Do adaptogens really work? Explaining the trendy drink ingredient

It's no longer enough for a drink to just taste good. Most grocery or liquor stores now offer brightly colored cans and bottles touting so-called adaptogens, ingredients that drink companies claim can help you manage stress, increase creativity, and sharpen focus. With packaging printed with bright colors and trendy fonts, these drinks are designed to pop up on shelves and in your social media feeds—a subtle health benefit for the aesthetically conscious and sober-minded.

You'll find them in trendy superettes across the city. Silver Lake's adaptogenic Soft Spirits section includes a Spritz Italiano from LA DeSoi (founded by Katy Perry and Morgan McLachlan), a concoction containing reishi mushrooms that the company claims is “a stress-relieving, brain-boosting botanical often referred to as the ‘herb of immortality.'” At Bristol Farms across the city, you can pick this up Bonboza blood-red tonic that promises to “sharpen your senses and transport you into a deeper mind-body experience,” with ingredients like pyridoxine HCL (a vitamin B6), ginger root and Rhodiola roseaOr you can get a hemp-infused chili margarita Aplos at the Dream Hotel in Hollywood, which says it can “elevate mood, stimulate brain function, and increase energy.” At Erewhon, you can't throw in a gluten-free turmeric chicken fillet without coming across a canned drink touting its adaptogenic properties.

But the appeal for consumers goes beyond clever marketing and playful design. The market for adaptogenic drinks is booming as research shows that young people are becoming less interested in alcohol and are looking for healthy alternatives. (Generation Z drinks 20% less than Millennialswhich is perhaps why Anheuser-Busch InBev will generate a fifth of its sales from non-alcoholic and low-alcohol beers by 2025. The global market for these beverages is expected to reach $1.2282 billion by 2024, with the projected value increasing to $2.4168 billion in 10 years.

A. TikTok video from last fall highlighting different types of adaptogenic drinks has been viewed over 1.2 million times. Ask viewers in the comments where they can buy them and share their experiences.

“I love these drinks,” writes one user. “I have terrible anxiety and some of these calm me down and make me feel warm and fuzzy lol.”

Although adaptogenic drinks are relatively new to Western consumers, the term “adaptogen” has been around since 1947, when it was coined by Soviet scientist Nikolai Lazarev, who was searching for stimulant substances during the Cold War.

“Adaptogens are made from herbs, roots and other plant materials that can help our bodies cope with and manage stress or restore homeostasis after stressful situations,” said Dana Ellis Hunnes, senior clinical nutritionist at UCLA Medical Center and assistant professor at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health, in an email. “Some of these stressors can be physical (a little burn), physiological (burnout from work and the strain on our bodies) or psychological (emotional stress).”

Examples of common adaptogens include ingredients such as Rhodiola (a root). promoted to increase stamina), Ashwagandha (a shrub that reduces stress and fatigue), licorice and reishi mushrooms, which have been used as traditional Chinese and Ayurvedic medicines for centuries.

Today, the same ingredients appear in adaptogenic supplements and drinks, but their medicinal value is controversial. In the Food and Drug Administration's book, adaptogens are categorized as dietary supplements and are therefore not subject to the same regulations as pharmaceutical drugs. For this reason, it is difficult for medical experts to make blanket statements about their effectiveness or even safety.

“It is not known whether the dose of adaptogens that most people can buy on the market is high enough to produce a medicinal effect,” Ellis said. “So what you think you are buying may not contain as much [or may sometimes contain more] than you think.”

Depending on the person, some adaptogens can even cause nausea and stomach problems. (Those taking certain medications, pregnant or breastfeeding should consult their doctor first before consuming them.) Clarity about the effectiveness of adaptogens is even more unclear, as most research on these ingredients is based on animal or in vitro studies that, as Nicholas B. Tiller, a senior researcher at the Institute for Respiratory Medicine and Exercise Physiology, noted in an email, “are not necessarily applicable to the real world.”

“The few human studies [on adaptogens] are largely disappointing,” he said. “Much more high-quality evidence will be needed before these herbs and other natural products are widely integrated into medical practice.”

But do most consumers of adaptogenic beverages view their consumption of these drinks as explicitly medicinal, or are they simply weighing their options and opting for something that is less varied than a beer and more novel than a seltzer?

“When we first opened our doors [in 2021]Many customers asked, 'What's the point?' and I had a hard time understanding why anyone would want a cocktail without alcohol,” said Jillian Barkley, founder and CEO of Soft Spirits, in an email. When she quit drinking five years ago, she found these drinks extremely helpful, even though they were harder to come by then.

“For these people, the possibility of a physical effect tends to be tempting,” she said. “'So you're telling me I can drink this nightcap and it'll help me relax, but I won't be drunk?' Yes!”

Nikita Walia, brand strategist and founder and CEO of BLANK, believes that the popularity of adaptogenic beverages among consumers will only grow as health and wellness become more important in our culture.

“Having a drink that is a social pick-me-up, has a good brand and is aesthetically pleasing as a replacement for alcohol is a perfect substitute,” Walia said in an email. She adds that many of these drinks are expensive and considered luxury items, which only increases their appeal.

“When you shop at Erewhon and buy Kin, you become part of a certain target audience, and people are looking for a sense of belonging.”

In other words, whether adaptogenic drinks can actually lift your mood may not matter – as long as they can improve your social status.