As we talked about in the past week, everything at the grocery store seems to display health benefits. Whether it’s from low cholesterol to less fat to any other kind of label to benefit one’s health, these companies are putting health labels on their products whether the product is actually good for one’s health or not. As we talked about in this past week, there is an alternative type of water to regular water, called Vitaminwater. One might think that this substance is an equal alternative to water. As this Vitaminwater does contain water, it also contains plenty of other unhealthy things. Vitaminwater is very high in liquid sugar and contains almost as much fructose as Coca-Cola. A single bottle of this substance contains about 120 calories and 32 grams of sugar. These ingredients that the Vitaminwater contains is only about 50% less than a can of Cocoa-Cola. Just because the name of the substance has two healthy words combined doesn’t meant that the product will benefit your health! In this case with Vitaminwater, the substance can be actually more harmful to you than helpful.
There are several things at the grocery store that contain healthy nutrients or cut out the bad ingredients that may be detrimental to one’s health. It’s whether the item that one is buying is actually beneficial for the body in the first place. For example, seeing a can of green beans that is labeled “low sodium” may be more believable or will require less research than seeing a granola bar labeled “good for your health”. We may believe that the can of green beans is more believable because it is a vegetable, a natural crop grown from the ground. Disregarding the extra ingredients, such as salt to make the can of green beans taste better, it is essentially a natural food. On the other hand, a granola bar is not natural and most likely has more preservatives or additives which may require more research to find out if it is actually good for one’s health or not. All in all, one has to be careful when buying products if trying to benefit his or her health. Just because something may look healthy to the eye, doesn’t mean that it is beneficial.
Communicating Health, Science and the Environment 
After hearing the lecture in class I have been more aware of the amount of “healthy” items provided in our grocery stores. I find your writing on VitaminWater very interesting considering people drink this because it is considered “healthy”. When in fact is compared to drinking a Coca-Cola… How in earth can we be persuaded so easily as individuals? It makes me wonder what else in society is so misleading.
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Yeah I listened to a podcast about natural and organic foods. In it, they said that companies products don’t have to actually be organic unless they have the USDA seal on them. If that seal isn’t on the packaging, its not verified or reputible whatsoever.
It’s the same idea with things being “Natural”, what does that even mean? High-fructose corn syrup is from corn which is natural in most peoples eyes, I don’t think GMO corn is really natural but thats a discussion for another time. Anyways, natural is just a buzzword with no meaning behind it. Multi-grain is the same thing. 100% whole wheat is actually what healthy for you, multi-grain just leaves room for grains that aren’t good for you to be involved.
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Your post reminds me how important it is to be able to read food labels and nutrition fact labels correctly. Obviously a company will only advertise the good things about their product, not the bad. However, if we just take a second to look at the list of ingredients on the label of a food product, our decision on whether to consume the product would most likely change in just moments. How often can we find a food label where we are 100% familiar with each of the ingredients? Not often. I think knowing what exactly you are consuming plays a large role in our health. However, we often don’t even care to take the time to look.
Erica Bock
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Good post! Im always very attentive when it comes to this kind of stuff and for drinking wise I’ve only been drinking water and coconut water for the past 2-3 years now. Hopefully more people will start to do research and see if the product is healthy or not, overall way to raise awareness! 🙂
Jaiden Deal
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My post dealt with the same topic, and I think you made some very good points. I think that the main problem is that people are content to buy the “healthier” alternative of a product that they like rather than stop using that product altogether. I’m sure we can all agree that nobody needs to drink soda, and most people know that it is unhealthy for you. However, instead of abstaining from soda, we buy the diet version so we can feel better about what we’re consuming, without actually changing our eating habits. I believe that it is this unwillingness to actually change that allows these “healthy” alternatives to exist and sell so well.
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This blog was very well written and really tied into what we were just discussing in class about how if someone can market something as being healthier then more people will desire to purchase it. I think its super important for customers to read the label or research before they purchase these kinds of products.
Lauren Reinhard
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I completely agree and love this topic! Although, I never really thought about it until our discussion in class. When people see things advertised about something being healthy, they jump right on it but may not even know if it is truly supported or not. I know this is the case for me. Great read!
Josie Silvey
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