A label audit of 108 prebiotic sodas launched in the US between 2021 and 2025 found an average of 35 calories, 5 g of sugar and 5 g of fiber per 12 oz can, with fiber ranging from 2 to 9 g across products.
About two thirds contained non nutritive sweeteners, against more than 90% of diet sodas, under 28% of fruit drinks, 16% of flavored sparkling waters and 12% of regular sodas. The authors note that nutrition and functional claims on these products "may overstate their nutritional quality."
The numbers
| Average per 12 oz can | 35 kcal, 5 g sugar, 5 g fiber |
| Fiber range | 2 to 9 g per can |
| Non nutritive sweetener prevalence | about 67% of prebiotic sodas vs more than 90% of diet sodas, under 28% of fruit drinks, 16% of flavored sparkling waters, 12% of regular sodas |
What this does not show
- That these products help or harm anyone. No health outcomes were measured at all. This is a label audit, not a trial.
- That the declared fiber is actually in the can. Label based, with no laboratory verification that declared fiber is present at the declared level, a real limitation in a category where analytical fiber methods vary.
- That the sugar content is high. Five grams per can is genuinely low next to regular soda. The "as much sugar as fiber" framing is rhetoric, not a finding.
- That sweetener presence means harm. Non nutritive sweetener presence is not itself evidence of harm; that literature remains unsettled.
- What a typical product looks like. Category average figures hide the distribution, and some products in this set are presumably well formulated.
Caveats worth holding
- Conference abstract, explicitly flagged by ASN as preliminary and not journal peer reviewed.
- Label based with no laboratory verification of declared fiber content.
- No health outcomes were measured.
- "As much sugar as fiber" is a rhetorical framing rather than a finding; 5 g of sugar per can is low.
- Non nutritive sweetener presence is not itself evidence of harm.
- Category averages hide the distribution across products.