Vitamin Water, Lifewater, Dasani Plus and a pack of other brands and generic spin-offs line grocery shelves around Oshkosh in a rainbow of fruity flavors. 
Juicy berry and citrus-infused liquids wrapped in flashy labels promise “80 percent fewer calories!” and more “B Vitamins!”
Dozens of vitamin-enhanced beverage lines have spouted up recently, and are bottles are flying out of stores, showing up everywhere from local gyms to office desks.
Especially since beverage companies like Glaceau and SoBe launched TV campaigns featuring celebs such as 50 Cent and Beyonce, said Dan Braun, health and wellness coordinator at the downtown YMCA.
“It’s something the public likes because they feel they’re doing something healthy for themselves … and this is easy,” said Jean Wagner, clinical dietician at Mercy Medical Center.
“They might feel it tastes better than tap water, too, and it’s kind of sexy, walking around with drinks with pretty colors,” Wagner added.
However, Wagner cautions that if consumers think they’re deriving great health benefits from drinking any number of the various branded “vitamin waters,” they should think again.
“They’re not getting any real benefit from it other than some hydration benefit,” Wagner said. “You’d do much better for yourself having a serving of blueberries, having an orange or having a glass of milk.”
Many Oshkosh personal trainers say when it comes to the hydration factor, there’s no replacement for the real deal.
“I’d just go for regular, plain, ol’ water,” Braun said.
Trainers say vitamin-enhanced water is mostly a gimmick, and many brands come with high calorie counts and are loaded with sugar.
Drink a 20-ounce bottle of Glaceau’s Vitamin Water, for instance — each bottling 2.5 servings — and you’re downing more than 30 grams of sugar and 125 calories.
“If a person is looking to supplement their diet, they are better off taking a multivitamin,” Braun said.
Local trainers have noticed that gym members are sporting vitamin waters to workout sessions much more these days.
Janet Walotka, a personal trainer at the Oshkosh Athletic Club, said she sees people toting bottles of the colorful flavored liquid all the time, most likely unaware that their nutrition labels boast syrupy additives and too much sugar.
“We don’t need all of these sugars,” Walotka said. “It’s like you got in this nice workout, but you put a bunch of sugars in your body in the process, which quickly converts to glucose and that gets metabolized into fat.”
But are all vitamin waters are created equal, and should consumers abstain from drinking them altogether?
No, Wagner said. For hardcore athletes – marathon runners, serious sports players and the like – drinking certain brands (think Gatorade, Propel, Powerade) can help keep people hydrated and replace electrolytes lost during extensive exercise.
“Not somebody that is not really working up a lot of sweat,” Wagner said.
For recreational or moderate exercisers who down a bottle or two of high calorie, sugar-laced waters, Wagner said people could be getting an extra 400 to 500 calories they never thought about.
“That potentially at the end of the week could mean gaining a pound – drinking water,” she said.
Because labels don’t do the math for you, it’s important that consumers are savvy, especially considering there is no set law defining how companies have to back up nutritional claims when it comes to functional foods, like vitamin water, Wagner said.
The bottom line, trainers say, is hydrating the body during a workout is crucial. However, Walotka recommends doing research before deciding on the drink of choice for the gym.
“You can get your vitamins without calories and you can have water without sugar,” Walotka said.
Sarah Owen: (920) 426-6671 or sowen2@thenorthwestern.com. Amanda M. Wimmer: (920) 426-6632 or awimmer@thenorthwestern.com.
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