M.E.’s ‘09 thoughts on Vitamin Water:
I returned to Canada on the first day of 2009 after traveling the world for 8 months. As it was the middle of winter I wasn’t expecting to see rainbows everywhere. They seemed to mark my arrival. These were not the same rainbows that I had witnessed on the beautiful beaches in Thailand nor were they advertisements for Canada’s Food Guide (yes, it’s a rainbow). No, it was the rainbow of vitamin waters that called to me from the shelves and coolers of gas stations and grocery stores I frequented. I will admit that I fell for the marketing. Slyly sitting beside my plain old unflavoured colourless bottle of water was a beautiful pink one. I stared at her while standing in the 1-8 item line of the grocery store and I suddenly felt parched. I gave in, opened the cooler and grabbed pretty in pink. The first thing I did is likely not what the majority of individuals do but I turned the bottle over to review the nutrient facts panel. One serving had 50 calories! What? When did water have anything of anything in it. Each bottle contains 2.5 servings so you are actually drinking 125 calories if you have the whole thing. What? I know. Again being a dietitian, I wondered where could these calories be coming from? Is this a juice product? The ingredient panel answered that quickly with one word, fructose. A derivative of table sugar that is 1.73x sweeter than it’s sugar parent. There did not appear to be any form of juice present. If I was holding a beverage made up entirely of sugar, wasn’t I holding pop? I hate to burst your vitamin water induced happy bubble but yes they are one in the same. They both provide the equivalent of 8+ tsp of sugar. But wait, there are vitamins in the water, doesn’t that make it healthier than pop. Again my answer is no. Margo G Wootan, Director of Nutrition Policy, at the Centre for Science in the Public Interest says that vitamin waters have “an aura of healthfulness that is not deserved. Adding vitamins to junk food doesn’t make it healthy.”
Are you looking for balance, energy, endurance or focus? These are just a few of the claims made on the label of vitamin waters. The waters differ from each other by the type and quantity of vitamins and/or minerals that are added. However, when it comes to vitamins, there are 2 types and depending on the contents of your stomach, you may or may not absorb them. Vitamins, such as C and all of the Bs, are easily absorbed from these water products as they are water soluble, meaning they can enter the bloodstream with only water present. The other types of vitamins found in these products are called fat soluble. Vitamin A, D, E & K must find themselves in the presence of fat if they are going to be absorbed into the bloodstream. So if you think that drinking a vitamin water on an empty stomach will increase your intake of these nutrients then you are greatly mistaken. You are literally spending $2.29+tax for 32g (8tsp) of sugar. You could buy 1lb of sugar at the grocery store for a similar or lesser price. The only winner here is the manufacturer. The most popular brand generates hundreds of millions of dollars each year from people that think they are being healthy.
As I stood in the grocery store line-up I wondered if I had missed a major news story. I had in fact missed many news stories over the course of my travels. But when had we become so deficient that we had to get nutrients from a water concoction in place of a big salad? Had all fruit and vegetable crops become extinct? No, this is not a scene from the sequel of Avatar so being the responsible dietitian that I am, I promptly returned pretty in pink to her prized position in the rainbow. As I did so, I noticed that one of her siblings had, in large print, on the front 25 calories, right I thought that’s the water equivalent of diet pop.
I left Japan on January 1 2009 and arrived in Toronto on January 1 2009. I gained ½ a day. Drinking a bottle of vitamin water daily won’t enable you to turn back the clock, instead you will drink enough calories that if consumed over and above your daily requirement, will result in a weight gain of 13lbs in exactly 1 year.
