Sounds like a gang of lifers on the road to denial. Enough of that. Remember the sucrose/sucralose discussion (Gatorade Natural)? Now SoBe wants a piece of the action with their O-Calorie Lifewater drinks. Note that the company still has its 40 calorie lineup.
This is certainly the season to join the trendy drink brigade, but remember that not all bevs are created equal. Plenty of negative discussions about high fructose corn syrup (HFCS), and excessive amounts of sugar. Going for diet drinks has its own cadre of health detectives scurrying around with negative press. Every water, beverage, and energy drink company has been on a campaign to get our attention, but when we move away from plain water and traverse into the energy category, we enter a different terrain of information.
Let’s look at the unknowns and try to figure out their value and benefits. As far as I can gather, the new Lifewater drinks come in 3 categories (much like the Gatorade discussion): All natural nutrient-enhanced with electrolytes, no artificial sweeteners with antioxidants, and naturally sweetened vitamin-enhanced water. What’s this all mean? Whenever a container of anything has more than 5 ingredients, most of us get lost in the additives and the uncertain words. These drinks have a similar dizzying effect.
–The all natural SoBe has some mystifying ingredients (Erythritol, sounds like the old-age Geritol product), and then Reb-A which is defined as purified Stevia Extract. What’s this “all natural” stuff? Everywhere you turn to explore the ingredients, you wind up in the same place: The Stevia plant. Stevia is an all-natural sweetener that has been around for hundreds of years. Its presence in foods and beverages is of a more recent vintage in the US and has been a source of numerous discussions about its safety as a sugar substitute. For the record, PureVia, is part of this family, too. These words of mystery, so-called ingredients, are all natural sweeteners, sugar extracts; members of the Stevia plant family.
So what is a hot, tired, worn-out person to do? Drink lots of water and limit your ingredients to words you can pronounce!
