Coca-Cola with fiber in it sounds like a mad scientist's fever dream
It's almost impossible to mention Coca-Cola and "healthy" in the same sentence.
But that's exactly what Coca-Cola is trying to do in Japan with a fibre-laden Coke variant it calls Coca-Cola Plus.
The drink, which has no calories or sugar in it, contains 5 grams of indigestible dextrin, providing dietary fibre to your system.
Coca-Cola Plus used to be on the shelves around six years ago, but seems to have disappeared for the past couple of years -- until now.
The previous Coca-Cola Plus iteration had a higher 8.5 grams of dietary fibre per bottle. That added a weird viscous mouthfeel to the soda, according to a CNN review, so perhaps that's why the new release has lower fibre content.
The company claims the fibre in the drink also works to reduce the absorption of fat from food, if drunk along with meals.
A limit of one bottle a day is recommended.
Say what? We're not quite convinced either.
Coca-Cola isn't the only company that thinks with fibre in cola makes sense, believe it or not.
After the earlier release of Plus, competitor Pepsi released a similar drink in 2012 called Pepsi Special, that too said it would "suppress the absorption of fat."
The new drink has gone so far as to get approval from Japanese officials for the label "Tokuho", which refers products that claim to have health qualities but haven't passed the testing required to be labelled a "health food."
Indigestible dextrin is safe and approved by the FDA.
The Coca-Cola Plus is only available in Japan, so if you're in any other part of the world and want to get some dietary fibre -- you might have to stick to vegetables for now.
The drink retails for $1.40 and will hit shelves around the country on March 27.
[H/T Rocketnews24]
Topics Health
Yvette is a Viral Content Reporter at Mashable Asia. She was previously reporting for BBC's Singapore bureau and Channel NewsAsia.
