods more thoroughly. Nevertheless,
the very notion of mixing medicines into foods is anathema to some purists.
"It's appalling," said Varro E. Tyler, a professor emeritus at Purdue University who specializes
in botanical medicines. "We don't put Viagra in soup or Prozac in oatmeal, and we shouldn't
put in these other medications in snack foods."
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On the other end of the spectrum, Coke formed a partnership with Procter & Gamble earlier
this spring. The companies are now preparing to introduce a drink called Elations, which
promises to ease the aches and pains of the nation's aging population.
Each bottle of Elations contains 1,500 milligrams of glucosamine, a dietary supplement that has
been popular among people with arthritis for years. A study published this year in the British
journal Lancet suggested that glucosamine slowed cartilage erosion, and Elations is being
tested in Cape Coral, Fla., under the slogan "Joy for Joints."
======================================
Then again, there are many from the 60's generation who would now deal with these situations under
the slogan "Joints for Joy"... |
