According to the American consumer group the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), Coca-Cola have made a range of claims about Vitaminwater that go beyond those allowed by the Food and Drug Administration.
The CSPI says Vitaminwater is marketed as a healthful alternative to soda by the use of health buzz words as 'defense,' 'rescue,' 'energy' and 'endurance on the labelling and they have issued a class action lawsuit against Coca-Cola about the matter.
The CSPI says Coca-Cola also claims the drinks reduce the risk of chronic disease and eye disease, promote healthy joints and support immune function, when in fact the 33 grams of sugar in each bottle of Vitaminwater do more to promote obesity, diabetes and other health problems than the vitamins in the drinks do to perform the advertised benefits listed on the bottles.
Coca-Cola has dismissed the suit as ridiculous but the CSPI says it hopes the company will change its marketing practices and would like to see consumers reimbursed.
This latest lawsuit comes just weeks after the company was warned by U.S. health regulators about the way it markets another product.
Coca-Cola was criticised by the FDA in December over claims that Diet Coke Plus included a variety of vitamins and minerals which was a violation of U.S. policy against marketing soda and other snack foods as more nutritious.
According to the CSPI the VitaminWater labels' claims cross the line and are an outright fraud.
CSPI says VitaminWater contains between 0% to 1% juice, even though the full names of the drinks include "endurance peach mango" and "focus kiwi strawberry" and "xxx blueberry pomegranate acai" - even though they contain no blueberry, pomegranate, or acai juice.
The other juices contain no cranberry, grapefruit, dragon fruit, peach, mango, kiwi, or strawberry juice.
The team's study is the first molecular survey of gut microbial diversity following surgical weight loss, and has helped solidify the link between methane producing microbes and obesity. Specifically, the microbial populations extracted from obese individuals were high in a particular microbial subgroup, hydrogen-producing bacteria known as prevotellaceae. Further, such hydrogen producers appear to coexist with hydrogen-consuming methanogens, found in abundance in obese patients, but absent in both normal weight and gastric bypass samples. Unlike the hydrogen producers, however, these methane-liberating hydrogen consumers are not bacteria. They belong instead to the third great microbial domain ”the Archaea, (with Eukarya and Bacteria making up the other two).
Energy managers
During the course of digestion, calories are extracted from food and stored in fat tissue for later use ”a process delicately regulated by the multitude of microbial custodians. The intermediary products of the digestive process include hydrogen, carbon dioxide and several short chain fatty acids (SCFAs).
Results suggest a cooperative co-existence in obese individuals between hydrogen-producers and hydrogen consuming methanogens. Rittmann explains how this mutually reinforcing relationship, known as syntrophy, may contribute to obesity:
"Organisms producing hydrogen and acetate create a situation like cars flooding onto the highway. The methanogens, which remove the hydrogen, are like the offramps, allowing the hydrogen cars to get off. That allows more acetate cars to get on, because some hydrogen cars are coming off the highway."
The methanogen offramps, by removing hydrogen, accelerate the efficient fermentation of otherwise indigestible plant polysaccharides and carbohydrates. The effect is to boost production of SCFAs, particularly acetate, which will be taken up by the intestinal epithelium and converted to fat. The result over time may be increasing weight, eventually leading to obesity.
While weight regulation involves a complex interplay of genetic predisposition, exercise, eating habits, and other factors, manipulation of the gut's microflora, particularly the methanogenic Archaea, may provide additional avenues for the treatment of morbid obesity.
The researchers stress that the study is preliminary, but were encouraged by the findings from their small sample. Future investigation is needed to establish the differences in composition of gut microbiota across different age groups and under varying weight-loss regimens involving diet and exercise. Nevertheless, the study's findings point to new avenues for modifying the body's energy harvesting efficiency ”perhaps by manipulation of the Bacteria-Archaea nexus.
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