What Are You Drinking???

Do You Know What's In Your "Healthy" Drink??

You're thirsty. You are doing your best to eat a healthy diet. You see something like Vitamin Water and think "that's gotta be good for me." It sounds good and its' got vitamins. But unfortunately, many of the "healthy" products out there are actually anything but healthy...

Vitamin Water, which by the way is owned by Coca Cola, is one of the items that you might think is a good choice but actually is not. Here's why:

First of all, you're getting about 33 grams of sugar (more than 6 teaspoons), which includes crystalline fructose.  This kind of man-made fructose is different than the kind you get naturally from fruit. This fructose can significantly raise your triglycerides (the fat in your blood), which puts you at an increased risk of heart disease.

Another ingredient that you want to watch out for is Erythritol. This is a sugar alcohol that is often combined with other low calorie or other artificial sweeteners such as aspartame, or in this case, crystalline fructose. Sugar alcohols provide fewer calories than sugar because they are not completely absorbed by your body. But that means that you can often find yourself with adverse physical symptoms like bloating, gas and/or diarrhea.

So, the bottom line here with any kind of "healthy" drink is to read your label. In fact, any time you buy any kind of manufactured beverage, make sure you know what you're getting and don't assume just because it is being marketed as something "healthy" that it actually is. 

Which brings me to this - I am often asked what is the best beverage to drink. My answer is always water! The food industry spends about $40 billion a year on advertising and they know the right buzz words to use. Just because something says "natural" that does not necessarily mean that it actually is.

That's it for now...

Until next time - "Live Now - Live Well!"

Tracy

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