Food
Vitamin water
Introduction
Vitamin water - water "enhanced" with vitamins - is the latest drink fad aimed at young heath-conscious consumers.
All products have similar packaging, a medicinal-looking label and exotic flavours. They're often sold at gyms and fitness centres - places that advocate healthy living.
With words like "vitamin" and "nutrient" on the bottle, you'd be forgiven for thinking these drinks are good for you. But they're not all they seem.
Not all they seem
There are a number of concerns about vitamin waters.
For starters, these products make borderline health claims and other vague beneficial claims without any evidence to back them up.
Charlie's Defence Vitamin Water claims to "support the immune system". Glaceau Vitamin Water focus is supposed to help you do just that - keep focused. The Australia New Zealand Food Standards Code prohibits almost all health claims (the only exception is folate, which is known to reduce foetal neural-tube defects).
Then there are the ingredients. Check the labels and you'll see these drinks are little more than water and sugar disguised as a vitamin supplement.
Each bottle contains 6 to 8 teaspoons of sugar (see the table below) - that's up to half the daily recommended dietary intake of sugar for an average-sized woman (for men it's one-quarter to one-third of their recommended dietary intake).
And despite having exotic fruit "flavours" like pomegranate, dragonfruit and mangosteen, these drinks don't contain significant quantities of fruit juice. Some contain less than 1 percent juice; most contain no juice. We think their labels should stop misleading consumers about the fruit content - they should state that they're "fruit-flavoured" drinks.
Energy and sugar content
Guide to the table
- Energy and sugar content is based on label information.
- Products are listed in alphabetical order.
- Sugar content rounded to nearest teaspoon.
Overseas concerns
We're not the only ones concerned by these products' health claims and lack of nutritional value. In the US, the Centre for Science in the Public Interest (a nutrition advocacy group), is suing Coca-Cola. It accuses Coke of selling basically sugary water with vitamins that claim to boost immunity and reduce the risk of disease.
Last year, the Australian consumer organisation Choice lodged a complaint about Coca-Cola's Glaceau Vitamin Water with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) and the NSW Food Authority. The ACCC thought that consumers could tell from the vivid colour that the drinks would be sugary and since they were marketed as a water also wouldn't expect to find much fruit.
We disagree with this finding and think the title vitamin water does mislead consumers about the nutritional value of these drinks.
Our advice
- Don't waste your money on fancy flavoured drinks. Drinking tap water is fine. And for your daily vitamin fix, eat a balanced diet that includes plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables - it'll give you lots of other nutrients ... and fibre too.
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