According to nutrition expert Patrik Borg, consuming a wellness drink is a rather weak way to increase well-being.
- Vitamins and minerals have been added to the so-called wellness drinks, but they only contain few calories.
- Drinks can lull you into thinking that with the help of a drink, everything in nutrition is in order.
- A nutritionist would not recommend these products to his client.
Nutritionist Patrik Borgin think that a glass of full orange juice could provide more well-being than bottled water called a wellness drink, to which some vitamins and minerals have been added.
In the texts of wellness drinks on store shelves, consumers are attracted by many words, such as “Take you to the top” and “Charge your battery”. The bottle may have a reference to skin, memory or fatigue.
The text on the bottle of the well-being drink includes the word “cleansing”. The small print says that certain ingredients promote “normal macronutrient metabolism”.
Adobe Stock / AOP
– That’s an EU-approved claim, but it’s a bit funny, because that amount of nutrients probably doesn’t change anything essentially, Borg says.
However, you can get the impression that wellness drinks could be helpful for a wide range of possible deficiencies.
The bottle labels of wellness drinks mention, among other things, fatigue, skin, resistance, vitality, metabolism and memory. All of these are things that, in one way or another, can make the consumer think and get interested in the product. Adobe Stock / AOP
Useless extras
According to Borg, Finns rarely lack exactly the vitamins and minerals found in wellness drinks. Still, a vitamin supplement can be tempting.
Borg tells an everyday example.
– My friend sipped some drink after the workout and asked me if it wasn’t a pretty good product because it has vitamin C in it. I had to answer that you definitely don’t have a vitamin C deficiency!
– If you are interested in vitamin supplements, then it is better to take a multivitamin preparation, where the doses are larger, there are more ingredients and the benefits have been seen in studies.
Borg does not consider it very likely that the vitamin-enriched drink would be of significant benefit, as the dosage amounts are generally quite small.
Problematic folic acid
Typical substances found in wellness drinks are vitamin D, vitamin E, vitamin C, niacin, biotin, pantothenic acid, zinc, selenium, magnesium and folic acid.
Folic acid, or vitamin B9, is one of the few vitamins that Finns can be deficient in, but Borg would not try to ensure even its intake with the help of a wellness drink.
– The drink can supplement folic acid intake, but this deficiency would be better corrected with a multivitamin preparation.
A healthy diet can provide enough folic acid and at the same time many other essential nutrients.
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The Collab drink has just entered the Finnish market, which is said to be “designed for people who are constantly striving to improve their physical and mental health.”
The drink contains “natural caffeine and pure marine collagen”.
Patrik Borg wonders why there is no vitamin C in the drink, because the effect of collagen has been enhanced by vitamin C in studies.
– I just saw a collagen drink in the store that only had a few grams of collagen. It’s not enough to have any effect.
Drinking a well-being drink can be good for someone who would otherwise drink very little water during the day. The disadvantage of drinks is mainly the cost of money. Elle Laitila
Permitted Claims
Based on the health claims approved by the European Food Safety Agency EFSA, the texts of the drink containing vitamin C are allowed to say that “Vitamin C promotes normal collagen formation for the normal function of the skin.”
– Claims approved by EFSA can be used when some compound is above the limit value and the compound has been found to do something in studies, says Borg.
According to Borg, it is understandable to think that by drinking a bottle of well-being drink every day, one could easily undermine one’s well-being and health. For him, however, consuming a well-being drink for this purpose is purely hunting.
– If the intake of vitamins and minerals is poor, it would be better to eat more varied and healthier food.
– If this is not possible, intake can be ensured with a multivitamin pill.
Big swings
The labels on the bottles of some wellness drinks suggest that they could be beneficial for memory. The drink can contain about 40 percent folic acid and 100 percent vitamin B12 of the reference value of the daily intake.
– Probably, such a drink does not do anything to the memory. If there were any deficiencies, it would be good to correct them, but once again I emphasize diet first and then multivitamins, says Borg.
According to Borg, memory is a very complex entity that cannot be improved with just a couple of vitamins.
The concentrations of substances contained in wellness drinks vary greatly.
Vitamins and minerals can be 100 percent or 10 percent of the daily reference value. Vitamin D in the wellness drink can be up to 150 percent of the reference value of the daily intake.
According to nutrition expert Patrik Borg, the healthiness of wellness drinks is based on the image. When you buy a wellness drink, it’s like doing something good for yourself. Tiina Somerpuro
Straight into the pitfall
According to Borg, there is research evidence that if a person takes nutritional supplements, he may think that he no longer needs to be very careful about what he eats.
We think that when you grab a multivitamin pill every day, you get permission to eat whatever hurts, because the trace element intake is imagined to be at a good level thanks to the tablet.
Drinking a wellness drink can also lull you into thinking that it doesn’t matter what you eat anymore, because the trace elements have been obtained from the drink.
– If you are interested in eating well, you should eat plenty of greens, vegetables, fruits, berries and nuts.
– However, it is better to take care of vitamin D intake on a daily basis with the help of a tablet and not by occasionally drinking a vitamin D-fortified drink, says Borg.
The absorption of vitamins and trace elements is often helped by the fact that they are obtained specifically in food.
The thought of doing good
People have a tendency to think that if something considered healthy has been added to food or drink, then the product must somehow be better.
– There is no harm in wellness waters, and you can drink them just fine. However, one should not think that vitamin and mineral supplements work miracles, says Borg.
Borg reminds that wellness waters may contain ingredients that can be harmful to dental health.
– It would never occur to me to tell a client asking about nutrition that they should start drinking vitamin-enriched drinks, says Borg.
The bottle labels of the wellness drinks remind us that it would be good to enjoy the drink as part of a varied diet and a healthy lifestyle.
If the diet is varied and the lifestyle is healthy, it can be assumed that wellness drinks are not even needed.
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