American Parkour

Ah, the ever infamous Vitamin Water. Its been said that this drink is "great for the body and tastes good too!". Its also been said that "The drink is mainly composed of crap and should be considered false advertisement".

So whats the truth?

I've decided to do some research on the product. For those of you who don't know, here is a list of the flavors they offer and there main vitamins or components

power-c  (C+Taurine)
defense  (C+Zinc)
focus  (A+Lutein)
balance  (C+Glucosamine)
endurance  (E+Ribose)
essential  (C+Calcium)
vital-t  (C+E)
energy  (B+Guarana)
b-relaxed  (B+Theanine)
rescue  (C+Egcg)
charge  (B+Electrolytes)
multi-v  (A+Zinc)
formula 50  (50% DV of 7 vitamins)
revive  (B+Potassium)
xxx  (Triple antioxidants)

[cited - www.vitaminwater.com]

So they have good ingredients... but what about those sugars? Read this excerpt from Science Line.

"Even if you were to absorb all the vitamins, vitaminwater might have trouble living up to its image as a salubrious alternative to sugary soft drinks: Each bottle of vitaminwater contains 32.5 grams, or two heaping tablespoons, of crystalline fructose. Fructose is a simple sugar that sweetens many fruits, although the crystalline fructose in vitaminwater is produced from cornstarch, not fruit, by crystallizing the fructose in fructose-enriched corn syrups."

(The site also talks on how not all the vitamins will be absorbed, and how they may be unnecessary)

[cited - http://scienceline.org/2007/12/03/ask-intagliata-vitaminwater/]

Although sugar is needed for us to function, is this to much?

Lets look at some overall nutrition facts.

There are 2.5 servings per bottle and for each serving the following applies.

Defense

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%

Vital-t

Calories 50; Total Fat 0g; Sodium 0mg; Total Carbohydrate 13g; Total Sugar 13g; Protein 0g; Vitamin C 60%; vitamin E 20%; vitamin B3 10%; vitamin B6 10%; vitamin B12 10%; vitamin B5 10%

Stress b lemon-lime

calories 40, total fat 0g, sodium 0mg, total carbohydrate 9g, sugar 8g, protein 0g, vitamin B2 25%, vitamin B3 25%, vitamin B5 25%, vitamin B6 25%, vitamin B12 25%, vitamin C 60%, st johns wort 25mg, kava kava 25mg

Revive fruit punch

calories 50, total fat 0g, sodium 0mg, potassium 30mg, total carbohydrate 13g, sugar 12g, protein 0g, vitamin A 10%, vitamin B3 10%, vitamin B5 10%, vitamin B6 10%, vitamin B12 10%, vitamin C 60%, vitamin E 10%, gotu kola 25mg, American ginseng 25mg

[cited - http://judesmultiinfo.com/Beauty_Denominator/2007/08/18/is-vitamin-water-good-for-you/]

My View - Although Vitamin Water may not be as healthy as its made out to be, it's still a great alternative to soda and beer. It tastes good and it can be good for you in the end.

Think, Solve, Resolve.

Interesting presentation. Seeing as this is public I'll assume this is open for discussion. My thoughts:

How can you possibly consider this drink a "healthy" option. It's still made by a soda manufacturer and carries with it all the lies and scandals they bring. When, negating starvation, is that much sugar ever beneficial in our line of work? It costs the same if not more than a soda so in the end you are still wasting money on useless "vitamins" placed in sugar water in a sad attempt at getting people to buy it based of faulty assumptions that it must act like "medicine."

B-relaxed "jackfruit-guava" - Hey Coca-Cola, your package is illegal considering the fact that your b-relaxed drink has no traces of these what so ever.

What makes a glass of water so hard? Why must we keep funding these money machines?

I do respect your reply.

I guess it is because I used to be such a bad drinker. Coffe in the morning and soda every hour in between. Now I have found something that has at least a trace of health to it. I do not take vitamins and am not a heavy veggie eater so I need to get them from somewhere. Also, sugar is not as bad for you as most people think. All people need it in moderation.

All in all, water is great. But for those who need something with a little taste here and there, Vitamin water is better than that beer, coffe, or soda you plan to shove down your throat.

          Sorry, Charles, but I'm with Mike on this one.  I'm a huge carb. addict, I have a huge love of bread and horrible drinking habits, too.  Luckily, I only like two pops over more water-based drinks (Dr. Pepper & the new Canada Dry Green Tea Mix), but I still down Gatorades all the time.  It's not good for me, but I like how Gatorade makes me feel fat.  It sounds stupid, but that effect really reflects the negative effects of so much sugar in soft drinks on the body.  I mean, Arizona Green Tea with Ginseng and Honey has 70 calories per 8 oz. while Gatorade has 60 and Vitamin Water has 50.  Also, Pepsi has 100 calories per cup, and Coke does too as far as I know.  Ironically, I can drink a 2 Liter (800) calories of Pepsi a day easily (if I get beyond the upset stomach, of course), but 8 cups of Vitamin Water has half the amount, and also fills me up.  When I drink pop, I just feel like drinking more pop and eating something to wash it down with.  Still, every time I drink Vitamin Water, it weighs me down just enough to make me want to skip a meal.  It's not too bright of an idea for most people, but my diet is rich with fresh cuts of meat, large portions of fruits and vegetables and a good amount of carbohydrates (usually bread, sometimes rice or pasta).  Every time I 'spoil my appetite' with, for all practical purpose, sugar water, I skip out on my carbs and still take in my proteins, fruits and vegetables.  The only difference that effects me is that I get the proper hydration I need when I want it, 'cause for some reason I really hate the taste of plain water, all brands, purified or tap.

          As for the initial question of "Is Vitamin Water good for you?", I have to say no, hands down.  It's not even a consideration to think of Vitamin Water as a good thing, since it really isn't 'vitamin water'.  That's just the advertising of it.  However, I do feel pretty good after drinking it besides the fact that I feel weighed down.  I like tea.  It runs through you, so you can drink your fair share and expel it before it ever (feels like it) weighs you down.  Pure water really doesn't appeal to me because it just seems as if it's making me heavier.  I know it's an extremely important part of any diet, but every time I drink pure water, I feel like I'm on a fad diet saying to myself "Yeah, body, it makes you feel bloated right now, but it's really good for you, I promise".

          I'd much rather have tea over Vitamin Water because it has zero calories, comes with either caffeine or no caffeine (in case you're replacing coffee), and feels like a natural purifier, whether it is or not.  Plus, I don't know about you guys but I actually enjoy urinating, so it's not a hassle, which what some people like to call it.  If you're so non-mobile that you have to worry about getting up to pee, you have your own diet problems to tend for.

          Good day : Vitamin Water Green Tea.  :)

Most teas are good for you.  Lots of anti-oxidants.  Definitely a "purifier," as you say.

As far as vitamin water goes...  I like the stuff, but I know it's not good for you.  What I do is buy a bottle once a week, and over the course of two days, drink from that bottle at the office.  This pretty much amounts to a gulp every few hours.  Otherwise, I'm drinking water (maybe one soda here and there because I'm addicted to the stuff).  I think that's a good way to enjoy the drink but not be taken in by the excess sugar.  I know most people would gawk at just sipping at a drink like that over two days, though.

Chris's viewpoint is very strong... and one I'm inclined to agree with.  I don't like big business in many forms, and these companies really are manipulating people, using people, abusing people, and in some cases, killing people (whether by malnutrition or literally killing them...  Coca-Cola authorized the shootings of resistant labourers in Argentina in the 90s and has legal rights over all water, in all forms, in certain cities in India, causing mass dehydration and the development of manmade deserts).  However, they push products that are literally addictive to the human body, and as much as I hate it, I'm always drawn back.

Horray!  An interesting topic i can throw my 2¢ into!


I am glad you agree with my viewpoint before i presented it  ;D I am going to assume you meant Charles' view point, but i found that typo funny :)


This is true.  It is better than soda and beer.  But, actually, not by much.  These drinks are actually what I would consider high carb - 50 cals per serving all due to sugar is ~12 g of sugar which means about ~30g of high glycemic sugar per bottle with NO fat and NO protein and NO fiber to buffer the uptake into the blood stream.  Also, its a liquid, which means it passes through an [empty] stomach quite quickly and goes right into the blood.  Drinking these high carb drinks as a beverage, especially between meals or to replace meals all together, is a great way to stunt your weight loss or body composition goals.

While I have coached people through dietary changes, I have, in fact, recommended vitamin waters to replace sodas and coffees.  But that is only because they have absolutely refused to start by drinking water.  If one has the willpower, making the switch to water is ideal for several reasons that really do not need to be rehashed right now.  Unfortunately, many people, especially those who are not super-motivated, tend to have this psychological fixation on sugary tasty drinks.  Usually, I would recommend something like skim milk, Special K Protein Water (http://"http://www.thedailyplate.com/nutrition-calories/food/special-k/special-k2o"), or a heavy dilution of IsoPure Bottled Drink (http://"http://www.thedailyplate.com/nutrition-calories/food/isopure/isopure-alpine-punch") in lieu of water until they can get off the high carb sugary drink crack they are addicted to.

There are only two reasons, in my opinion, to drink these "watery soft drinks."

The first is as a means to break away from the higher sugar content in other soft drinks.  A stepping stone, if you will, to the ultimate goal of being mostly hydrated by water. 

The only other reason would be to indulge yourself.  Yes, vitamin water, imho, should be considered an indulgence for a serious, motivated athlete.

If you are happy with your body comp and don't want to lower your BF% or increase your lean mass, then Vitamin water is fine -- but this takes you out of the realm of a serious motivated athlete then since an athlete (and traceur..) should always be looking to improve themselves.

I like and agree with most of the statements made.

I guess my point of view my be a little of because my body consumes most everything I eat without turning it into body fat. (to a degree, of course) My diet is has a very high count of carbs, sugars, and proteins. But when I look at it, I have a very small amount of vitamins.

The vitamins C and B can easily be consumed because vitamin C and the B complex group are water-soluble and can easily enter the bloodstream with water. Vitamins A, D, E and K are fat-soluble. That means they can only enter the bloodstream to carry out their functions if they are dissolved in dietary fat, like that found in a meal.

Again, good alternative to other drinks and a supplement for some vitamins. For those who were raised on junk its and easy way to start stepping down to regular water.

(Sugar and carbs are not that bad for athletes that will burn it off the next day. We need them, just in moderation)

Actually a very slight mixture of salt water is more ideal that just water... if you're a heavy sweater and acutally need to replace electrolytes.

But yeah.. water >>>> anything with sugar. If you have to pick between vitamin water and soda/beer/whatever then pick vitamin water... hardly recommended though. o_o

That first sentence is how many health related rumors are spread, which is why I brought it up. Just be cautious when making statements based on personal experience. Every body is different and won't necessarily have the same reaction or experience as you.

The second sentence brings up an all-too-often forgotten about relationship. People who are healthy are not always fit and people who are fit are not necessarily healthy.


I'm a little confused if this was put in to back up a point or just for informative purposes. Your next sentence will bring me into my next point. 


This is not a supplement for vitamins unless you are consuming this drink with a meal. Sipping some of Vitamin Water's other drinks at the office with no food in your stomach will simply yield expensive excrement; drinks that carry A, E, or D(not sure i saw a vitamin water with D in it but regardless). There is no fat in this beverage and these vitamins will simply be excreted out. In reference to the B complex and C vitamins, you rarely have to worry about getting your RDA in these.


Disagree and agree. Sugar is a bad form of carbohydrate that is not "needed." Good carbs are definitely necessary in almost all diets and your fitness level and specific goal will determine the moderation. A cyclist will need a hell of a lot more than an oly-lifter.

Personally speaking I try my best to avoid statements like the one you just gave at all costs. It fosters a mental association that "Oh, this candy bar is okay because I'm just going to work it off later..." This is usually how abuse starts and/or how good diets are ruined.

edit - bold for "nitpicker" Chris

I guess I was to tired to be specific. I'm sure most people here can make a good interpretation of what I said and im sorry if I was misleading.

Horray!  I get to critique charlie :P


For things to be urinated out they must first enter into the blood stream and then filtered out by nephrons.  Since these things are not absorbed at all, they simply pass through the small intensite, large intestine and rectum relatively untouched.  Therefore, they pass through the GI tract, not the urinary tract, as their method of excretion.

Just nitpicking on ya :P


Firstly, sugar is a carb.  I wish people would stop saying "sugar and carbs" as if they are two different things.  Sugar (high GI carb) IS bad, whether you are an athlete or sedentary.  Sugar causes an inflammatory response which will hinder your recovery and progress as an athlete.  Lets not also forget the effect that high GI carbs have on blood insulin levels which will cause fat gains, or at the very least, hinder your fat loss.

Secondly, the diet of a cyclist and an o-lifter, in terms of carbs, is not as different as you are implying.  Realistically, anyone exceeding 50% carbs in their diet is hindering their recovery and progress as an athlete.  Cyclists may find they need carb ratios that high, but not as often as you think....unless they are an endurance athlete that is still under the false impression that carb loading is a good practice...

This only throws relative amounts of other macronutrients off by 5-10% from that of a power or strength athlete.  Not a big change at all.

Also, Charlie IS right about this "oh well i will just burn it off" mentality".  Any meal that is a cheat meal is recognized as such and usually used for emotional and psychological stability.  Being very strict on diet can be psychologically taxing and cheat meals release you from this burde.  On top of that, the body does react fairly well when you "shock" it with a cheat meal. Cheat meal frequency depends on the individual person, though.

Also, the quality of cheat meal food increases drastically as the person gets more accustomed to better foods.  Cheat meals to me, for example, used to involve heavy fried foods.  Now my cheat meals are usually a meal with more rice than i normally would have or a few extra beers/drinks - never anything overboard like a double big mac with cheese.

+1 for bringing up beneficial discussion

Haha.. yeah that was in relation to my other post, not the original.

Thank you guys for input. Anymore would be appreciated.

(P.S. Dont hate me for starting this post, just trying to share information  :) )

I mentioned specific goals, so please don't make assumptions on what I deem standard based on a general statement. I used a cyclist as an example mainly to describe a performance based athlete who wouldn't worry much about recovery. Sorry for not making that clear. A performance based cyclist will almost always exceed your precious 50% threshold.

zing, burn

since i never trained a cyclist, i will have to concede here, but i would still be inclined to disagree :P

I thought I would just throw my own two cents in here.  I have trained pretty heavily as a cyclist in the past and still do a fair amount of cycling still.  And for me, especially when I am riding a lot, I eat a boatload of carbs.  I never actually measured the percentage, but I know from experience if I did not eat a lot of carbs my body would start feeling wiped out after a lot of hard riding. The problem I have found is that it is too hard on my digestive system to get enough calories through other means.  I will still try to eat a good amount of protein and veggies and other good stuff and avoid straight sugar crap, but I personally have found it impossible to maintain the energy to do a lot of cycling without a fairly high carb intake.  My riding buddies, who ride a lot more than me, have had similiar experiences.  One of them did the Atkins diet for a while, but then after a while when he started riding more he couldn't keep on it, because he didn't have enough energy to maintain his riding volume (usually 150-250 miles a week).

hm...

did you ever try to up your fat intake instead of carbs?

long duration exercise uses more fat than carbohydrate as an energy source

My understanding is that that depends on the level of effort and duration of the endurance event*.  Certainly for 100 mile ride at 50% of VO2 max, I think that would be true.  But general a hard ride for me would be 1.5 hours at around 75-80% VO2 max (a little bit below anaerobic/lactic/steady-state/whatever-you-want-to-call-it-to-be-scientifically-accurate threshold) , where carbohydrates would still be the primary source of energy.  To bring the conversation back a little bit to vitamin water  ;), in this type of riding I have found that diluted sports drinks with a little bit of sugar to be very effective.  I have had the chance to experiment with the effect of different things, because I have a pretty standard ride that I do which is ride 26 miles to my work which takes between 1:15 to 1:40 depend on traffic and how I am feeling and how hard I want to push.  If I use straight water, my ability to maintain a high level of effort drops about an hour in.  If I use slightly diluted Gatorade (made from powder), I can maintain my hard effort the whole way.  If I try to eat some sort of solid food it usually just slows me down because I am usually breathing pretty hard and have to slow down so I can swallow. I tried milk once, but that was just a bad idea and made me want to puke.
I realize that all this has little to do with parkour, but since this were the thread had gone I thought I would throw in my personal experience.




*http://www.cptips.com/lact2.htm (http://www.cptips.com/lact2.htm)
  http://www.cptips.com/bscphys.htm (http://www.cptips.com/bscphys.htm)

Thanks for bringing this up Kev. Another option I forgot to mention, although it is a little specialized. It works great for steady state activity like cycling but I think personally it is quite a stretch for application to Parkour which has the comfort of stopping when necessary and snacking and the like. Definitely a good point though.

Unless you are on top of a mountain and being chased by an old mountain lion who chases you all the way down the mountain and you have to run and use your mad parkour skills for an hour and a half straight to evade him.  Then you might be like "Dude, I wish I had some Gatorade!" :o . Hmm, well I guess that might fall under the specialized situation category, never mind.

Hmmm..

vitamin water as a drink to consume DURING a bout of exercise is quite different than drinking a vitamin water as a casual beverage.  Even then, I would argue that a gatorade dilution is better than vitamin water, like you use.

Secondly, you never answered my question -- did you ever try increasing fat consumption as opposed to increasing carb consumption?  That might have been a worthwhile investment of time.  A lot of people are scare of fat which hinders them from experimenting with it...if you haven't experimented with it yet I suggest that you do :)

If it were MY body, I would try to increase my fat significantly during the day and switch to water just to note the effects.  Then try increased fat with the gatorade dilution only during workouts.  Keep track of my BF%, perception of fatigue and performance at that point.  But thats just how I approach these things.

My reasoning is that, while you may be using mostly sugars for a decent part of your workout, there is still a very significant portion (probably well over 60%) of the workout that is aerobic, using mostly fats.  Glycogen reserves from the liver, if you eat enough carbs nightly (not implying overloading here, just that you aren't depriving yourself of carb) then your liver should still safely carry 2000-2500 calories of glyogen for use - so the lower carb diet might actually pay off in the end, increasing longevity and increasing insulin sensitivity/lowering insulin resistance. 

Thats my 2¢ solely based on the fact that you never tried to eat significantly more fats than carbs.  Let me know what you think :)

You're barking up the wrong tree. The thing with diet changes is that someone MUST be adapted to that diet first for it to work.

That's why throwing athletes who usually do 70% carbs into Zone ratios or greater fat ratios it's gonna take them probably about 2-3 weeks to produce and rid itself of fat and carbohydrate metabolism enzymes respectively. During this time you would probably feel sluggish, lacking in energy, etc. This is the problem with most of the diets test; they don't take into account lag periods and only test a diet for a couple weeks.... which doesn't tell us anything at all unless the macros are similar in nature to the previous diet (in which cause the diet probably is similar enough and won't tell us anything at all).

If he did up the fat, I'm pretty sure it wouldn't help him at all and he may actually feel worse. Now if, for example, he took the time and went Zone with extra fat blocks and felt significantly better and decided to stick with it... then maybe adding mass fat during a ride would be a good idea (well, more fat would be burned in energy regardless during a run because higher B-oxidation rates). Carbs are still absorbed faster regardless.. but fats do provide more energy.

This reminds me of something that occurs during the Tour de France where in the second or third day of hard riding it suddenly becomes easier as their bodies make the transition into much stronger B-oxidation for energy as opposed to carbs. Anyway.. yeah that's my take.

i dunno why, but that made me laugh lol

I would agree with the adaptation principle, but i still recommend the experimentation, even if it is a longer duration "self experiment".


That would still be my recommendation.  Change the diet and notice the effect -- this is just a more specific and direct instruction....and i never suggested fat DURING the ride -- i am pretty sure that no one would be comfortable eating nuts or shooting olive oil during a run would be deemed comfortable.

I am a proponent of higher carb ratios during activity, fyi :)

This made me giggle. More so because I see someone actually marketing this now...

          Is that just because you can get Gatorade in powdered form or because the ingredients in Gatorade are better than Vitamin Water?

Both are, eh.

With powdered gatorade you can control portion better diluting it to a good amount to replace electrolytes instead of dehydrating like it generally does.

You caught me in my careful avoidance of your question  :P.  I haven't experimented with increased fat per se.  Though me diet used to have a lot more fat and I have actually tried reducing  the fat and felt much better for it.  But I should qualify that with the fact that a lot of that fat was also coming from things that were also highly sugary like cookies and candy bars and the like.  I think Steve is right though: to see if replacing carbs with fats was beneficial I would have to do a more long term experiment and commit to something like the Zone diet for a prolonged period of time to see if it was helpful.  In doing some quick research, I found one study were they had endurance athletes try the Zone diet for one week and found that it had a negative effect on their endurance.  The article itself concluded that the Zone diet must be bad for endurance athletes, but I think that was a bad conculsion, due to factors that Steve mentioned such as the time it takes the body to adapt to a new diet.  But what I think one could conclude from the study is that a short term experiments with diet will probably not be sufficient to find out the real effects of a diet change. Here is a link to the study: http://www.pponline.co.uk/encyc/0977.htm (http://www.pponline.co.uk/encyc/0977.htm)
As far as making a long term commitment to such a diet, I would have to research it more before I could do it.  I know that a lot of people here are big fans of it and I have read a lot of what people have to say about it here and so all of the enthusiasm for it has made me want to become more knowledgeable about it, I just haven't taken the time yet to gain sufficient knowledge for myself.

          At one point, I decided to try to get rid of most fats in my diet (stupid fad diet), but I ended up feeling alot better from it.  A few months later, I decided to try putting fats back in, and I felt 100 times better than before.  It ended up being that after I got off my need of fats in my diet, I had enough sense to eat healthier fats which made me feel much, much better than low amounts of fats.  I tried low-carb, felt pretty bad for a good month until I stopped.

          Random statement, just thought I'd throw that in there.

not to sure if this has been thrown out yet but they have zero carb zero calorie poweraide now thats really good (taste wise) im not sure about the sugar content thou but i can get em at the corner store for $1.05.  ive never researched them thou so i dont know if there good for you or not but they seem better than anything else out there besides water

I don't know this product from a hole in the wall but I will put a significant amount of money down that its loaded with artificial sweeteners.

With that in mind, act based on how you feel on sweeteners.

Personally, im against them.  But that's just my opinion.

true that its got some bad artificial flavoring that should be avioded but if u arnt worried bout that no cals or carbs is a better alternative to other stuff but then again theres always water

Not necessarily.  Sometimes the lack of calories makes you more hungry, resulting in you consuming more food that DOES contain calories, according to several psychological AND physiological studies...

If the goal is weight loss, it may be counterproductive.

You see not too many people realize that sugaR is actually good for you, not too much sugar mind you but just the right amount. Many doctors encourage things such as a piece of chocolate a day, or soft drinks once in a while. The old age myth that sugar is an imflamitory towards the muscles is just false. I have an aunt who specialize in diets and fiber for people. So in the end sugar is not as bad as people say.

You are a brave man to make such a statement on this forum.  I would pull out your research tools now, because you had better be prepared to defend it from the onslaught of people who disagree with you  ;D

HA!  How true it is!


Carbohydrates, that is, sugars in all forms, are good for you.  In fact, you need them.  If you don't take in sugars, you will die.

Doctors who encourage chocolate usually recommend chocolate that is dark and high in cocoa.  This is because of the anti-oxidants found in cocoa.  Chocolates containing highly processed sugars, like those in Hershey's Syrup, however, are not as beneficial as the concentration of cocoa is much less (thus fewer antioxidants).

Soft Drinks being recommended by a doctor is ridiculous.  That's like a doctor recommending a big mac with cheese.  If my doctor would recommend that to me, i would ask his reasoning.  Most likely, it would result in me not going to that doctor anymore.

Sugar causing inflammation is not a myth.  Several studies prove the inflammatory effects of different foods on various tissues of the body.  This includes tissues in the gut and post-absorption, such as the muscles.  Sugars cause most of the inflammation associated with these responses.  You hearing that this is a myth from your aunt doesn't cut it for me.  If you have some studies with abstracts that you can link to, then please do so.  Else, I am dismissing this as hearsay.

Processed sugars are bad.  That is one of the few blanket statements I will stick to.....unless you can provide compelling evidence to the contrary.

This is a supporting study for what I am talking about:

Dietary pattern, inflammation, and incidence of type 2 diabetes in women
http://www.ajcn.org/cgi/content/abstract/82/3/675

A case study done on a large population of women.  The design seems sound, despite the limitations of case studies - but it is my opinion that case studies are the most comprehensive data there is to be had on nutrition and dieting.

If you can provide counter-examples, i would be willing to read them.

Again, if you're going to make bold claims, back them up with some info. Hearsay... doesn't hold up.

What's your guys' take on tea?

Take on what? Whether tea is good for you or not? or whether it's good for hydration? Not sure what you're getting at.

Regardless tea is pretty close to a miracle drink and incredibly easy to make, whether in prepackaged bags or home made. I'm  bored and don't feel like looking up a link but here's a little something on the benefits of tea.

-Lower blood pressure
-Possibility of lower incidence of heart disease
-Incidence of lower cholesterol
-Lowered risk of many different strands of cancer
-Incidence of lower risk of hypertension
-Incidence of lowered risk of Alzheimer's

There's plenty more, just go google it. I say "incidence" because there are many different studies showing only possibilities to cause these effects, so pay attention to who issued the research before believing anything. Regardless, we've been consuming tea for several thousand years. Hard to argue...

Uhm this all depends on the type of tea.

Black teas, not so much.

Green teas, yeah.

True, green and white teas. But black teas also have a good list of benefits.

originally vitamin water wasnt owned by coca cola. They bought em.

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/05/25/business/NA-FIN-US-Coca-Cola-Glaceau.php (http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/05/25/business/NA-FIN-US-Coca-Cola-Glaceau.php)

Does that change my thoughts on the company and their advertising methods?

Not in the least

no I mean they didn't come up with the formulas. (though Im sure they changed it a bit)

It's also really cheap.

Am i the only person in the world who thinks that vitamin water tastes nasty....... haha just sayin, i never drink it, water and green tea are pretty much the only things i drink, would drink OJ if it wasn't gross here from a soda dispenser thing, ugh college dining halls...