Share and Voice: Vitamin Water drinkers BEWARE!

So I remember when this stuff came out, I was still in high school.  Kelly Clarkson was doing commercials and talking about how awesome it was, and how good it made her feel!  I never really tried the stuff... I've probably bought it less than 10 times.  I like the 10 calorie lemonade one.  Then someone told me I might as well drink a soda when I was going to buy one!  I was so confused?!  This stuff is just water with vitamins added to it right?
...
NO!
1.  The first big no no I discovered about it is the renamed ingredient they use as a sweetener.... "Crystalline Fructose"! AKA HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP.  HFCS has been linked to obesity and insulin resistance.  It is allegedly one of the main causes of our obesity empidemic that is going on right now! This could be caused by the fact that it causes insulin resistance, and is linked to diabetes!       Crystalline Fructose is pretty much just refined and milled HFCS, and full bottle of VitaminWater contains around 30mg of the stuff.  You are not suppose have ANY HFCS in your diet, obviously this is almost impossible, its in a lot of todays products.  So don't be fooled by the fancy labeling!
2. They use vapor distilled water, and which is completely empty of anything including minerals,  then they add minerals back in.  But distilled water actually is used to pull out toxins out of your body, but also pull some nutrients.  So you might be getting some minerals, but your also losing nutrients at the same time, with distilled water.  I can't say for sure that this water does that, but supplements are only suggested for people who can't obtain enough of an essential vitamin or mineral from their diet of whole foods.
3. Its in a plastic bottle.  Which i'm not even fully going to go into... but studies on plastic bottles have proven  chemicals leaking into the bottle could mimic estrogen, and other chemicals linked to diabetes.
http://www.worldhealth.net/news/are_you_drinking_water_from_a_plastic_bo/
4. Finally, there aren't even that many fricken vitamins in it!

Nutrition Facts:
Serving Size 8 fl oz; Servings per Container 2.5
Calories 50
Total Fat 0g
Sodium 0mg
Total Carbohydrate 13g
Total Sugar 13g
Protein 0g
Vitamin C 60%; vitamin B3 10%; vitamin B6 10%; vitamin B12 10%; vitamin B5 10%, Zinc 10% (got this from EmilyPlaysCello's blog The Truth about Vitamin water)

Calories in V8 100% Vegetable Juice

Nutrition Facts

Serving Size 8 oz (224.0 g)

Amount Per Serving

Calories  50

Sodium 480mg

Total Carbohydrates 10.0g

Sugars 8.0g

Protein 2.0g

Vitamin A 40% • Vitamin C 120% Calcium 4% • Iron 4%

* Based on a 2000 calorie diet got this from http://caloriecount.about.com/calories-v8-100-percent-vegetable-juice-i84093

 Now I'm no doctor and I'm not suggesting one is better than the other but the obvious thing is V8 packs more vitamins, no HFCS.  But it also contains sodium which can be bad in high amounts!

So i'm not trying to bash anyone and i'm sure i'll end up drinking the stuff sometime again, it probably is better than a coke, but the principle of the matter is that its advertised to be SO HEALTHY, and marketed that way, but its really not!

Pam