Its a bird – its a plane – its the worst website you’ve ever seen in your life – no! Its the website for Dr Betty Martini, anti-aspartame activist. Check it out:
Been a busy few months – more drinks exposed soon!
Vitamin Water Sync
This is a tasty drink. To me, it tastes like Kool Aid – but the good news is that its not. I remember as a kid noticing the difference between unsweetened Kool Aid powder and Regular Kool Aid powder – the difference was that one came in a teensy little packet, while the other came in a huge plastic can, and they both made the same amount of the drink.
I digress.
Lets get into the Vitamin Water ingredients. I had a tough time tracking them down online, so I had to go ahead and photograph them at a local health store:
Reverse Osmosis Water - Pretty straight forward. Using osmotic pressure to filter is something our intestines do every day.
Cane Sugar - Certainly know what this one is. Now we know why this tastes like Kool Aid.
Crystalline Fructose - Are you f*cking kidding me?!? Two blog posts ago a doctor told us that this is laboratory grade super sweetener and is processed by our livers like ethanol is. Now we’re adding this to a health drink?
Natural Flavor - Again, this is slightly concerning. As we learned in the Diet 7UP post, Natural Flavor doesn’t necessarily mean anything. For all we know they could be using beef to flavor this drink.
Citric Acid - The natural preservative and tart flavor. This gets a free pass.
Ascorbic Acid - This is a new one. Lets see what it is! Wiki says:
Ascorbic acid is a sugar acid with antioxidant properties. Its appearance is white to light-yellow crystals or powder, and it is water-soluble. One form of ascorbic acid is commonly known as vitamin C.
Dude, why not just say that? Its Vitamin C. I guess thats ok, right?
Fruit and Vegetable Juice (color) - this is curious. The top of the ingredients section says that there’s less than 1% juice, yet the drink is bright friggin purple!!!
Berry and Fruit Extract (blueberry and apple) - You know, apple juice is really sweet. Why not move that up the ingredients list and lose the Crystalline Fructose? I guess they probably don’t want to market this stuff as juice, but since people don’t read the ingredients anyway what’s the difference?
Magnesium Lactate - its the magnesium salt of Lactic Acid. Not much information out there about it, but its used as a supplement for strengthening of bones and teeth. Vitamin Water says “Electrolyte” next to it. I guess its pretty benign, but its really curious to me that they are putting drugs into drinks. Are we supposed to consider Vitamin Water a medicine? If we are, what’s with the boat load of various sugars in there? Regardless of what Mary Poppins might have said, sugar is proven to depress your immune system. Sorry folks, no matter what this product is marketed as, its not good for you!
Gum Arabic – its edible glue. Used in making soft drink syrups. Something tells me Vitamin Water starts out as a concentrate and then they add water to it, like Coke. I guess that makes sense because its made by The Coca Cola Company.
Niacin – An essential human nutrient. Vitamin B3. (refer to “Magnesium Lactate” for cynical diatribe)
Pantothenic Acid - Its vitamin B5. From wiki:
Small quantities of pantothenic acid are found in most foods.[10] The major food source of pantothenic acid is in meats, although the concentration found in food animals’ muscles is only about half that in humans’ muscles. [2] Whole grains are another good source of the vitamin, but milling often removes much of the pantothenic acid, as it is found in the outer layers of whole grains[11]
Interesting. Does this mean that Vitamin Water is not Vegetarian? Thats a new one!
Ester Gum - basically another edible glue used to suspend oils in water. You pee it out, no worries.
Vitamin E Acetate - from Wiki – keep in mind this product is often used as sunblock:
Tocopheryl acetate, also known as vitamin E acetate, is a common vitamin supplement with the molecular formula C31H52O3 (for ‘α’ form). It is the ester of acetic acid and tocopherol (vitamin E). It is often used in dermatological products such as skin creams. Some studies have linked tocopheryl acetate to cancer.[1]
Monopotassium Phosphate – a soluble salt. Also used in Cigarettes!
Ugh. I can’t believe that we are this far into the blog post and still listing ingredients! Whats the deal with this stuff? Its got more ingredients than Diet 7UP did! Ok, lets wrap it up
Calcium Lactate – its a crystalline salt. Its a baking powder-like antacid-like additive thats also vaguely drug like. Some mouth washes have it, as well as Xylitol based chewing gum (helps to build tooth enamel).
Pyridoxine Hydrochloride - Vitamin B6. Wiki:
Pyridoxine assists in the balancing of sodium and potassium as well as promoting red blood cell production. It is linked to cardiovascular health by decreasing the formation of homocysteine. Pyridoxine may help balance hormonal changes in women and aid the immune system[citation needed]. Lack of pyridoxine may cause anemia, nerve damage, seizures, skin problems, and sores in the mouth[2].
Again, we are dealing with an ingredient more drug like than one would expect in a soft drink.
Cyanocobalamin - is a B12 vitamin. Is this supposed to be comforting?
This fact has caused some people (usually from reading labels on packages and vitamin supplements, in which vitamin B12 is almost always listed last, since ingredients by law are listed in order of weight percentage), to infer that the correct chemical name of vitamin B12 actually is cyanocobalamin. In fact, vitamin B12 is the name for a whole class of chemicals with B12 activity, and cyanocobalamin is only one of these. Cyanocobalamin usually does not even occur in nature, and is not one of the forms of the vitamin which is directly used in the human body (or that of any other animal). However, animals and humans can convert cyanocobalamin to active (cofactor) forms of the vitamin, such asmethylcobalamin.[1] This process happens by equilibration, as cyanocobalamin slowly loses its cyanide in surroundings that contain no cyanide. (Wiki)
We made it! I’ll save an end rant for another beverage because of the ridiculous amount of ingredients this soft drink has. If you’ve made it this far – congratulations! Have a drink!
Lipton Pureleaf Unsweetened Iced Tea
The last time I was on a road trip, I bought a few bottles of this tea, and I have to say – its pretty good! Usually I don’t seek out lipton tea, but this is one of the only things in the market thats not sweetened. Not a drop of sugar in this little guy.
The list of ingredients is simple – according to the bottle:
Brewed Tea From Lipton Tea Leaves – Lipton claims that at least 50% of the tea used in this product comes from Rainforst Alliance Certified™ Farms. I believe them. I like how some large corporations are going out of their way to let you know that they are not as evil as the next guy.
Citric Acid - added for tartness. As we discovered with the Diet 7UP, citric acid can be used as both a preservative and flavor. The tea is fairly bitter – but thats likely because there’s no sugar in it.
Since there are no calories in this drink, I find its main purpose to be a vehicle for caffeine. Its got 62mg/16 fl oz – two servings, but still, for someone like me thats a nice shot of nitro into the tank.
Its interesting to compare this drink with its Extra Sweet cousin, which only adds one ingredient – sugar! And lots of it!
28g per serving – thats 110 calories per serving, or 220 per bottle. I noticed a typo on their website, they’ve doubled the sugar per 16 oz serving incorrectly. Hey lipton! 28 x 2 = 56, not 26! And 110 x 2 = 220, not 210!
They may not be math wizards, but at least they are helping us out by offering the drink with different sweetness options, and they are not putting HFCS into it. At least they are not admitting it if they are: who knows where the sugar comes from? The Wizards do! Since they do not specifically call it out as cane sugar or corn sugar we’ll never know, unless we call them to ask. But we’re too tired from the caffeine crash!
Sugar: The Bitter Truth
This video has a lot of useful information about soft drink consumption. His main argument is that Fructose is treated as a toxin by the liver, and is every bit as damaging to the human body as ethanol. Its a long video – about an hour and a half long, but its worth it, even if your eyes glaze over during the bio-chem portion.
Diet 7UP
After doing this research I officially do not endorse drinking this product. The ingredients start out fairly benign, then descend into a fiery pit of chemicals and artificial sweeteners. I can only imagine the health detriment caused by regular consumption of Diet 7up. What is sad to me is that this product is marketed as being “Natural” to people on restricted diets. Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, if you are on a restricted diet of any kind for health reasons, Diet 7up may in fact be the last thing you’ll ever drink:
filtered carbonated water - the first ingredient is fairly straightforward. My guess is that the water comes from a local source, depending on where the product has been manufactured. They likely filter the water to get all of the impurities out so that each can of soda starts out with the same baseline flavor. Carbonation is the simple process of dissolving carbon dioxide into water and compressing it. When you open a can or bottle of soda water, the compression gives way and the dissolved carbon dioxide is then released into the air.
Some claim that carbonation strips the body of much needed calcium in three steps:
natural flavors - The exact definition of natural flavorings & flavors from Title 21, Section 101, part 22 of the Code of Federal Regulations is as follows:
“The term natural flavor or natural flavoring means the essential oil, oleoresin, essence or extractive, protein hydrolysate, distillate, or any product of roasting, heating or enzymolysis, which contains the flavoring constituents derived from a spice, fruit or fruit juice, vegetable or vegetable juice, edible yeast, herb, bark, bud, root, leaf or similar plant material, meat, seafood, poultry, eggs, dairy products, or fermentation products thereof, whose significant function in food is flavoring rather than nutritional.“
In other words, unless specified on the label, we have no idea what a natural flavor is.
citric acid – Commonly used as a preservative in soft drinks. From Wikipedia:
As a food additive, citric acid is used as a flavoring and preservative in food and beverages, especially soft drinks. It is denoted by E numberE330. Citrate salts of various metals are used to deliver those minerals in a biologically available form in many dietary supplements. The bufferingproperties of citrates are used to control pH in household cleaners and pharmaceuticals. In the United States the purity requirements for citric acid as a food additive are defined by the Food Chemical Codex (FCC), which is published by the United States Pharmacopoeia (USP).
potassium citrate – again from Wikipedia:
“Potassium Citrate is a potassium salt of citric acid with the molecular formula C6H5K3O7. It is a white, slightly hygroscopic crystalline powder. It is odorless with a saline taste.
As a food additive, potassium citrate is used to regulate acidity.”
An interesting medical use of this chemical is to act as a diuretic:
“Potassium citrate is rapidly absorbed when given by mouth and is excreted in the urine as the carbonate. It is, therefore, effective in reducing the pain and frequency of urination when these are caused by highly acidic urine.”
potassium benzoate - wikipedia:
“the potassium salt of benzoic acid, is a food preservative that inhibits the growth of mold, yeast and some bacteria. It works best in low-pH products, below 4.5, where it exists as benzoic acid.
Acidic foods and beverages such as fruit juice (citric acid), sparkling drinks (carbonic acid), soft drinks (phosphoric acid), and pickles (vinegar) may be preserved with potassium benzoate. It is approved for use in most countries including Canada, the U.S., and the EU, where it is designated by the E number E212. In the EU, it is not recommended for consumption by children.”
Looks like the EU is more concerned with this product than we are here in the States. This next bit of information may scare you off from drinking this beverage ever again:
“In combination with ascorbic acid (vitamin C), sodium and potassium benzoate may form benzene, a known carcinogen. Heat, light and shelf life can affect the rate at which benzene is formed. The Food and Drug Administration was performing tests in 2006, but the Environmental Working Group is calling for the FDA to publicly release all tests and use their authority to force companies to reformulate to avoid the potential benzene forming combination.[7].
Potassium benzoate was recently described by the Food Commission, who campaign for ‘safer, healthier food in the UK’, as “mildly irritant to the skin, eyes and mucous membranes”.”
aspartame - The Big Dog.
The name of an artificial, non-saccharide sweetener used as a sugar substitute in many foods and beverages. Personally, I won’t touch the stuff. Wikipedia has a few entries about this nasty little additive which I will link to but not repost in the interest of space:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aspartame
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aspartame_controversy
acesulfame potassium – “a calorie-free artificial sweetener, also known as Acesulfame K or Ace K(K being the symbol for potassium), and marketed under the trade names Sunett and Sweet One. In chemical structure, acesulfame potassium is the potassium salt of 6-methyl-1,2,3-oxathiazine-4(3H)-one 2,2-dioxide.”
Again, there are some safety concerns:
“Some potential effects associated with acesulfame have appeared in animal studies. Acesulfame K has been shown to stimulate dose-dependent insulin secretion in rats, though no hyperglycemia was observed.[8]
Rodent studies have shown no increased incidence of tumors in response to administration of acesulfame K.[9] Research conducted by theNational Toxicology Program shows that acesulfame K is safe to consume if the concentration in any edible form is less than 3%.[10] Further research in terms of food safety has been recommended.”
calcium disodium/EDTA – ”EDTA is apolyamino carboxylic acid and a colourless, water-soluble solid. It is widely used to dissolve scale. Its usefulness arises because of its role as a chelating agent, i.e. its ability to “sequester” metal ionssuch as Ca2+ and Fe3+. After being bound by EDTA, metal ions remain in solution but exhibit diminished reactivity. EDTA is produced as several salts, notably disodium EDTA and calcium disodium EDTA.”
And the usual medical info:
“EDTA exhibits low acute toxicity with LD50 (rat) of 2.0 – 2.2 g/kg.[4] It has been found to be both cytotoxic and weakly genotoxic in laboratory animals. Oral exposures have been noted to cause reproductive and developmental effects.[9] The same study by Lanigan[9] also found that both dermal exposure to EDTA in most cosmetic formulations and inhalation exposure to EDTA in aerosolized cosmetic formulations would produce systemic effects below those seen to be toxic in oral dosing studies.”
