(TIME.com) -- Pepsi's latest refresher claims to fend off fat. But is a healthy soda an oxymoron?
"Pepsi Special," the new drink distributed by Pepsi's partner in Japan, Suntory Holdings Limited, contains dextrin, a dietary fiber that dissolves in water and is found in fiber supplements such as Benefiber.
Eaten appropriately, in fiber-rich foods such as vegetables and fruits, fiber helps to regulate the digestive system, lower cholesterol and may lower the risk of heart disease.
A Suntory news release claims the drink acts by "suppressing the absorption of fat" and can inhibit the rise in triglycerides after a meal, making it, potentially, the first "healthy" soda.
Because of these purported health benefits, Pepsi Special has received the label "FOSHU" in Japan, a government designation that stands for "Food for Specified Health Uses." A Japanese government website states that "FOSHU" products are meant to be consumed "by people who wish to control health conditions, including blood pressure or blood cholesterol."
As odd as the fiber-packed cola sounds, however, it's not the first to debut in Japan. Kirin, the Japanese beer company, launched the country's first "FOSHU" beverage with dextrin in the spring called Kirin Mets Cola, a sugar-free beverage geared towards "health conscious" men in their 30s.
Is there anything to the dextrin trend?
A 2006 study conducted by researchers from the National Institute of Health and Nutrition in Tokyo found that rats fed both dextrin and fat absorbed less fat than the rats who did not eat the fiber. But that research, alas, wasn't extended to people.
In fact, too much dextrin could make you sick.
"Studies of humans ingesting dextrin suggest short-term risks including stomach pain, gas, and bloating," says Lilian Cheung, editorial director of Nutrition Source, the Harvard School of Public Health's nutrition website. "The long-term risks have not been studied."
Dr. Walter Willett, chair of nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health, added in an email statement: "Unless Pepsi can provide data from controlled studies in humans to the contrary, their claim should be regarded as bogus and deceptive."
In fact, Pepsi may face challenges if it decides to bring Pepsi Special to the United States, since the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) tends to frown on such potentially suspect nutrient-boosting of essentially unhealthy products in an attempt to make them healthier.
In fact, its regulations specifically discourage such fortifying:
"The Food and Drug Administration does not encourage indiscriminate addition of nutrients to foods, nor does it consider it appropriate to fortify fresh produce; meat, poultry, or fish products; sugars; or snack foods such as candies and carbonated beverages."
"You shouldn't add good things to bad things because that could encourage people to eat something that isn't healthy for them," said Michael Jacobson, Executive Director of the Center for Science in
In the U.S., soda companies have been called out for making exaggerated health claims about their sugary drinks.
CSPI recently sued 7UP's parent company Dr Pepper Snapple Group for making specious health claims about its Cherry Antioxidant, Mixed Berry Antioxidant, and Pomegranate Antioxidant varieties, arguing that drinking a soda with a small amount of Vitamin E is not as healthy as consuming antioxidants from fruits, as the company implied. (The company decided to discontinue the line.)
In 2008, the FDA sent a letter to Coca-Cola, arguing that the company "misbranded" its "Diet Coke Plus" because it did not provide enough nutritional information to justify the word "plus."
So as appealing as it sounds to down a healthy dose of fiber from a can, health experts say it's probably best to get your daily allotment from food if you want to truly take advantage of the good things fiber can do.
"I would assume it's a soda and treat it that way," Vandana Sheth, a registered dietitian in the Los Angeles area and spokesperson for The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, says about the beverage. "Whole grains, vegetables, barley, beans, lentils have significant positive effects like lowering blood glucose, and some of that will make you feel more full. It is also more satisfying to chew and swallow real food rather than to drink a beverage."
Not to mention that guzzling soda and sugary drinks contributes to health problems like obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and may raise blood pressure as well.
"Adding a fiber to a drink made from caffeine, caramel coloring, phosphoric acid, sugar, and high fructose corn syrup doesn't make it healthy," says Alissa Rumsey, a dietitian at New York Presbyterian Hospital and spokesperson for the New York State Dietetic Association. "If people think they're going to lose weight by drinking a beverage like this, then they are more likely to drink more soda and therefore consume even more calories."
Which would simply make any of the purported health benefits fizzle out.
At this point, it's only fair that I point out that I have absolutely no credentials as a health professional.
That said, though, I do believe that, given my own history with weight control (an iconic oxymoron if ever there was one), I qualify as, if nothing else, a lay expert on the subject, owing to the fact that for nigh on seven decades now, I have seen my weight go up and down and up and down and up and down (psychologists would likely offer there's a pattern here, but I can't see it) and up and down.
Truth be told, ballpark guess, I have probably lost and/or gained, in my entire adult lifetime, the pound equivalent of an average sized fourth grade class.
Or one Kardashian posterior.
I have spent more than just a few hours of my earthly life hourglass alotment looking into, searching for, chewing and/or swallowing a myriad of various and sundry foods and/or beverages, reasonably optimistic that I would, sooner or later, discover that which I would need to, once and for all, get a handle on my tendancy to develop handles.
And by way of assuring you that I'm no pie (or cupcake) in the sky kind of fat fighter, naively believing that there is any such thing as a "magic pill" that will make me finally, and permanently, statistcally in line with what statistics tell me my weight should be, please know that I'm not naive, I don't believe that a magic pill could ever do it all.
At the very least, that pill would require at least eight 8oz glasses of water every day.
Because as all of us who know more about Jenny Craig than we know about, say, Rosa Parks know, there is no instance in this life that includes the opening of the mouth, in the category of nutrition, of course, to put something in it that doesn't require at least eight 8oz glasses of water every day.
So, as a result of my years of participatory self education, it's not without some feeling of qualification that I offer the following observation as regards the ongoing quest to find the "perfect" weight control foods and/or liquids, this purported Pepsi possible the latest of the contenders.
There is no magic pill.
There are no magic foods.
There are no magic beverages.
There is, simply, the need to eat balanced meals, in correct quantities, as dictated by the body's need for nourishment, said need signaled by the concept we all know as hunger.
And, of course, eight 8oz glasses of water every day.
As far as Pepsi Special, and all its kissin cousins, liquid and/or solid, is concerned, there is a simple, irrefutable and, yes, tragic truth that cannot be denied.
Food and drink manufacturers are not in the business of creating products to help any or all of us find our ideal weight.
Food and drink manufacturers are in the business of selling us foods and drinks.
And, sparing you the tiresome talky tirade about more fresh fruits and vegetables, I can only, in order to be totally honest about it, admit to you, not matter how sad and/or inevitable said admission might be, that there is only one beverage that will really, ever, ever, ever (apologies to Taylor Swift) do for you what a liquid is supposed to do for you in terms of giving your body what it needs.
Water.
Eight 8oz glasses every day.
And if you're not a big fan of whatever comes supposedly pure but, likely, no, not so much, out of your kitchen tap, take heart.
Water is available at your local grocery store in bottles.
Very likely bottled by the same folks who manufacture Pepsi Special.
They just left out the Pepsi.
And whatever makes it special.
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