5 Reasons Why Vitaminwater Might Be Just as Bad for You as Coke

A beverage called Vitaminwater has been very popular in recent years. It contains added vitamins and minerals, and is marketed as healthy.
However, what is left out of the marketing claims, is that Vitaminwater is loaded with added sugar.
As you may know, sugar can cause severe harm when consumed in excess.
Additionally, almost no one actually needs more of the nutrients added to Vitaminwater.
This article lists 5 reasons why Vitaminwater is actually bad for your health.
What is Vitaminwater?
Vitaminwater is a beverage brand owned by the Coca-Cola company.
There are many varieties, each with an attractive name like “focus,” “endurance,” “refresh,” “defense” and “essential.”
As is reflected in the name, it is water that is enriched with vitamins and minerals. It is also claimed to contain natural colors and flavors.
However, Vitaminwater is also loaded with added sugar, particularly fructose, which is linked to all sorts of health problems when consumed in excess.
Vitaminwater also has a “Zero” product line, with no added sugar. Instead, it is sweetened with erythritol and a refined sweet compound extracted from the stevia plant. The first three reasons do not apply to Vitaminwater Zero.
Bottom line: Vitaminwater is a brand of beverages owned by the Coca-Cola company. It contains added vitamins and minerals, and is generally sweetened with sugar. There is also a “Zero” line without added sugar.
1. Vitaminwater is High in Liquid Sugar, and May Contain Just as Much Fructose as Coca-Cola
One 20-oz (591 ml) bottle of Vitaminwater contains about 120 calories and 32 grams of sugar, just about 50 percent less than a regular Coke.
However, it differs between countries which “type” of sugar is used.
In the U.S., they sweeten Vitaminwater with crystalline fructose and cane sugar, but in other countries they use mainly cane sugar (fancy word for sugar).
Crystalline fructose is the worst, being almost pure fructose (over 98 percent), while cane sugar is 50 percent glucose and 50 percent fructose.
If we look more closely, we can see that a bottle of Vitaminwater (in the U.S.) may contain about the same amount of fructose as a bottle of regular Coke.
That is because the majority of the sugar in U.S. Vitaminwater is in the form of pure fructose, while fructose comprises only half of the sugar content of Coke.
Many studies show that fructose is the main harmful component of added sugar, not glucose (1, 2).
Bottom line: One bottle of Vitaminwater contains 120 calories and 32 grams of sugar. In countries where it is sweetened with Crystalline fructose (like the U.S.), it contains just as much fructose as a sugary drink like Coke.
2. Sugar-Sweetened Beverages Are Highly Fattening
When it comes to weight gain/loss, what you drink is just as important as what you eat.
When you drink liquid sugar calories, your body does not compensate by making you eat less of other foods instead.
The calories coming from these sugar-sweetened drinks are then added on top of everything you eat.
Over time, this can lead to weight gain and increased risk of obesity and other related diseases (3, 4, 5).
Consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages is among the world’s strongest risk factors for obesity, some studies showing up to a 60 percent increased risk of obesity in children, for each daily serving (6, 7).
There is no reason why Vitaminwater should be any different. It is just another sugary beverage.
Bottom line: Your body does not compensate for liquid sugar calories, making you eat more calories overall. Sugar-sweetened beverages like Vitaminwater are strongly linked to weight gain and obesity.
3. Sugar-Sweetened Beverages Raise Your Risk of All Sorts of Diseases
Almost all health experts agree that added sugar plays a key role in the epidemics of obesity and chronic diseases (5, 8).
It is recommended to keep the intake of added sugars below 10 percent of total calories, preferably below 5 percent.
For a 2,500 calorie diet, 10 percent of calories amounts to 62 grams of sugar, and 5 percent amounts to 31 grams of sugar.
As mentioned above, one bottle of Vitaminwater contains 32 grams of added sugar. That is 50-100 percent of the recommended upper limit.
Added sugar is strongly associated with type 2 diabetes, tooth decay, heart disease, the metabolic syndrome and even cancer (9, 10, 11, 12, 13).
This applies mainly to fructose, which can only be metabolized by the liver in significant amounts.
Excess fructose consumption may cause high blood cholesterol and triglycerides, increased blood pressure, increased insulin resistance, fat build-up around the organs and increased risk of fatty liver disease (14, 15, 16, 17).
These are major risk factors for heart disease, diabetes and obesity (1, 18, 19).
It should be noted that this does not apply to the fructose we get from fruit. Fruit contains water and fiber, and has a low energy density, so it is very hard to eat too much of it.
Bottom line: One bottle of Vitaminwater provides 50-100 percent of the recommended upper limit for added sugar. Added sugar, especially fructose, is associated with a variety of diseases and health problems.
4. Vitaminwater Contains Micronutrients That Most People are Already Getting Enough of
All types of Vitaminwater contain B vitamins (50-120 percent of the RDI) and vitamin C (50-150 percent of the RDI).
Some types also contain smaller amounts of vitamins A and E, and the minerals potassium, magnesium, manganese, zinc and chromium.
Vitamins B and C are water soluble vitamins that are almost never lacking in the average person’s diet (20, 21).
Consuming excess amounts of these vitamins does not provide any sort of health benefit. They are not stored, but are simply washed out of the body via urine.
That being said, there are subgroups of people who may be lacking in some of these vitamins and minerals (especially B12 and folate).
However, it makes absolutely no sense to drink a harmful sugary beverage to get these nutrients.
Eat whole foods instead, or take a supplement if you are truly lacking in something.
Bottom line: Most of the micronutrients in Vitaminwater are not needed, as most people are already getting more than enough. Any excess amount is simply expelled from the body via urine.
5. In Some Cases, Excess Micronutrients in Supplement Form Can Cause Harm
When it comes to nutrition, more is not always better.
Vitamins, minerals and antioxidants are absolutely crucial as part of a healthy, real food-based diet.
They may improve health and help prevent a range of diseases, including heart disease and cancer (22, 23).
However, supplementing with vitamins or antioxidants has not been linked with the same health benefits (24).
Supplementation with some antioxidants and vitamins, such as vitamins A and E, has actually been associated with increased risk of premature death in some studies (25,26, 27).
Although Vitaminwater does not provide excessive amounts of these vitamins on its own, it does contain considerable amounts (25-50 percent of the recommended daily intake).
When you add 25-50 percent of the recommended daily intake on top of what you’re already getting from food, then it is possible that all of this will add up to reach excessive amounts.
So not only are the micronutrients in Vitaminwater not beneficial, they may even be downright harmful if they are increasing your intake to harmful levels.
Bottom line: Some Vitaminwater varieties contain vitamins A and E, which may have harmful effects when consumed in unnaturally large amounts.
Vitaminwater is Not Healthy—It is Just Another Harmful Sugary Beverage
The owners (The Coca-Cola Company) have actually been sued for deceptive and unsubstantiated health claims about Vitaminwater.
Their response was interesting: “no reasonable person would be misled into thinking that Vitaminwater was a healthy beverage.”
They are actually trying to defend themselves by saying that the health promoting claims are so far fetched that people couldn’t possibly believe them.
The problem is that many people do actually fall for marketing claims.
Most people don’t read ingredient labels, and don’t realize how unethical and ruthless the junk food companies can be.
Despite the fancy marketing, Vitaminwater is a harmful, disease-promoting beverage that most people should be avoiding as much as possible.
At best, it is just a slightly “less bad” version of Coke.
YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE
Is Your House Making You Sick?
New fossils uncovered in Argentina may belong to one of the largest animals to have walked on Earth.
- Groundbreaking Fossil Shows Prehistoric 15-Foot Reptile Tried to ... ›
- Skull of Smallest Known Dinosaur Found in 99-Million-Year Old Amber ›
- Giant 'Toothed' Birds Flew Over Antarctica 40 Million Years Ago ... ›
- World's Second-Largest Egg Found in Antarctica Probably Hatched ... ›
EcoWatch Daily Newsletter
A federal court on Tuesday struck down the Trump administration's rollback of the Obama-era Clean Power Plan regulating greenhouse gas emissions from power plants.
- Pruitt Guts the Clean Power Plan: How Weak Will the New EPA ... ›
- It's Official: Trump Administration to Repeal Clean Power Plan ... ›
- 'Deadly' Clean Power Plan Replacement ›
Trending
By Jonathan Runstadler and Kaitlin Sawatzki
Over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, researchers have found coronavirus infections in pet cats and dogs and in multiple zoo animals, including big cats and gorillas. These infections have even happened when staff were using personal protective equipment.
Gorillas have been affected by human viruses in the past and are susceptible to the coronavirus. Thomas Fuhrmann via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA
- Gorillas in San Diego Test Positive for Coronavirus - EcoWatch ›
- Wildlife Rehabilitators Are Overwhelmed During the Pandemic. In ... ›
- Coronavirus Pandemic Linked to Destruction of Wildlife and World's ... ›
- Utah Mink Becomes First Wild Animal to Test Positive for Coronavirus ›
By Peter Giger
The speed and scale of the response to COVID-19 by governments, businesses and individuals seems to provide hope that we can react to the climate change crisis in a similarly decisive manner - but history tells us that humans do not react to slow-moving and distant threats.
A Game of Jenga
<p>Think of it as a game of Jenga and the planet's climate system as the tower. For generations, we have been slowly removing blocks. But at some point, we will remove a pivotal block, such as the collapse of one of the major global ocean circulation systems, for example the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), that will cause all or part of the global climate system to fall into a planetary emergency.</p><p>But worse still, it could cause runaway damage: Where the tipping points form a domino-like cascade, where breaching one triggers breaches of others, creating an unstoppable shift to a radically and swiftly changing climate.</p><p>One of the most concerning tipping points is mass methane release. Methane can be found in deep freeze storage within permafrost and at the bottom of the deepest oceans in the form of methane hydrates. But rising sea and air temperatures are beginning to thaw these stores of methane.</p><p>This would release a powerful greenhouse gas into the atmosphere, 30-times more potent than carbon dioxide as a global warming agent. This would drastically increase temperatures and rush us towards the breach of other tipping points.</p><p>This could include the acceleration of ice thaw on all three of the globe's large, land-based ice sheets – Greenland, West Antarctica and the Wilkes Basin in East Antarctica. The potential collapse of the West Antarctic ice sheet is seen as a key tipping point, as its loss could eventually <a href="https://science.sciencemag.org/content/324/5929/901" target="_blank">raise global sea levels by 3.3 meters</a> with important regional variations.</p><p>More than that, we would be on the irreversible path to full land-ice melt, causing sea levels to rise by up to 30 meters, roughly at the rate of two meters per century, or maybe faster. Just look at the raised beaches around the world, at the last high stand of global sea level, at the end of the Pleistocene period around 120,0000 years ago, to see the evidence of such a warm world, which was just 2°C warmer than the present day.</p>Cutting Off Circulation
<p>As well as devastating low-lying and coastal areas around the world, melting polar ice could set off another tipping point: a disablement to the AMOC.</p><p>This circulation system drives a northward flow of warm, salty water on the upper layers of the ocean from the tropics to the northeast Atlantic region, and a southward flow of cold water deep in the ocean.</p><p>The ocean conveyor belt has a major effect on the climate, seasonal cycles and temperature in western and northern Europe. It means the region is warmer than other areas of similar latitude.</p><p>But melting ice from the Greenland ice sheet could threaten the AMOC system. It would dilute the salty sea water in the north Atlantic, making the water lighter and less able or unable to sink. This would slow the engine that drives this ocean circulation.</p><p><a href="https://www.carbonbrief.org/atlantic-conveyor-belt-has-slowed-15-per-cent-since-mid-twentieth-century" target="_blank">Recent research</a> suggests the AMOC has already weakened by around 15% since the middle of the 20th century. If this continues, it could have a major impact on the climate of the northern hemisphere, but particularly Europe. It may even lead to the <a href="https://ore.exeter.ac.uk/repository/handle/10871/39731?show=full" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">cessation of arable farming</a> in the UK, for instance.</p><p>It may also reduce rainfall over the Amazon basin, impact the monsoon systems in Asia and, by bringing warm waters into the Southern Ocean, further destabilize ice in Antarctica and accelerate global sea level rise.</p>The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation has a major effect on the climate. Praetorius (2018)
Is it Time to Declare a Climate Emergency?
<p>At what stage, and at what rise in global temperatures, will these tipping points be reached? No one is entirely sure. It may take centuries, millennia or it could be imminent.</p><p>But as COVID-19 taught us, we need to prepare for the expected. We were aware of the risk of a pandemic. We also knew that we were not sufficiently prepared. But we didn't act in a meaningful manner. Thankfully, we have been able to fast-track the production of vaccines to combat COVID-19. But there is no vaccine for climate change once we have passed these tipping points.</p><p><a href="https://www.weforum.org/reports/the-global-risks-report-2021" target="_blank">We need to act now on our climate</a>. Act like these tipping points are imminent. And stop thinking of climate change as a slow-moving, long-term threat that enables us to kick the problem down the road and let future generations deal with it. We must take immediate action to reduce global warming and fulfill our commitments to the <a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/sr15/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Paris Agreement</a>, and build resilience with these tipping points in mind.</p><p>We need to plan now to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions, but we also need to plan for the impacts, such as the ability to feed everyone on the planet, develop plans to manage flood risk, as well as manage the social and geopolitical impacts of human migrations that will be a consequence of fight or flight decisions.</p><p>Breaching these tipping points would be cataclysmic and potentially far more devastating than COVID-19. Some may not enjoy hearing these messages, or consider them to be in the realm of science fiction. But if it injects a sense of urgency to make us respond to climate change like we have done to the pandemic, then we must talk more about what has happened before and will happen again.</p><p>Otherwise we will continue playing Jenga with our planet. And ultimately, there will only be one loser – us.</p>By John R. Platt
The period of the 45th presidency will go down as dark days for the United States — not just for the violent insurgency and impeachment that capped off Donald Trump's four years in office, but for every regressive action that came before.
- Biden Announces $2 Trillion Climate and Green Recovery Plan ... ›
- How Biden and Kerry Can Rebuild America's Climate Leadership ... ›
- Biden's EPA Pick Michael Regan Urged to Address Environmental ... ›
- How Joe Biden's Climate Plan Compares to the Green New Deal ... ›