REVIEW: A Cola With More Fiber Than Most Fiber One Products

Fiber One products used to enthrall me. I mean, not the products themselves, but the attempts to cram fiber into them. The boxes used to proudly show off how much of your daily fiber you’re getting per serving. For a lot of them, mainly the snack bars, it was 20 percent. But with others it fluctuates.

There’s 35 percent, 40 percent, 43 percent, and 28 percent.

Whenever I saw a new Fiber One product, I hoped that somehow the food scientists at General Mills could cram 50 to 100 percent of our daily fiber into a snack bar or something, but they couldn’t deliver. I guess they can only do so much with chicory root extract and soluble corn fiber without it tasting like it has chicory root extract and soluble corn fiber.

Now, I’m sure some of you are going to point out that you can get 65 percent of your daily recommended amount from eating a serving of Fiber One’s Original Bran Breakfast Cereal. But that’s not something I want to eat.

Thankfully, I found a product that’s better tasting than a bowl of Fiber One bran cereal AND gives me more fiber per serving — Kirin Mets Tokuho Cola. Yes, it’s a Japanese cola that many of you will not be able to get your hands on, but it’s such a fascinating product that I had to write about it.

It has 25 grams of fiber per 16-ounce bottle, which comes out to 89% of the daily recommended amount, and that’s possible because the second ingredient listed is dietary fiber. “Tokuho” is a label that can be put on food and drinks in Japan that have health benefits, and those health claims must be scientifically proven though testing and trials before it can be approved by the Japanese government to receive the “Tokuho” label.

As for the fiber-dense cola, its flavor reminds me of cola gummies, but sugar free and with a noticeable artificial sweetener aftertaste, thanks to the aspartame, sucralose, and acesulfame potassium. It’s better tasting than a bowl of bran, but slightly less satisfying to my taste buds than a Diet Coke or Diet Pepsi.

I’ve purchased this Kirin Mets Tokuho Cola three times so far ($2.50) from a grocery store chain here that imports products from Japan, and it would’ve been more, if not for the fact that it sold out a couple of times. I guess I keep wanting to buy it because it tickles me that it has almost an entire day’s worth of fiber. As for gastrointestinal problems for drinking something with so much fiber, it wasn’t an issue because I didn’t chug the whole thing in one sitting. (Nope, not going to try it. Don’t ask.)

Would I buy a diet cola from Pepsi or Coke that has 89% of my daily fiber? If it tasted like Diet Coke or Diet Pepsi, I would. Would you, if you’re a diet cola drinker?

Purchased Price: $2.50
Size: 480 ml
Purchased at: Times Supermarket
Rating: 6 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: (1 bottle) 0 calories, 0 grams of fat, 0 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 0 milligrams of cholesterol, 0 milligrams of sodium, 32 grams of carbohydrates, 25 grams of fiber, 6 grams of sugar (including 1 gram of added sugar), and 0 grams of protein.