Prebiotic Soda Poppi Is Not As Healthy As You Think, Lawsuit Claims
If you’re an avid Poppi fan, we’ve got some bad news for you. The company behind the trendy prebiotic soda is facing a class-action lawsuit alleging that the brand has been misleading customers about its health benefits.
According to the brand’s website, Poppi advertises itself as a "healthy" soda combining fruit juice, apple cider vinegar, and inulin prebiotics—dietary fibers that can act as food for healthy bacteria for the gut. The company also includes A-listers like Kylie Jenner, Hailey Bieber, and Post Malone as fans of their products, and that star power has contributed to their beverage’s popularity.
However, the lawsuit, filed Wednesday in a California district court by plaintiff Kristin Cobbs, states that each can of Poppi only contains two grams of prebiotic fibers, which isn’t enough to provide any real health benefits.
“A consumer would need to drink more than four Poppi sodas in a day to realize any potential health benefits from its prebiotic fiber,” the suit says. “However, even if a consumer were to do this, Poppi’s high sugar content would offset most, if not all, of these purported gut health benefits.”
The suit also alleges that Poppi does not warn customers about any health risks that come with consuming agave inulin. Medical studies cited in the document claim that an inulin-based diet “can lead to inflammation and even liver damage at doses as small as 10 to 30 grams per day over a 3-week period.” One nutritionist quoted in the suit goes as far as to say that Poppi is “basically sugared water.”
Since appearing on Shark Tank in 2018, the now-viral Poppi sodas now sell for $2.49 a can, and a 12-pack costs nearly $30. According to the suit, Cobbs was unaware that drinking multiple cans would negatively impact her health. Had she known, she either “would not have purchased the products or would have paid substantially less for them.”
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