Right by the checkout stand was a big display of this:
SoBe Lifewater - "vitamin enhanced water beverage". See that big "0 Calories" at the top of the label? Cool. Sounds yummy. And on sale for $1. I took a bottle of the mango melon flavor.
I got home and was unpacking my stuff, and started to read the back label to see what vitamins it was enhanced with. Yes, I frequently make unwise choices with regard to self-care, but I always read labels. Maybe I'm just curious.
2.5 servings per bottle. 6 gm carbohydrate per serving. SAY WHAT? How can something have carbs but no calories. Carbs and proteins have 4.5 calories per gram; and fats have 9 calories per gram. If I drank the entire bottle, that would be 15 carbs - enough to certifiably treat a hypo.
What is it that I'm not getting here? Someone please explain, or else I'm going to have to call the 800# on Monday morning.
9 comments:
Well, I'm curious. I've seen this before and wondered how even only a few carbs could be 0 calories.
My guess would be that it has calories. What are the ingredients? You might be able to figure it out that way.
Occasionally if the carbs are mostly fiber a label will advertise 0 calories, because there are 0 digestible calories- but it doesn't look to me like that's the case here.
Wow - I was just wondering about this, too! How can they advertise no calories - I mean, really.
My guess is misprinted label. As to what value is wrong...no idea.
Contact them. I'll bet you find they use some wacky software to calculate values.
See my post about pastry. I contacted King Arthur because the calorie count for their whole wheat white flour didn't seem right. According to them it's right, which implies dietary fiber has calories. Yet we don't have to bolus for fiber as far as I know.
How sneaky! Dang marketing folks...
You are so curious how come???
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Britney
Online Marketing of your brand
The "carbs" come from erythritol, a naturally occurring sugar "alcohol" found in many fruits and vegetables. If you don't know what a sugar alcohol is, I suggest you look into it. It is not neither a sugar, nor an alcohol in the sense that people commonly associate with either or those words seperately. They have less of an effect on blood sugar than sucrose and don't contribute to tooth decay. In Atkins terms, they are "0 net carbs", subtracted from the overall carb total, like fiber grams.
I believe there is a minimum number of calories per serving in which a company can round down to zero. I want to say its something like 15 calories or less per serving can be rounded down to zero.
So 6 x 4.5 is 27, but if we divide that by 2.5 (the serving amount)we get 10.8 calories per serving. Which they are allowed to round down for labeling.
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