Coca-Cola apparently really wants to help you poop

If you’ve ever been constipated, you know that it seriously sucks. Apparently the folks at Coca-Cola have been there, done that because they’ve just unveiled a new fiber-packed soda that may help you poop.

According to an official press release, Coca-Cola Plus launched in Japan in February after a decade of research.

The drink is sugar-free, calorie-free, and contains five grams of dietary fiber per bottle.

"We're looking to add functional beverages," CEO James Quincy said on media call Tuesday.

The press release also claims drinking a Coca Cola Plus with food "help suppress fat absorption and help moderate the levels of triglycerides in the blood after eating."

It sounds good in theory, but is it really a good idea to boost your fiber intake with a soda? Experts aren’t convinced.

“Adding fiber to a drink does not turn an unhealthy food into a healthy one,” says Beth Warren, R.D.N., founder of Beth Warren Nutrition and author of Living a Real Life with Real Food.

“There's something to say about a food or drink being a natural source of fiber versus an artificial one.”

When you get fiber from a whole food source instead of something artificial like a soda, it acts synergistically with other components in the food to help with digestion of the nutrients, she explains.

This clever water bottle hack will help you make sure you stay hydrated all day long:

New York-based Jessica Cording, R.D., agrees. “Drinks can be a source of fiber in the diet, but I encourage food-based sources as your main focus,” she says, adding that the messaging around Coca-Cola Plus is “really problematic.”

“It's making it sound like soda is a healthy beverage that can improve your health, when there are tons of other things about regular and diet soda that are not doing the body any favors,” she says. (Including, most recently, a study showing a potential link between diet sodas and risk of dementia and stroke).

"Trying to reposition soda as a health-promoting beverage is a slippery slope, and I don’t support that.”

The average woman should get about 25 to 30 grams of fiber in her diet each day, so five grams isn’t something to dismiss. But again…it’s coming via soda.

While fiber-added products like Coca-Cola Plus sound good, Warren says there’s a chance people can develop bloating and stomach discomfort from having them: “I often find this with clients who consume fiber from these fortified sources.”

Instead, Cording recommends going for foods that are naturally high in fiber, like vegetables, fruits, beans, peas, lentils, whole grains, nuts, and seeds to help up your daily intake.

Warren says it also helps to have a plant-based diet.

Coca-Cola hasn’t revealed any plans to bring Coke Plus stateside, but we can only hold out hope they’re in the works—if only for the commercials.