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March 20, 2008
Water!
Yesterday, I stumbled into a water war. On one street corner, young people were blaring rap and handing out SoBe Life Water. On the opposite corner, young people were acting athletic and handing out Glaceau vitaminwater. I tried both of these so-called waters, and I have to say that they violate the basic requirement of truth in advertising. This is Kool-Aid.
The biggest ingredient, after H20, in vitaminwater is crystalline fructose. In other words: sugar. The only vitamin present in significant quantities is C - 100% - and that's not really something I'm missing in my diet. This 12 ounce bottle contains 75 calories. It also claims to contain something called "lutein," which I've never heard of. There are no electrolytes or other useful added ingredients that might help me out at the gym, for example.
Life Water, which claims to be a "vitamin enhanced water beverage" that will "enlighten your life" allegedly contains yerba mate, but it tastes nothing like the dank South American caffeinated tea. It tastes like blackberry and grape. After water, sugar is next on the ingredients list. Each bottle of Life Water has twice as much vitamin C as you need in a day, and 40 percent of your E needs as well. Otherwise, not a lot. It claims to have 40 calories per serving, but a 16 ounce bottle contains two servings. Again no electrolytes, though there is "L-theanine," whatever that is.
In other words, I was handed two candy-flavored sugar drinks which made bogus health claims and delivered unwanted vitamins and unneeded calories. And these beverages dare to call themselves water.
Coffee is mostly water too, right? Let's call it coffee water. I also like tea water, juice water, Kool-Aid water, Coke water. Oooh, I even like plain diet water, no calories added, no vitamins, no sugar, no flavors. It's really delicious when cold.
Posted by Courtney_Sherwood at March 20, 2008 10:17 PM
Comments
This is one of my pet peeves. Here in the northwest we have the most delicious water that exists, and it comes out of the tap with no sugar in it. And most of all, no plastic surrounding it, so that you need not contribute to environmental pollution by underwriting the manufacture of a non-biodegradable material, namely plastic, to drink it. The recycling of these stupid bottles for bottled water takes a huge amount of space in landfills and the average home with teenagers in it, and you can be sure that they do not care to make sure that they get rinsed, and caps removed, as specified by law. Who gets to do this? The parental units. And kids pretend that they are drinking something healthy! How absurd. The question is whether it is marginally healthier than an "energy" drink, or old-fashioned soft drinks, frankly full of much more sugar as well as caffeine. It is disgusting to me. The magic of the marketplace is destroying the environment, causing obesity, and promoting family discord.
Posted by: Sue at March 21, 2008 11:02 AM