The End of the Soda Binary: How Functional Beverages Are Rewriting Consumer Health

For decades, the beverage aisle ran on a binary: a drink could taste good, or it could be good for you, but rarely at once. Soda sat on one side of that line: flavor, fizz, and convenience, with little to offer the body beyond calories. That binary is now collapsing, and the market is moving toward drinks that can do both.

Consumers have stopped accepting that soda has to be nutritionally empty to be enjoyable. That shift is reshaping an entire category. That’s why we’ve been watching companies like SkyPop, the protein soda brand built around this divide.

Consumers Want More from Their Soda

Soda has succeeded because it asks nothing of the person drinking it. It’s familiar and available everywhere a person might be thirsty. None of that has changed. What has changed is the backdrop against which that familiarity now sits. People are paying closer attention to what they put in their bodies than they were a decade ago, and products built around sugar and carbonation read like relics of an older set of expectations.

This tale is not about consumers quitting soda for something else. It’s about consumers wanting the format they already love to catch up to what they now expect from everything else in their pantry. They want the flavor and the ritual without the trade-off that used to come with it.

The Rise of “Modern Soda”

That tension is giving rise to what’s best described as modern soda: drinks that keep the format and experience of traditional soda but rebuild what’s inside the can. The functional beverage market is on track to grow from roughly $164 billion in 2026 to nearly $240 billion by 2031. That growth concentrates on drinks built around lower sugar, cleaner labels, and added function, all of which run counter to soda’s traditional playbook.

Several factors define this switch.

• Lower sugar and lower calories have moved from a niche preference to a baseline expectation, not a premium feature.
• Ingredient lists are getting shorter and more legible, as consumers want to know what they’re consuming.
• Beverages are expected to fit into daily health routines rather than sit outside them as a sporadic indulgence.
• The bar has moved from “less bad” to “actually useful” — removing sugar is no longer enough on its own

That last point is the important one. The first wave of soda reinvention was subtractive: take out sugar, take out calories, take out artificial color. The next wave is additive. It is no longer enough for a beverage to do less harm; consumers are starting to expect it to do something for them.

The clearest signal is how the category’s largest players have moved. PepsiCo acquired the prebiotic soda brand Poppi and then launched a functional cola with added fiber, less sugar, and fewer calories. That matters less as news than as evidence: a major incumbent now sees soda’s future running through function as much as flavor. Since capital allocation lags the trends it follows, this shift has likely been building for a while.

Protein Speaks a Language Consumers Already Know

Of all the ingredients vying to be that ‘something,’ protein has the clearest path to the mainstream. It has shed its old identity as a bodybuilder’s macro and become more like a universal language of health. It is tied to satiety, muscle preservation, healthy aging, and weight management, all topics that span beyond the gym.

That’s the difference between protein and most other functional ingredients on the market. Adaptogens, nootropics, and exotic botanicals all need new consumer education before the pitch lands. Protein doesn’t. Most people already have a rough mental model of what protein does and why more of it tends to be a good thing. That existing familiarity is what makes protein such an effective bridge ingredient, letting brands communicate benefits before concepts.

SkyPop’s whole positioning is built around this gap. It takes a benefit people already understand and puts it inside a format people already love.

What Makes This More Than a Moment

It’s worth asking whether this is a durable pivot or the latest flavor of wellness marketing. Several structural forces suggest it is the former and point to a larger shift in consumer expectations.

• Health awareness has risen steadily for years, independent of pandemic-era spikes.
• Consumers want less sugar without giving up foods and drinks they enjoy. That gap is what functional reformulation aims to address.
• An aging population is focusing more on muscle / bone density preservation and long-term health span than on short-term fitness.
• GLP-1 medications have sharpened focus on nutrient density and protein intake, accelerating a trend already underway.
  
  

That last point deserves a caveat. GLP-1 adoption has roughly doubled in 2 years, with use now at around 1 in 8 U.S. adults — a cohort losing muscle mass fast enough to make protein nearly essential. But the wider protein-seeking trend predates GLP-1s and reaches far beyond them. That is the lasting force worth underwriting.

Where SkyPop Fits

SkyPop aligns with three growing trends:

• Soda’s reinvention
• Protein’s mainstream adoption
• Products that enhance existing habits rather than create new ones

The product delivers carbonation, traditional soda as well as “treat inspired” flavors , and the same shelf placement as the cans beside it. The formulation is what differs: 10 grams of real whey protein (no collagen fillers), zero sugar, and 45 calories per can, across flavors like Strawberry Cotton Candy, Root Beer, Ice Pop and Fruit Punch. . Keurig Dr. Pepper is among the company’s backers, alongside other strategic and growth investors. That is a signal that larger players in the beverage industry are underwriting the same thesis we are.

It doesn’t ask consumers to change what they reach for. It changes what’s inside the can. An afternoon soda occasion, or a recovery drink that once meant a protein shake, now means the same can with a different formulation behind it.

That’s a lower-friction path to the same behavior change, which is exactly why it tends to win. It also helps explain why we see the company as well-positioned for this evolution.

Why This Matters to Investors

Step back far enough, and this is bigger than one beverage brand. Consumer health is moving beyond the supplement aisle and into coffee runs, soda purchases, and snack selections. That’s where durable trends compound: behavior change is costly, but habit improvement scales on its own.

SkyPop isn’t chasing a beverage trend in isolation. It’s responding to a structural change in what consumers expect from the products already in their daily rotation. That’s the position we’re underwriting: everyday products are becoming the next frontier of consumer health.

The information provided is for informational and educational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice, recommendations, or solicitation. Solyco Capital and/or its affiliates may have financial interests in companies discussed herein, which creates potential conflicts of interest. The views expressed are personal opinions and do not necessarily reflect official positions of Solyco Capital. Past performance does not guarantee future results. Forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties, and actual results may differ materially. Readers should conduct independent research and consult their own attorneys, accountants, and other professional advisors before making any investment decisions. The content herein should not be construed as a solicitation or offer to engage in any investment strategy, purchase of securities, or other transaction. All information is provided “as is” without warranty of any kind, express or implied.

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