Nearly every fitness expert and other health professionals now realize that artificial sweeteners damage your body's ability to lose weight. Case in point, when the pituitary gland is damaged by sweeteners such as Aspartame then the brain doesn't receive the "full" signal when eating telling the body when to stop. So, you'd feel like you were eating normally, only you'd be over-eating all the time. Where can you find artificial sweeteners? In nearly every single drink or food labeled "Diet" or "Light," which is somewhat "sick in the head" when you think about it because if you're honestly dieting or trying to lose weight then you should stay 50 feet away from these drinks and food products! To make matters worse, there are several other additives to them that can damage the body's internal organs. What are the the artificial sweeteners? Aspartame, Sorbitol, Mannitol, Glycerol, Acesulfame potassium, Cyclamate, Isomalt, Saccharin, Sucralose, Alitame, Thaumatin, Neohesperidine dihydrochalcone, Aspartame-acesulfame salt, Maltitol, Lactitol, Xylitol, and Erythritol. If you see these on a food label which you should be reading anytime you buy food... don't eat or buy it. The problem is, rarely do you find a diet drink that doesn't contain at least these, typically several more damaging ingredients!
Every now and then you find a health/sport drink that is pretty sweet, no pun intended. If you're like me and you were never too thrilled with the prospect of drinking just plain water, I have a drink that is a personal favorite and one I highly recommend. Obviously, if you can drink only pure water, pure fruit juice, an old-fashioned, pure, tomato based V-8, and low-fat milk, etc., %100 of the time, wonderful! However, most of us like to have some kind of over-the-counter drink or energy drink from time to time. Instead of reaching for a soda, diet soda, Monster, Red Bull, Sobe, Gatorade or other super-sugary, Corn Syrup based drink, which is the case 95% of the time, reach for a Vitamin Water by Glaceau. Unlike Sobe's version of a healthy water, they don't use Corn Syrup to sweeten their drink with and they DO actually use several healthy ingredients which is very rare in commercial drinks! They sport a nice variety of vitamins, electrolytes and herbs depending on the flavor chosen. You've got your choice of different health benefits depending on which drink you choose. While the sugars aren't exactly real low, they use cane sugar and crystalline fructose to sweeten it with as opposed to corn syrup or artificial sweeteners. They add in a small amount of pure fruit and vegetable juice to the mix. They use the highest form of purified water as the base which is reverse osmosis water. An entire 16.9 oz drink has only 100 calories. What's more is that you could easily break this down to one 8 oz serving giving you only 50 calories and only about 14 grams of sugars! They are very affordable; quite low-priced actually. Then, to really add on the icing, these drinks actually have a very decent flavor especially considering that Glaceau apparently refuses to sacrifice your health for an over-the-top, sugary-sweet flavored drink. Not that taste should be much of a deciding factor for what we put into our body, but you have a variety of flavors to choose from.
Now, I'm not guaranteeing that there isn't a small amount of chemicals lined on the insides of the plastic containers that are harmful, but not all bottling companies are equal. Besides, if you're going to drink from plastic containers regardless, then these would be the ones to reach for.
Even nicer, for those of you who really have to watch every calorie closely, they also have a zero calorie line. In these, they actually do NOT use artificial sweeteners. They use Stevia, which is an herb, again making it a rare and impressive drink. "Zero calories" nearly always means "gain weight in the long run." But, not in this case!
I'd give these drinks a 9 of 10 and the only reason I don't give them a 10 is just because they're in plastic instead of glass! Even the best of other sports drinks, such as Gatorade and the typical energy drink, I could only honestly rate about a 5 of 10, primarily because, although you may feel an energy kick you get mostly from the caffeine they use, they're not actually healthy for you. I'd rate soda pop a 1 of 10 and diet soda about ".01" for "It's certain to destroy your health".
All in all, as for quality and as far as I'm concerned, Glaceau has officially humiliated all other energy, sports drink and flavored water companies. I mean, if we're going to make a health drink, let's try using healthy ingredients!
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