Vitamin water? Pfft NOT!

[Vaal E News]

THE NATURAL & ORGANIC SPECIALISTS
www.absoluteorganix.co.za
UPDATE August 2010



Vitamin Water - even its makers say it's junk juice
32g of sugars in every bottle!

There's a court case underway in the USA against Coca Cola for its
misleading advertising around Vitamin Water. The opinion piece below
from Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, neatly sums up the issue of
companies promoting junk under the guise of it being a health product.
There's no better example, I think, than Vitamin Water, which has
gained huge popularity amongst gullible consumers in many countries,
including SA. With healthy foods and healthy lifestyles rising higher
and higher on the agendas of consumers worldwide, more and more
companies are jumping onto the bandwagon and their actions are deeply
scarring the integrity of our industry. Vitamin Water pushes the
deception to new levels because it attaches itself to the very core of
the complementary health sector - vitamin supplementation - and
challenges all of us who are serious about helping consumers adopt
healthy lifestyles and take control of their wellbeing - Bruce Cohen.

Vitaminwater revealed as non-healthy beverage
by Coca-Cola's own lawyers

(NaturalNews) Do you ever wonder things like "Who is actually gullible
enough to think that Vitaminwater is healthy?" Although that question
may seem demeaning or even arrogant, it turns out that the Coca-Cola
company (which owns the Vitaminwater brand) is essentially asking that
exact question.

How so? In response to a recent lawsuit against Coca-Cola filed by the
Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), Coke's attorneys
replied in court briefings that, "...no consumer could reasonably be
misled into thinking vitaminwater was a healthy beverage."

Except, of course, millions of consumers were misled into believing
precisely that. This illusion was helped in no small part by Coca-
Cola's advertising of Vitaminwater, which blatantly positions it as a
health-enhancing beverage. Even the name itself implies that the
product is made solely out of vitamins and water.

But of course it isn't.

"Sugarwater" might be a better name

If Vitaminwater were accurately named, it would actually be called
Sugarwater. Its first two ingredients are, not surprisingly, sugar and
water (the sugar coming in the form of crystalline fructose, a
processed sweetener that has been linked to health problems) (http://
www.naturalnews.com/029371_f...).

In addition to the sugar and water, Vitaminwater contains a smattering
of synthetic vitamin chemicals that any informed health consumer
probably wouldn't want to ingest. So in reality, Vitaminwater is
really sugar water with the addition of synthetic chemicals that
happen to be called "vitamins" (but which are not the natural, plant-
based nutrients your body would greatly prefer).

So what we have now with Vitaminwater is a beverage that's positioned
and marketed as a health-enhancing beverage, yet its own corporate
lawyers dismiss any notion that the beverage is "healthy." How, then,
can Coca-Cola get away with advertising Vitaminwater as a healthy
beverage?

Simple: Because corporations use advertisements to lie to consumers.
And virtually no one in the history of corporate advertising has
mastered the art of deception better than Coca-Cola -- a company whose
products have contributed to untold numbers of diabetes victims while
being positioned as cool, hip drinks that make you feel energized or
inspired.

Coca-Cola isn't really in the business of selling beverages, you see.
It's in the business of selling the illusion of happiness in a bottle
or a can. Buy their products, say the advertisements, and you too can
feel happiness (or freedom, or sexiness or whatever). But what Coca-
Cola delivers isn't really happiness at all: Many of Coke's products
deliver the liquid sugars, artificial chemical sweeteners and bone-
dissolving acids (like phosphoric acid) that promote disease and
suffering. And no reasonable person would equate degenerative disease
with happiness.

Misleading name, misleading labels

Speaking of disease, how much sugar is actually in Vitaminwater? A lot
more than you might think: While the label claims only 13 grams of
sugar per serving, one bottle of vitamin water is actually 2.5
servings, meaning that you're chugging down 32 grams of liquid sugars
with every bottle.

That's just one of the many "deceptive and unsubstantiated claims"
pointed out by CSPI in its lawsuit against Coca-Cola. It is this
lawsuit that resulted in Coke's lawyers making the incredible
statement that no reasonable person could possibly conclude
Vitaminwater was a healthy beverage.

Lawyers, by the way, can argue absolutely anything -- even if it makes
no sense. And they can do it with a straight face, too. If you're
looking for a professional liar, hire a lawyer. Coca-Cola seems to
already have its share working at their headquarters in Atlanta.

Using its lawyers, Coca-Cola tried to argue its way out of this CSPI
lawsuit, but that effort was rejected by the courts. "A federal judge
has denied Coca-Cola's motion to dismiss a lawsuit over what the CSPI
says are deceptive and unsubstantiated claims on the company's
"vitaminwater" line of soft drinks," touts an article on the CSPI
website (http://www.cspinet.org/new/20100723...)

That same announcement goes on to quote Judge John Gleeson of the U.S.
District Court for the Eastern District of New York, who says "The
names of the drinks, along with other statements on the label have the
potential to reinforce a consumer's mistaken belief that the product
is comprised of only vitamins and water."

CSPI's litigation director Steve Gardner adds, "For too long, Coca-
Cola has been exploiting Americans' desire to eat and drink more
healthfully by deceiving them into thinking that vitaminwater can
actually prevent disease. In fact, vitaminwater is no more than non-
carbonated soda, providing unnecessary added sugar and contributing to
weight gain, obesity, diabetes, and other diseases. We look forward to
representing all Americans whom Coke has deceived."

Who really drinks Vitaminwater?

Reading all this, you might wonder who drinks Vitaminwater in the
first place. I've never even tried the beverage myself because I read
ingredients labels and I don't drink liquid sugars.

But most consumers don't read labels. Even if they attempted to, most
consumers are simply unable to decode what food labels really mean.
People simply believe whatever is most prominently displayed on the
front of the package, which in this case are the two words "vitamin"
and "water."

On top of that, mainstream consumers are disturbingly gullible. If a
product is positioned as being healthy, that's what people believe
it's for, even if it makes no sense whatsoever. You see, big food
companies are masters at making implied claims about their products
that, upon closer inspection, are blatantly false. There are all sorts
of false claims found on the labels of popular food products: A
chocolate milk product made with sugar claims it "builds strong
bones!" A liquid meal substitute sold in cans and made mostly with
sugars and milk proteins claims to provide "balanced nutrition!" A
product for diabetics claims to be "sugar free" but neglects to
mention it's sweetened with a chemical that may actually promote
diabetes.

The list of examples like these is endless. And thanks to these food
corporation deceptions, consumers are faced with a food product
minefield when attempting to intelligently shop for foods.

That's why several years ago I developed the Honest Food Guide (http://
honestfoodguide.org), a free downloadable guide that explains which
foods are truly good for your health (and which are not).

Download it now and check it out for yourself.

In the mean time, don't buy Vitaminwater. Unless, of course, you think
you could use 32 grams of liquid sugars and some synthetic vitamin
chemicals in your diet. And if you somehow think that Vitaminwater is
healthy, the Coca-Cola corporation thinks you are a fool.

Sources for this story include:
http://recipes.howstuffworks.com/vi...

http://cspinet.org/new/pdf/order_on...

http://www.cspinet.org/new/20100723...