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Should You Be Drinking Vitamin Enhanced Water?

By , SparkPeople Blogger


Eating a balanced diet every day is the best way to make sure you are getting the vitamins and minerals your body needs.

A multivitamin can be helpful in providing some "insurance" for those days when your food choices aren't the best.

Water regulates every function of our body, flushes out waste and toxins and transports nutrients. Since our bodies contain about 70% water, it is really important to drink water daily.

So what about the combination of vitamins and water together?





  • SoBe LifeWater - 40 calories per 8 oz (typically sold in a 20 oz bottle) and naturally sweetened with a blend of sucrose and eythritol. Sobe LifeWater with Purevia (a Stevia derivative) is 0 calories per 8 oz and naturally sweetened with Purevia. Both are enhanced with vitamins, antioxidants and herbal ingredients.

  • Glacaeu VitaminWater - 15 color filled varieties each designed to provide unique blends of nutrients with 50 calories per 8 oz serving (typically sold in a 20 oz bottle). VitaminWater 10 is naturally sweetened and provides 10 calorie per 8 oz serving (typically sold in a 20 oz bottle).

  • Fuze - Infused with electrolytes and vitamins. Refresh and Vitalize provide 90 - 100 calories per 8 ounce (typically sold in a 16 oz bottle) and the Slenderize provides 10 calories per 8 oz.

  • Snapple - Antioxidant water contains vitamins and electrolytes and provides an average of 50 calories per 8 oz (typically sold in a 16 oz bottle).

  • Propel - Flavored water sweetened with a blend of low calorie sweeteners and high fructose corn syrup with vitamins and antioxidants and provides 10 – 20 calories per 8 oz (typically sold in a 16 oz bottle).

The Bottom Line There are a couple advantages bottled vitamin water can provide. They provide some vitamins to your diet. A 16-20 oz bottle provides anywhere from 50-100% of various vitamins. If you do not tolerate taking pills, a liquid vitamin supplement might be of benefit.

The second advantage relates to those that are trying to give up soda but desire a sweet drink as they transition. 100% juice would be our recommendation but sweetened water can be an alternative as well. Many vitamin water choices provide half the calories and grams of carbohydrate compared to an equal serving of soda and they have the positive of also including vitamins that soda does not.

There are also disadvantages to vitamin water. The biggest disadvantage is that most still contain calories. Regular 16-20 oz bottles of vitamin water contain almost as many grams of sugar and calories as many 12 oz cans of soda. Lighter versions are better but many still contain crystalline fructose and other natural sweeteners which can keep you craving sweet foods and drinks which can lead to consuming more calories than intended.

Drinking bottled water is more expensive than drinking tap water and drinking bottled vitamin water is even more expensive. If you drink one bottle of vitamin water a day for one year, you would have spent about $400 at the end of the year. This costs more than what you would spend in a year for a daily multivitamin.

Most people get enough vitamins from their diet so what they receive from vitamin water is unnecessary. Water soluble vitamins such as vitamin C that are not needed by the body are excreted in the urine. As one of my college professors used to say, "when you pay for supplements your body doesn't need, you just end up with expensive waste."

While vitamin water might be a healthier option than soda, we recommend you drink plain water which is the healthiest drink of all. If plain water doesn't do it for you, try adding a splash of 100% juice, concentrated lemon or lime juice.

What other ideas do you have for spicing up plain water? Do you drink vitamin waters and will you continue?