Bottled Sugar Water Is Worse Than Bottled Water

I'm not sure why we need two dozen campaigns to fight against buying what already comes out of our faucets for free, but I have this nagging feeling that all of that concern and effort would be better spent elsewhere. Like, how about getting congress to pass a tax credit for renewable energy.

I'm also concerned that we've somehow overlooked that bottled water isn't nearly as popular as bottled sugar water. Bottled sugar water, it turns out, is actually worse for the environment than bottled water, because you have to get the sugar. Something we enviros don't like to talk about is the fact that soft-drink purchases have actually declined significantly since the advent of bottled water. This can't be a bad thing, especially considering the obesity epidemic.

Read the full story here

Related:

::Simran Sethi: The Hidden Cost Of $40 "Bling Water"
::Graham Hill: Tap Has 1/100 Impact Of Bottled Water

(image by flickr user pheezy)

Comments

[kulenski]

wow, you're kidding me, right?

[RightWingMarine]

How are going to purchase and drink the sugar water if we don't have bottles? If I want to drink sugar water that is my business, having a bottle to hold it only makes sense.

[JScott]

Sugar water? More like High Fructose Corn Syrup Water.

[Nolana]

I thought this article would be about water v. "nutritionally-enhanced" water.

I used to drink a lot of Vitamin Water - I like the "Revive" flavor, and found it tastier and less cloying and awful than any soda. And it has cane sugar, not high-fructose corn syrup, so it's better, right?

Well, 8 oz of Vitiamin water still has something like 13-17g of sugar. Think of that.... a gram is about 1/4 tsp. So 8 oz of this "healthy" water has between 3.25 and 4.25 teaspoons of sugar. Take a 1 cup measure of water and put 4.25 teaspoons of sugar in it and drink it. How's it taste? Pretty nasty.

Does anyone ever drink just 8 oz of soda or nutritionally enhanced water at a time? The bottles range from 16-32 oz. Drink a quart of that stuff a day and you'd ingest an extra 16-17 teaspoons of sugar. That's a LOT of sugar.

I was tricked. I admit it. But since I quit drinking Vitamin water every day, and dropped a lot of other sugars from my diet (pastries), I've lost probably 10 pounds in the last 6 months. Sugar's quite a culprit.

The other day I was desperately thirst while out shopping, and in a hurry so I grabbed a bottle of Life Water from a cooler. it was like drinking the heavy syrup from a can of peaches. Yuck! It's water for me now, and unsweetened teas.

[mouselion]

"Yes, it's shameful that we scorn our safe, tasty tap water... "

Speak for yourself on that one -- not where I live. I do use one of those Britta pitchers instead of buying bottle spring water. But, the author is correct, better to drink bottled water than that other crap, if you have to do one or the other.

[mamacat]

A lot of the bottled water in the supermarket is more expensive than the canned sugar water. Still, it is better for the drinker, there is that.

[Mort]

Bottled sugar water is worse for the environment because you have to get the sugar? Huh?

One reason people buy bottled water is what comes out of our faucets is full of stuff they don't want to drink. Instead of campaigning against how we drink our water, why not fight for cleaner public supply, cheaper & better home filtration units or recycling? Instead of calling people stupid for wanting clean, convenient drinking water, or obese for drinking sodas, maybe you could give a positive message about the benefits of putting that bottle in the blue bin instead of the landfill. Folks are gonna drink what they like, how they like. Condescention will never change that. But maybe better alternatives and positive education will.

[hilaritee]

that was a very good point, thank you. thank you for making what should seem obvious, visible.