To participate in the $2 trillion U.S. wellness market, you can sign up for a Pilates class, sip a green juice…or snack on a bag of high-fiber gummy worms.

In recent years, we’ve traded Diet Coke for prebiotic soda, and 100-calorie snack packs for pints of high-protein ice cream. This shift reflects the explosive growth of the “functional” food and beverage category, projected to be valued at $218 billion by 2027.

But health professionals warn that many of these products are ultra-processed, or that they’re manufactured with ingredients like artificial flavors and additives to preserve texture and shelf life.

““What’s underneath all of these [products] is restriction, and the goal of shrinking our bodies, not true wellness.””

Kathryn Sayre, MPH, RDN, LDN

“The push for functional foods gets stronger every year,” says Dr. Marion Nestle, the Paulette Goddard Professor of Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health at New York University. “Nobody wants to deal with calories. It’s much easier to believe in nutritional magic.”

They can also feed an unhealthy relationship with food, according to Kathryn Sayre, MPH, RDN, LDN, a registered dietitian who focuses on eating disorders in Durham, North Carolina. “What’s underneath all of these [products] is restriction, and the goal of shrinking our bodies, not true wellness,” she says.

But what are functional foods? Are they actually good for your health, or is shiny wellness packaging tricking us into spending more money?

What are ‘functional’ foods?

The term “functional foods” was coined during the 1980s by Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare. In the U.S., “functional” isn’t regulated by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), but the term has widely come to define foods and drinks that claim to offer additional health benefits beyond fuel.

Related: Which Foods Are Actually ‘Healthy?’ The FDA Will Now Tell You

Many foods and drinks are functional by nature. Yogurt has gut-healthy prebiotics, blueberries are antioxidant-rich, and lion’s mane mushrooms contain adaptogens that can reduce stress. But wellness marketers have co-opted the term to include packaged foods and drinks engineered to allegedly have health benefits. Now you can find “adaptogenic” chocolate, high-protein potato chips, and even probiotic cookie dough.

In the past decade, we’ve seen a shift from fat-free and sugar-free snacks to labels that highlight what’s in our foods, explains Miguel Gomez, the Robert G. Tobin professor of food marketing at Cornell University. More health-conscious consumers and an increasingly segmented market are driving the trend, he says.

Some brands blur the lines between lower-calorie and functional foods. Smart Sweets, acquired by TPG Foods for $200 million in 2020, makes imitations of gummy bears and Starbursts that it says have up to 92% less sugar than their traditional counterparts. That’s thanks to artificial sweeteners like monk fruit extract, allulose, and Stevia. Each also claims to have six grams of fiber per bag.

Halo Top, the low-calorie ice cream which surpassed Ben & Jerry’s and Häagen-Dazs in sales in 2017, says that it contains about twice the protein content of a regular pint. Last month, Los Angeles-based Two Spoons launched what it claims as a zero-sugar, high-protein “GLP-1-friendly” ice cream sweetened with allulose, which some studies say can trigger the release of GLP-1 to suppress appetite.

But according to many health professionals, these types of foods don’t lead to sustainable weight loss. They can even prove counterproductive.

Contradicting claims

Last year, a class-action lawsuit claimed that prebiotic soda Poppi’s “gut-healthy” claims were overblown. According to the suit, the two grams of prebiotic fiber per can, derived from agave inulin, wouldn’t cause “meaningful gut health benefits.” The suit alleges that consumers would have to drink more than four Poppi sodas to see such benefits, at which point its relatively high sugar content would likely cancel it out.

The lawsuit is illustrative of the “health halo,” a term sometimes used to describe products marketed as “healthy” based on one or two claims, regardless of their general nutritional content. A 2016 study found that people would be more likely to buy chips that claim to be “vitamin-fortified,” and research has shown that people tend to overeat when they perceive something as healthy.

“There’s always a macronutrient at the moment. Right now, it’s protein,” says Sayre. “So protein now is in absolutely everything. At the same exact time, we’re also hearing messages about ultra-processed food not being good.”

““While we’re hyper-focusing on these ingredients, we’re really missing the point of nutrition, which is eating a variety [of foods] and eating enough.””

Dalina Soto, MA, RD, LDN

In addition to the risk that these foods may be ultra-processed, Sayre says that many “functional” products include artificial sweeteners like Stevia and monk fruit extract, which may increase sweetness tolerance and prevent feelings of satiety. They also might contain sugar alcohols like erythritol, which can cause gastrointestinal distress.

“We are seeing protein added to chocolate, and dyes taken out of gummies,” says Toby Amidor, MS, RD, CDN. “Does that make them better? No. It is still candy and added sugar, which should be eaten sparingly or as a treat in small amounts.” She suggests that people who want to increase their protein intake choose more traditional options like chicken, fish, tofu, Greek yogurt, or beans.

Nutritionists also stress that a focus on one macronutrient or ingredient to reach health goals can be limiting. “While we’re hyper-focusing on these ingredients, we’re really missing the point of nutrition, which is eating a variety [of foods] and eating enough,” says Dalina Soto, MA, RD, LDN, and the author of The Latina Anti-Diet. “A lot of these [foods] are very low in calories. [But] are you getting enough [real, nutrient-dense] food?”

The new language of diet culture

Late in the last decade, many companies changed their marketing strategy to align with a pushback on diet culture. In 2016, Lean Cuisine took the word “diet” off its packaging. In 2019, Think Thin protein bars became, simply, Think!, and Weight Watchers rebranded to WW.

On TikTok, Gen Z decries “almond moms” who project their body image issues onto their children. Now, alongside SkinnyDipped chocolate almonds or Shameless gummies, you can find so-called “better-for-you” alternatives on shelves that don’t explicitly market weight loss.

But, if you read between the lines, you’ll find messages that tap into our feelings about food. Snack brand Peatos claims to “take the ‘junk’ out of junk food.” Smart Sweets urges you to “feel good about candy,” and Poppi says “it’s time to love soda again.” Lesser Evil makes “clean” versions of popcorn and cheese curls.

“‘Clean’ is one of my pet peeves because I ask people, O.K., if someone’s not eating these ‘clean’ foods, are you saying the foods that they’re eating are dirty?” says Sayre. “And is that something that you would say to somebody? I think the words that we use are really important.

“When I have the talks with clients about [saying] things like ‘clean’ or ‘junk’ or ‘guilt,’ those words don’t usually line up with folks’ values,” she says.

Sayre also says that such “guilt-free” labeling can promote a dysfunctional relationship with food. She points to Halo Top, which lists the calorie count of the entire pint on its packaging. “If you were to binge on Ben & Jerry’s versus binge on Halo Top, it’s still the same [overeating] behavior, and you’re coping with something that isn’t about hunger. I actually think a lot of these products encourage disordered eating because they don’t change behavior.”

Who gets to eat ‘smart’ food?

Many nutritionists agree that “functional” snacks tend to be slightly better for you than the products they try to emulate, and that some can be good choices for people with diabetes or other health conditions. But they are also up to three times more expensive.

“If everybody had access to food, we could have a very nuanced conversation about [functional] foods,” says Soto. “But we can’t because not everyone can afford them.”

“If somebody is hungry and they live in a food apartheid, are they going to have options for ‘smart’ candy which is lower in sugar and has some fiber? Or are they going to have access to Snickers and Hershey bars and the confection items that we are used to seeing in these places?” she says. “What’s going to fill them up more? What’s going to be more satisfying? Are they going to spend $2 on a Snickers bar or $5 on a ‘smart’ candy? We always place the blame on the individual instead of the systems.”

Soto encourages people to seek out more natural sources of functional food, ones that don’t typically come with a “wellness tax.”

Related: A New Protein Popcorn Just Dropped — and It Comes From Khloé Kardashian

“For me, it’s more of discussing what foods do you have access to?” says Soto. “What foods are going to give you fiber? Let’s talk about beans, let’s talk about rice, let’s talk about the vegetables we grew up eating,” she says. “You’re going to get your ‘functional’ foods that way because they’re affordable.”

Almost any food can fit into a healthy and varied diet, adds Sayre. She gives the example of Twizzlers, which she grew up eating on camping trips.

“I mean, they’re the most processed thing ever,” she says. “They don’t actually taste like strawberries. But every once in a while, I enjoy them and I move on. If it’s something that folks really enjoy, where does it fit into their diet? How can we support it with other things?

“Twizzlers don’t give me any fiber, they don’t give me any protein. But I get those from other foods. I don’t want protein Twizzlers.”

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