Poppi goes the weasel

Quick and colorful solutions to our health problems seem to be located at every corner. The alluring prebiotic soda brand Poppi has become especially popular — from sitting on the shelves at the State Street Target to sponsoring sorority recruitment. It also presents a simple fix to an unhealthy gut: pick up a can and become healthier with just a few sips.

American culture promotes a need for efficiency. Eating is no exception. In general, American lifestyles are fast-paced and citizens yearn for instant gratification. Searching for convenient consumables leads us to products like Poppi, whose marketers prey on the American desire for haste with promises of an easy path to gut health. 

Poppi is known for its slogan, “Be Gut Happy. Be Gut Healthy.” The product promises to revolutionize soda by improving digestion and incorporating healthy ingredients into their drinks. Recently, the brand has received a lot of criticism: some allege that these benefits are imaginary, contrived by deceptive advertising practices. 

During high-stress moments in college, brand name products or fads offer simpler, more intuitive pathways to health than their tedious, nuanced counterparts. Students look for easy ways to improve their health as their schedules get too busy to prioritize more time-consuming methods, such as working out at home or at the gym. Although prebiotic drinks like Poppi are not detrimental to your health, they don’t often contain all of the health benefits they promise.

As busy students who often rely on quick fixes, we need to start identifying marketing ploys that attract us to seemingly promising health products. From there, we can weed out products that are not as good as advertised and instead search for more beneficial ones.

Kristen Cobbs, a regular consumer of Poppi, filed a class-action lawsuit against the brand. She claims the brand’s promise of better gut health is false because of the presence of cane sugar — which can harm gut health if consumed in large amounts — thus the marketers violated California law through false advertising. Cobbs argues that this ingredient offsets any positive effects Poppi has.

Cobbs’s case against Poppi reflects a general marketing scheme used for “healthy” products. Companies overstate their products’ health benefits to allure consumers. Poppi marketers assure consumers that the prebiotic soda has weight loss properties while also including ingredients that improve gut health; however, dietitians found that the product’s prebiotic fiber is too low to do so.

Other companies also market consumables to appear better for our health than they actually are. Companies like KIND Snacks and Annie’s Homegrown have recently shifted their focus to market foods that contain natural ingredients. They promote convenience, playing into people’s desire for quick ways to improve their diets.

The labels on these products call attention to specific ingredients that appear healthy to attract consumers. If you pick up a Poppi can, for example, you will notice that the side has “BS” crossed off, with a caption underneath that reads “No Fake Stuff” and another that reads “Prebiotics for a Healthy Gut.” Marketers, specifically when it comes to consumables, jump on any opportunity to appeal to health trends. 

When people sue food brands like Poppi, or call out marketing scams, it’s usually consumers that are blamed for their own “erroneous” decision-making. Some critics call them gullible for falling for marketing ploys or accuse the consumer of creating an optimistic narrative for popular products. Dietitian Natalie Rizzo argues that, realistically, Poppi doesn’t promise to meet the necessary portion of prebiotics in their drinks, but instead simply promotes gut health. Therefore, the consumer is the one liable for expecting too much from the drink and the marketers can continue overpromising.

Regardless, marketers need to be held accountable for their influence in consumer trends. The gullibility logic, which frames the consumer as the one at fault, fails to acknowledge that marketers intentionally put out misleading advertisements. Although we should do our part to research ingredients and products, food brands should also do better to not violate consumers’ trust.

One measure we can take to avoid falling for marketers’ ploys is to read more into product labels. When boxes and cans emphasize certain ingredients in bold colors, we should read the smaller fonts to discover what the brands may try to hide, but are obligated to report.

Another option is to search for alternatives to these popular brands. Dietitians recommend consuming at least five grams of prebiotics to reach gut health goals. Rather than drinking soda alternatives, drinking kombucha and certain other smoothies could be the path to healthier digestion. Even so, we must consume these drinks in moderation to ensure we don’t offset their positive effects with high sugar intake.

Prebiotic fiber can also be found in a number of foods, including garlic, bananas and oats. A nutritious breakfast might contain yogurt mixed with whole grains and fruits to maximize health benefits by including both probiotics and prebiotics. Aim for a diverse selection of natural alternatives that best suit your individual health goals.

Because there is so much conflicting information about what is good for our health, it is difficult to find truly beneficial consumables. Marketing scams make discovering viable alternatives even harder, and if we can’t end them, we can at least make an effort to expose and avoid them. The more effort we put into discovering what marketers want to hide from consumers, the easier it will be to discern if these products will deliver on their promises.

The next time quick and colorful products seem to pull you in their direction, remember that simpler alternatives like bananas and grains also include the necessary fibers to improve your gut health — even if their packaging is a little boring.

Giselle Sesi is an Opinion Columnist who writes about the overlap between politics and the human condition. She can be reached at gigisesi@umich.edu.

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