The Elongated Man gained his abilities by drinking a refined version of a soft drink named Gingold that contains the extract of a (fictional) fruit called gingo. It was revealed in "Invasion" #3 that he is a metahuman, and the Gingoid elixir interacted with his latent genes. An ordinary human would not develop such powers through ingesting the extract. In fact, most people are extremely allergic to highly concentrated Gingold. The only other hero in the DCU who uses Gingold is Stretch, a member of Hero Hotline who has been using the compound since the 1940s.