Vitamin Water

Are there any benefits from high cost vitamin waters. I purchased one each of the more popular brands and did a very unscientific study. I put the bottles of water on my kitchen table and asked various people which would be their favorite and why.

Glaceau Vitamin Water (C+ Calcium). The container has 2.5 serving with 50 calries per serving, zero sodium and 70 mg of potassium plus Vit A, E, B3,6,5,12,and folic acid. My rationale for drinking this tasty fluid is that I use it as a replacment for orange juice. When I am working I take a bottle as part of my "on the road breakfast." I no longer use it as a supstitiute for water while exercising due to the 150 calories per bottle.

My daughter likes Smart Water by Glaceau . It has zero calories, zero sodium, and trace electrolytes. She will drink Vitamin Water (C + Calcium) for the same reasons I do - as a substitute for orange juice.

My husband and daughters guy friend chose Gatorade. Gatorade has 50 calories per ounce, 110 mg of sodium and 30 mg of potassium (electolytes). Both do drink tap water but will drink Gatorade when doing more strenuous exercise or outdoor sports.

My middle son said: "What is wrong with plain old tap water?"

I found a genertic quote used by a few sources:

"Any benefit, other than the water, in such a drink is questionable. If a person wants to supplement vitamins, either a multi-vitamin daily or selected megadoses are usually more convenient and less expensive. The best source of vitamins is always food."

So we seem to be overpaying for conveniece and questionable benefit. For those of you who are calorie counting you need to watch the calorie content per bottle. You may just undo any potential calorie loss with exercise by drinking the same amount in you favorite sport drink.