Beverage promoted as joint health aid
BEING TEST-MARKETED IN 3 KENTUCKY CITIES

LEXINGTON HERALD-LEADER - September 7, 2006
By Karla Ward - LEXINGTON HERALD-LEADER BUSINESS WRITER

There’s a margarine spread aimed at lowering cholesterol, a 7-Up soda with extra calcium, and even a yogurt that Dannon says helps people “improve their intestinal rhythm.”

Now, Lexington is a test market for a fruity dietary supplement drink that purports to make users’ joints more flexible.

The drink, Elations, is part of a growing category of products called functional foods, which are marketed as having added health benefits.

Elations contains 1,500 milligrams of glucosamine, a sugar that occurs naturally in the body and is known to improve joint cushioning, and 1,200 mg of chondroitin, which stimulates cartilage production. It also has a day's supply of vitamin C and 30 percent of the recommended daily allowance of calcium.

David Schmidt, president and CEO of the International Food Information Council, said consumers are becoming more interested in the specific health benefits certain foods can provide.

“The market is there,” Schmidt said. “It’s more of an educated, higher-income bracket.”

Still, Schmidt cautioned that taste and price are the most important factors consumers cite in deciding whether to buy a product. “It’s got to meet those taste expectations,” he said.

The Food and Drug Administration generally prevents The Elations Co. and other functional-food makers from marketing their products as antidotes to specific diseases.

However, the company points out in press materials that the combination of glucosamine and chondroitin has been shown to improve flexibility and is used to treat knee pain from osteoarthritis.

Jeff Goldstein, vice president of marketing at Elations, said Lexington and other Kentucky cities were chosen because of their proximity to his company’s Cincinnati headquarters and because of the state’s high rate of arthritis.

Last year, the Centers for Disease Control reported that 879,000 — or 29 percent — of adults in Kentucky had arthritis.

The product is available at seven Lexington Kroger stores, as well as Kroger stores in surrounding towns. Goldstein said Meijer should have Elations on its shelves soon.

Louisville, Owensboro and southern Indiana are also test sites. Elations comes in cranberry apple and raspberry white grape flavors and is sold in individual eight-ounce bottles and six-packs. Singles sell for $1.29 at Kroger.

The drink was developed by Procter & Gamble and sold to The Elations Company, a subsidiary of privately held Beverages Holdings LLC, in 2004. Procter & Gamble receives a royalty from sales of the product.

Although some companies’ attempts at making super-healthy foods have been met with disinterest from the public, Goldstein said he thinks the product will appeal to people who hate taking pills.

“People seem to really be responding,” he said. “The trend line is very encouraging.”

Copyright: Lexington Herald-Leader 2006

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