You may think that, due to a growing awareness of environmental wellness issues, we’re starting to drink less bottled water. However, the numbers show that this isn’t the case. In 2000, the enhanced water market made just under £12.5m and just four years later, this number soared to over £265m. Clearly, we like bottled water, but does it really have a wellness edge over the old-fashioned, from-the-tap kind? Let’s take a look at how the three different categories of enhanced water – flavoured, nutrient enhanced and oxygenated – may or may not benefit your wellbeing.
1. Flavoured water: Although water with added flavourings don’t make any health claims, you may want to watch out on the added calories from sugar or corn syrup. Nancy Clark, RD, author of Nancy Clark’s Sports Nutrition Guidebook, points out that 50 calories in a 20-ounce bottle may not seem like a lot, but ‘if you’re drinking a lot of this, 50 calories can add up.’ Still, a bottle here and there won’t do too much damage, as long as you remember to cut the calories somewhere else in your diet. Still, if the choice is flavoured water and eating less vs. regular water and eating more, I’d go for the option with more, actual food in it, wouldn’t you? Some flavoured waters are calorie-free, but as they use artificial sweeteners this may not appeal. The takeaway: always read the label.
2. Nutrient-enhanced water: While some bottled waters boast minerals straight from Mother Nature, others go for more high-tech nutrients, like electrolytes and vitamins. This is good for you sparkling mineral water fans out there, as many of these bottled waters come out of the earth with calcium already in them. The calcium content isn’t always on the label, so you need to check out your favourite brands for yourself, but you could be getting a third of your recommended dietary allowance (RDA) of calcium, or the same as a cup of skimmed milk!
For still water drinkers there’s Pink2O, a brand that comes in four flavours aimed at women. In a 20-ounce bottle you can get 104mg of calcium plus more than half of your recommended folic acids needs, which can help to prevent neuraltube birth defects. However, sports nutritionist Lisa Sasson, RD, of New York University, notes that you’re better off getting your overall vitamin and mineral needs from food – particularly fruits and vegetables – than from fortified waters. While Glaceau Vitaminwater, for example, can give you green-tea antioxidants, B vitamins, and 40% of the daily value for vitamin C, it should not replace your daily multivitamin or the vitamins and minerals that you get from a healthy diet.
3. Oxygenated water: These reformulated or “ultrapurified” waters, like Penta, are meant to carry more oxygen or supposedly a better version of it. However, hydration expert John Leiper, PhD, visiting lecturer at England’s Loughborough University, has reservations. ‘I can’t find any published scientific evidence to confirm the claim that Penta water is absorbed faster,’ he says, and chemist and water expert Stephen Lower of Vancouver adds that there’s no reason to opt for water with extra oxygen ‘unless you have gills.’
So, what have we learned? There are potential benefits to nutrient-enhanced water over the from-the-tap variety while the other enhanced bottled waters may not promote your health, but they certainly won’t do you any harm. The bottom line is that drinking water and staying hydrated is vital for your wellbeing, and so anything that encourages you to drink a little more is no bad thing in my book.
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