Sober Curious, Mindful & Alcohol-Free Drinkers Podcast: Low No Drinker
The companion podcast to Low No Drinker Magazine, the No.1 UK magazine for mindful & sober curious drinkers.
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Sober Curious, Mindful & Alcohol-Free Drinkers Podcast: Low No Drinker
#64 What do functional beverages do?
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In this week's FAQ, we cover:
0:00 What are functional drinks?
1:17 Adaptogens
2:31 Nootropics
4:02 Other functionals
4:55 Natural vs synthetic ingredients
6:51 Reality check
8:18 Individual responses
9:24 Health warning
9:58 Getting started
11:35 Recommendations
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Best episode to listen to next:
#59 Plant-powered AF Brewing: On Beer
#45 - 5 brand new functional spirits from Smiling Wolf
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Also mentioned:
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Helping you to find, understand and enjoy low, no and light drinks.
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Hello and welcome to this week's Low-No Drinker FAQ a weekly look at the world of low, no and light drinks, drinkers and drinking where, each week, I'll help you to find, understand and enjoy the amazing drinks that allow us all to live a life less intoxicated. I'm Denise Hamilton-Mace and I'm the founder, editor and host of all things Low-No Drinker this week's FAQ. What are functional drinks? So functional drinks are really hitting the headlines at the moment. Everywhere I look, people are talking about functional drinks, but what do we know about them? It's a relatively new category. Over here in the UK, we've been talking a lot about functional drinks for the last few years. It's actually a term that was coined, we believe in, around about the mid-1980s in Japan. But, like I said, over here in the last four or five years, everybody is talking about functional drinks, particularly in the low, low and light drink space, as drinkers are looking for something that can do everything from helping with mental clarity to simply adding a little bit of pep to your night out. So within the functional drink sphere, there seem at the moment to be two main categories that people are most excited by. So let's have a look at those first. The first of those are adaptogens, and adaptogens are plants such as ashwagandha, rhodiola, ginseng, reishi mushrooms, holy basil, ashwagandha, rhodiola, ginseng, reishi mushrooms, holy basil, and these are all plants that are thought to help the body to either resist or to adapt to stress and to enhance biological performance. They can help with everything from stress reduction and management to immune system support, energy level balance, sleep quality improvement. That's a really important one for me. I really struggle with my sleep, so anything that helps me improve my sleep hygiene is definitely a win for me. They can help with mood regulation and mental clarity, physical endurance and inflammation response. So these really are sort of making the most of what nature gives us in plants to really enhance our physical well-being. Interestingly, if you are a fan of functional mushrooms such as reishi and cordyceps and lion's mane, I've got an episode coming up on the show in a couple of weeks with a chap called Ollie who is a fungi consultant. So if you haven't yet subscribed to the podcast, I recommend this would be a really good time to make sure that you follow in whichever app you happen to be hearing my voice in now and make sure you hit subscribe and notify so that you don't miss that one.
Speaker 1:So after adaptogens. We've then got nootropics. Nootropics are compounds that affect our cognitive function rather than just our body. These are things like L-theanine, ginkgo biloba. Caffeine obviously is one of the biggest functional compounds that we use on a daily basis. I know that for me personally, ever since I've changed my relationship with alcohol, my caffeine use has gone through the roof. That might have something to do with why I struggle sleeping sometimes. I'm putting these pieces together as we're talking guys. So nootropics help with things like mental clarity and acuity, your concentration and your focus, memory, learning, alertness and energy. Again, a bit with the mood enhancement and stress reduction, mental stamina, creative thinking, information processing. There's a whole range again of areas of our lives that nootropics can help us with. If you are interested in finding out a little bit more about how brands are using these ingredients in their drinks, I highly recommend, and I will link in the show notes to episode 59, in which I speak to chris kazakios, who is the founder of Beer, which is a functional beer brand, and also episode 45, where I speak to Hamilton Lowe, who is the founder of Smiling Wolf, which is a functional spirits brand, and I asked them both how these ingredients are used in their drinks and what exactly they do for people when they drink them.
Speaker 1:Okay, so that was adaptogens and nootropics, but those aren't the only two categories of functional beverages. In fact, one of the categories that we are most used to using and seeing is actually those little prebiotic drinks that you get in the supermarket. Do you remember they were huge, they were on the TV all the time a few years ago that help you with your gut health. So those are a functional beverage. You've then got drinks that contain things like electrolytes for hydration, often used by athletes and people who like working out and running, and all that sort of stuff. Other drinks might contain things like antioxidants to help with cellular health. So really they run the gamut of anything that happens in your body.
Speaker 1:There's likely to be a functional beverage out there somewhere that contains an ingredient that will help make that better or repair it or enhance it in some way, shape or form. So let's talk a little bit about where these ingredients come from, because there are two ways that functional ingredients are introduced to drinks. You've got those naturally derived ingredients that come straight from the plant or from the fungi or from the herbs, for example. That's things like green tea. You know we mentioned the mushrooms and ashwagandha root, and then there's also synthetic ingredients. So some brands will use synthetic functional ingredients that have been created in labs. These are versions of the natural compound, such as you can get synthetic caffeines and artificial vitamins and that sort of thing. Just because it's synthetic, it doesn't necessarily mean it's bad for you.
Speaker 1:I know we put a lot of focus and attention on natural ingredients in a lot of the things that we consume, and rightly so. You know, using what nature gives us is often the best route for a lot of people. But there are some benefits to using synthetic ingredients. For example, when we use naturally grown ingredients, it's very hard to control things like the potency of them, the harvesting of them, they can be more expensive because they require more intervention to make each batch as close as possible to the previous one, whereas in your synthetic ingredients, we do have a lot more control. We can control things like the consistent potency of it. We can make them more or less concentrated, depending on what it is that people need and are looking for. So it really does depend on what you prefer and what you're looking for close, if not identical, to natural ones.
Speaker 1:Now, this is not an area that I am an expert in. So what I would say is this is something that you will need to research for yourself. Read the ingredients label, make sure you're comfortable with what's in the drink and how it's been processed and how it got there. The other point of awareness that I would add to functional drinks is that we need to make sure that when we're using these drinks, we do it with a little bit of a reality check in mind. Functional beverages are not magic solutions.
Speaker 1:I remember, not long after I had my first child, we were having our kitchen redone. My baby was only a few weeks old. I was absolutely exhausted. Having our kitchen redone, my baby was only a few weeks old, I was absolutely exhausted and I was living for some time off a diet of toast, snickers and Lucozade. Now, despite all the obvious things that are wrong with that, if I had then started drinking a concoction of various adaptogenic and nootropic drinks, I doubt that I would have seen any major gains in either my mental acuity or my alertness or my energy levels. You know you can't fix what's wrong with you just by going ahead and adding in a few adaptogenic ingredients here and there and the odd nootropic shot here and there.
Speaker 1:These drinks are really best used as part of a healthy diet. If you're looking at them to enhance you, then you need to be coming from a base from which they have something to enhance. So make sure that, as you're consuming these drinks, you are not using them to replace other things in your life, but to add to them. And the other thing to bear in mind is that these effects are going to vary person by person. One of the notes that Chris made when we were speaking about on beer is that he found that people who had come to his drinks from a background of heavy alcohol use would feel less of an impact from the ingredients than those who maybe hadn't drunk as much in the past. Interesting as well. He also tells a story of an evening where he and his business partner were obviously trying the drinks out for themselves to see how they were, and he had drunk something like 10 bottles of his own beer, and whilst he was perfectly okay, that night's sleep definitely evaded him. You know he was for want of a better word he was wired from all of the ingredients that were going on inside. It didn't do him any harm. He was absolutely fine the next day. But it just goes to show that these drinks A you can overdo it on them, you can drink too much, you can have too much of a good thing, and B the impact of it will change person by person.
Speaker 1:The other note of warning I would say is that make sure that if you are on any other medication, that you check with your doctors before you go down a path of supplementing what you're taking for nootropic or adaptogenic ingredients and make sure that whatever it is that you're taking for nootropic or adaptogenic ingredients, and making sure that whatever it is that you're consuming will work in tandem with whatever medication that you might be on. Okay, I'm not a doctor. I can't give medical advice. I'm not suggesting that you start taking nootropic or adaptogenic drinks in place of any medication that you might have. So do make sure you go and speak to someone who knows far more about these things than I do. So if you do decide that you want to give functional beverages a go or you're already sort of dipping your toes into it, a few tips that I think would help you get the most out of it is to start with a small amount first. Whatever it is, make sure you read the producer's instructions and their recommended daily allowances and their best serve suggestions and take it as they suggest. That you take it. Okay. Like I said, you can overdo it.
Speaker 1:The other thing I would say is to monitor your personal response, you know. Make a note of how you're feeling. What were you doing when you took it? How much had you eaten? How much did you have to drink? How did it make you feel? How did you feel the next day when you woke up? Make sure that you're aware of how it's impacting you and maybe you know you might find that this type of drink isn't the right one for you. So you want to go and try something else.
Speaker 1:The good news is that there are so many brands out there now who are working with functional ingredients to create amazing drinks for us, whether you want to find them in non-alcoholic beers, spirits, cocktails there's so much out there to choose from that you really do have the luxury of trial and error. My other tips would be to check the other ingredients on the list, as always. I've said it to you before and I'll say it to you again make sure you're checking for things like sugars and artificial sweeteners, if these are important to you and consider then, after you've put all that together, you know, consider the cost versus the benefit. Did you feel anything, you know? Did it add a little pep to your night? If that's what you're looking for, did it help with your focus when you were at work? Did you get from it what you were hoping to get from it, and was it worth it? If not, perhaps scratch that one off the list and go and try something else.
Speaker 1:If you're looking for a couple of brands to try, I have two personal recommendations that I've enjoyed recently. The first is from Gabba Labs. Now Gabba Labs makes Centia, which is the original Gabba spirit, and it works to impact the Gabba receptors in your brain and to recreate that one or two drink feeling which their research shows is the highlight of your evening. And usually after your first one or two drinks, the way your brain responds to alcohol and the level of fun and enjoyment that you have actually decreases. So Centia is made to replicate that two drink feeling. Their original one was a red. Now they've added a black and they've just brought out a gold. For me it's all about the red.
Speaker 1:And then the other one I've been enjoying lately is Impossibrew. Impossibrew is a beer. They make a pale ale and a lager and I'm hoping to get their founder, mark Wong, on the show soon. You may recognize his name or his face from having been on Dragon's Den a few years ago. He didn't get the investment. The Dragons were interested but he didn't walk away with the investment. But it hasn't hurt him in the slightest and Mark Wong and his very small team I think there's about five of them have gone on to create one of the most successful functional beer brands ever and have just closed a fundraising round where they launched some ridiculous amounts of money to help them grow the business even further. So again, make sure you're following the show and keep an ear out for that episode, which will be coming to you soon.
Speaker 1:If you have found any functional drinks that you have been enjoying that are really hitting the spot for you, then I would love to hear about them. The easiest way to tell me about them is to respond to one of my newsletter emails, and the easiest way to get onto my mailing list is to head to lonodrinkermagazinecom. Forward slash free gifts. Download one of the free gifts on there and that will get you onto the newsletter and you can just hit reply and let me know what you're really enjoying While you're there at the website.
Speaker 1:If you have yet to subscribe to Lono Drinker Magazine, the number one UK magazine for sober, curious and mindful drinkers, then I highly recommend you head to the subscribe page at lonodrinkermagazinecom forward slash subscribe, where you can get a hard copy of the magazine delivered to you anywhere in the world. Or, if you prefer to go digital, you can join now. Hard copy of the magazine delivered to you anywhere in the world. Or, if you prefer to go digital, you can join now and get free access to every single issue of Lono Drinker magazine ever published online, with a free trial for seven days. So that's it for this week, until next time. Cheers to a life less intoxicated.
