The fabled fountain of youth promised to restore youth and beauty to those who drank its waters. Now, food and beverage companies are offering the next best thing - drinks and snacks designed to combat the signs of aging, help to burn off calories and improve the look of one's skin.
Companies such as Coca-Cola and dairy maker Danone are tapping into a growing international market for beautifying food and drinks, laden with nutrients that promise to enhance people's appearances.
"Consumers are looking for more and more health benefits from their beverages," says David Moran, director of communications for Coca-Cola Ltd. in Canada.
And their desire for beauty is linked to that demand, he says.
For years, the food and drink industry has produced health foods and energy drinks designed to improve physical performance and overall wellness. The new category of beautifying products, referred to as nutricosmetics, extends on that trend.
Nutricosmetics tie nutrition to skin and body health and purportedly provide beauty from the inside out.
They include teas, flavoured waters, yogurt and even candies that contain antioxidants, vitamins, enzymes and proteins, which are marketed as having health and beauty benefits. Whether they actually deliver results, however, is debated by health professionals.
Last year, U.S.-based market research firm Kline & Company valued the emerging nutricosmetic industry at more than $1-billion (U.S.) and expected it to see double-digit growth for the next five years.
It noted in its August, 2006, market report that nutricosmetics are widely available in Japan and Western Europe, but the concept is only just gaining ground in North America.
In Europe, Danone recently launched its Essensis yogurt, which the company says contains "skin-enhancing" ingredients, including probiotics, or live cultures.
Also in Europe, cosmetics firm L'Oréal and Swiss food company Nestlé paired up to produce Inneov, a brand of nutritional pill supplements for skin and hair.
In the U.S., California-based skin-care company Borba makes flavoured waters, gummi bears and drink-mix crystals that promise to control blemishes, detoxify skin and combat wrinkles.
Borba does not currently distribute its waters outside the U.S., although its drink mixes and gummi bears are available in Canada through independent channels, such as online retailer DermStore.ca. Earlier this year, Coca-Cola, which already offers beauty drinks such as Love Body and Sokenbicha tea in Japan, expanded the distribution of its new calorie-burning sparkling tea Enviga throughout the U.S.
The company is considering bringing the brand to Canada as well, Mr. Moran says. "But it's something that we're going to have to do some consumer research on first," he says.
According to Coca-Cola's promotional materials, Enviga contains green tea extracts, most notably the powerful antioxidant epigallocatechin gallate, or EGCG, which purportedly speeds up metabolism.
The company claims that by drinking three cans of Enviga each day, a healthy person can burn an average of 60 to 100 more calories, about the caloric equivalent of a hard-boiled egg.
Consumer response to Enviga has been "very positive," Mr. Moran says, and sales of the product are meeting the company's expectations. He did not disclose any figures.
Coca-Cola is planning an extensive campaign to promote the product next year, he says, but whether the brand reaches Canada depends on consumer demand and regulatory approval.
Health Canada does not recognize nutricosmetics as its own category.
Rather, it regulates goods as foods, drugs or natural health products, depending on their proposed claims and ingredients lists.
It said it could not comment on specific nutricosmetic products, such as Enviga or Borba waters, as it had not reviewed or approved them.
Experts warn that there is little proof that outer beauty can be achieved through ingestible products.
Registered dietitian Gloria Tsang notes that the studies Coca-Cola cites on its website do indicate the antioxidant ECGC can help to burn calories.
But since the company tested it on only a few dozen subjects, she said, the studies are too small to show scientific proof of its efficacy.
"At present time, there's really no scientific study to prove that ECGC or green tea or any substance in tea can burn calories," says Ms. Tsang, a Vancouver member of the Dietitians of Canada and founder of the nutrition website http://www.HealthCastle.com.
She points out that ingredients such as artificial sweeteners and caffeine, found in some nutricosmetic drinks, aren't exactly healthy.
And although what goes through our mouths can affect the way skin looks and behaves, the examples tend to be extreme, says Alastair Carruthers, a prominent cosmetic dermatologic surgeon in Vancouver.
"In other words, if your diet is grossly deficient in vitamins and you get [diseases like] pellagra and beriberi, your skin is a real mess," he says.
But he says there's no evidence to suggest that ingesting nutrients will improve the skin of healthy individuals. In fact, he said, even the oft-bandied idea of moisturizing the skin by drinking plenty of water is dubious, since internal organs maintain water levels in the body before it reaches the skin.
The best ways to maintain healthy skin are sun avoidance and sun protection, Dr. Carruthers says. Besides that, he says, prescription-strength retinoids are the only topical treatment that has any dramatic effect.
"The question then is, well, if you want to drink these [nutricosmetics] and they taste good, and they're not doing you any harm, and your skin feels better, go ahead," Dr. Carruthers says.
But he warns: "Be aware that there has been a market in snake oil for millennia, and hope in a bottle springs eternal."
