Vitamin drinks

If you’re even remotely interested in nutrition, you’ve undoubtedly heard about vitamin drinks and their potential health benefits. After all the hype we hear about them, it is very tempting to grab one as an on-the-go boosting snack during the day. Healthy and refreshing, these drinks are supposed to supply us with much needed energy and vitamins; they also often have amino acids, botanicals, and other antioxidants. Are they really worth all there chalked up to be? Is it really “special” water? To determine what the answer is, we will look at the different parts of vitamin drinks; understand that the different brands are no more than that. Read on to find out more information.

Calories

Vitamin drinks may be an enhanced version of water, but, as water provides zero calories, these drinks provide a whole lot more than that; about 150 calories more, give or take a few. If you’re drinking them in place of water, you will notice a trend fast: weight gain. Most likely, you won’t change other daily habits if you start drinking a vitamin drink, such as exercising longer or eating less, so all this drink does is provide extra calories. Now, if you remember that everything is okay in moderation, then you’ll do fine with these drinks, but don’t go drinking them like candy. It would be a great alternative to regular sodas. Also, many of these calories come from sugar, another thing of which you don’t need extra. If you’re an endurance runner or a very active athlete, this drink would be okay for you because it will certainly help replenish carbohydrates.

Vitamins

Vitamins…obviously we need to talk about these because after all, they’re called vitamin drinks. But what kinds of vitamins do they have? Well, the only way to determine this per drink is to read the labels. Overall, however, they provide you with a good dose of many of the vitamins we could get in through our every day diet. So technically, vitamin drinks are basically dietary, or nutritional, supplements. From this regard, there is nothing wrong with them because nutritional supplements are taken every day. Like nutritional supplements, though, vitamin drinks are not regulated and there is no limit to the amount of vitamins they can contain. If you are unable to eat raw vegetables, fruits, proteins, healthy fats, and whole grains, then a vitamin drink may be for you. Keep in mind that, if you’re trying to improve certain aspects of your body, such as the appearance of your skin, flooding it with nutrients, albeit healthy nutrients, is not the way to do it. Eventually, the vitamins will become ineffective. Taking a multi-vitamin once a day and eating foods that are vitamin-rich, would be a more promising strategy. This way, you can avoid the sugary calories.

Cost
Bottled water is expensive, but vitamin drinks are even more expensive; in all actuality, these drinks are just bottled water with vitamins, minerals, and sugar added, all of which you can easily get in your diet.

Should You Drink Vitamin Water?
The ultimate answer to this is if you can handle it. Vitamin drinks are an okay choice, as long as you don’t drink too much of them. It may seem like a great thing if you don’t have a lot of time to eat snacks throughout the day or healthy meals, but it shouldn’t be considered a substitute for vitamins from food. Taking a multi-vitamin supplement would be a better option if this is the case; actually, you’d probably have better luck receiving the vitamins you need from a multi-vitamin. Don’t waste your money or calories on vitamin water if you’re drinking it for the wrong reasons.

Last updated on Nov 5th, 2010 and filed under Vitamins and Minerals. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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