photo credit: TheTruthAbout…

Is Vitamin Water super water or a virtual soda like drink in disguise? Vitamin Water recently made the news. Center for Science in the Public Interest sued Coca Cola who owns Vitamin water over deceptive and unsubstantiated claims on its VitaminWater line of beverages.

“Coke markets VitaminWater as a healthful alternative to soda by labeling its several flavors with such health buzz words as “defense,” “rescue,” “energy,” and “endurance.” The company makes a wide range of dramatic claims, including that its drinks variously reduce the risk of chronic disease, reduce the risk of eye disease, promote healthy joints, and support optimal immune function.”

“In fact, according to CSPI nutritionists, 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.”

Vitamin Water may provide do harm than good because many of the flavors are filled with sugar and caffeine that offsets any possible positive effect of vitamins. One 500ml bottle had 8 teaspoons of sugar, 82ml of caffeine.  “consumers not to drink more than two bottles a day because of the caffeine content (82 milligrams) and [the label] recommends it not be taken by children or pregnant or lactating women.”

How about sticking to plain old water?

Apparently Vitamin Water is listening. In 2010, they introduced a new line of drinks for a weight-conscious market called Vitamin Water zero that has 0 calories per eight-ounce serving. It uses sweeteners from Truvia, a high-purity extract of the stevia leaf.

Costco now sells Nature’s Choice 100% Recycled Premium Bath Tissue.  No need to make a special trip to Whole Paycheck aka Whole Foods to get recycled products.  Price is as low as you would expect from Costco and performance of the product is fairly good too.

The NRDC states: If every household in the United States replaced just one roll of virgin fiber toilet paper (500 sheets) with 100% recycled ones, we could save 423,900 trees.

We saw this cup at a museum store that looked like a standard coffee cup but was made with porcelain.  It is  called “I Am Not a Paper Cup” and is dishwashwer and microwave safe, $12 from Amazon. eco cup is another similar reusable coffee cup or beverage cup.

Many coffee shops will not allow you to use your own cup, claiming health code problems. Starbucks sells a $15 reusable Venti cup and applies a 10-cent discount on the price of the drink of your choice each time you bring your cup in and order. Apparently these sold out an are being scalped on eBay.

I wonder how many other coffee places will let you use this.  Most independent coffee shops have no problem with this. Just thinking about how many paper cups are tossed each day is mind boggling.  Few people wash their coffee cups and recycle the cup and plastic top.

Got old eyeglasses laying around? Prescription changed, frame outdated, etc.. time to put the old glasses back to work with those less fortunate.

Unite for Sight helps take unwanted eyeglasses and sunglasses and distributes them to people in Africa.  They find people with vision needs in the same ballpark as your glasses and gives them away.  Any eyeglass, for most of these folks, is better than no glasses, even if the prescription is not exactly the same.

Lion’s Clubs also recycle eyeglasses. They have donation boxes in Walmart stores and Sam’s Clubs with vision centers.

Car Racks significantly reduce car mileage.  It is amazing how many people drive around with ski or bike racks permanently attached to their car. 99% of the time, these car racks are empty.  Why not just remove them and install when they are needed.

No doubt convenience is the main reason.  Car racks interfere with aerodynamics.  We can hear a distinct noise whenever a rack is on our vehicle.  A site did a test and measured 12% less miles per gallon with an empty rack and 27% less mileage with a bike on the rack.  Placing a rack on the back of the car reduces mileage far less,  so consider a hitch mounted ski or bike rack.