When I see products like TrimWater I wonder how any of it gets sold except through slick marketing. The company, the same one that makes TrimSpa diet products, used to market this through a now expired agreement with the TrimSpa diet folks, appears to have taken …. water … added flavoring and sweetener (10 calories per drink plus 3 G sugar) – and then marketed it as TrimWater. Since when is ADDING 10 calories, 50 mg of caffeine (12 oz Diet Pepsi has 35 mg for comparison), and 3 grams of sugar (no matter how small an amount) to water – justify slapping an additional label of TRIM on a product that starts off with no calories or additives? I am not making this up – their web site reads:
With that in mind, we created TrimWater. Lifestyle Beverages wants to give you the ability to drink truly healthier, without giving up the flavor you enjoy. The benefits of drinking water are well known & documented. We’re about allowing you to reap those benefits & making it taste great while doing it!
Is it healthier to drink water with additives – or when dieting would just plain water do the trick? Check the nutritional label on the next page if you don’t believe me.
Link: Trim Water Press Release
From the TrimWater web site – here is the nutritional label showing what is inside each serving (and the label indicates 2.5 servings per bottle – the relevant per bottle numbers are the far right column):
Is it just me who finds this silly? Adding calories to water and calling it Trim. What will they market to us next?
We did not ‘change the name’. Again, that is the name of the ingredient. As an ingredient with the suffix ‘ose’, it is a sugar – the issue is not that we have a sugar we combined with sucralose, it is how much sugar is in the product and what the caloric impact is – or isn’t. This is a straightforward ingredient listing – period. Compare the nutritional profile of TrimWater to other beverages in the market…
That may be your issue, but it wasn’t mine. My issue was the choice of ingredient names, and you didn’t answer my question.
I can’t speak for Wayne, but I believe his issue was with the choice of the name “Trim Water”. It may be a “Trim Beverage”, but it can’t be “Trim Water” because water already has zero calories.
TrimWater is a nutritionally enhanced water beverage, as it clearly states, verbatim, on the label. In the same fashion that vitaminwater is a nutritionally enhanced water beverage. Or SoBe LifeWater. The principal difference in the products, however is the amount of calories and sugar, as well as the nutritional content and what it is designed/formulated for. And, i believe I did answer your question, but to clarify, crystalline fructose is a sugar, which we list, as is required, in our ingredient listing. There is nothing misleading. You and Wayne are certainly entitled to your opinions. My intention was, and is, to clear up the information posted in the blog that was inaccurate. I did so in the 4 instances. If you are a pure water drinker, you are on the right path. If you occasionally or frequently indulge in flavored, sweetened beverages, look at the labels. If you don’t choose TrimWater, so be it. If you choose a high sugar and high calorie beverage, as most of America does, I think you are making a mistake. In either case, I wish you the best of health.
My mother always taught me that “everyone else is doing it” isn’t a good defense. I can see that VitaminWater would be water with vitamins added (and sugar too, which the name certainly neglects), so TrimWater is water with trim added?
And just to be clear, the FDA won’t let you choose the more familiar description “sugar”, but requires the more precise description “crystalline fructose”?
I’m not trying to bust your chops, but it seems ridiculous to maintain that there is not any marketing spin involved here.
To be clear, the FDA requires the actual name of the ingredient. The name of the ingredient is crystalline fructose, not the simple word ‘sugar’. It also requires that we display the ingredient as ‘purified water’ not the word water. If it were spring water, it would be listed as such, not water. The FDA requires a clear and accurate listing of the ingredients – we do that.
Further, I am not saying there isn’t marketing. You are overlooking that my post was to clear up inaccurate statements in the original blog entry and that the opinions stated in Wayne’s entry should be taken into consideration of the misinterpretation of the facts – again, read my clarification of points 1 through 4, wherein I state that we are ‘more than slick marketing’. Marketing? Yes – However, the phrase ‘slick marketing’ implies deception – so I take umbrage with that. Our product is in no way deceptive – can others say the same?
TrimWater is formulated with a calorie and sugar profile as well as nutritional ingredients to assist with weight maintenance – to help people stay trim and fit. The name clearly depicts that.
Again, read the labels. Other beverages list the nutritional facts on a per serving basis, not on a per container basis, leaving the consumer to ostensibly be misled. We tell the whole truth, per serving and per container, leaving the consumer with a clear understanding of the product and its contents. You have already stated accurately that vitaminwater doesn’t –
Thank you for clearing that up. I don’t doubt that it is a fine product that would be an excellent choice over many other alternatives. I do read the labels and that is why I have been puzzled to see simple names like water and sugar, which have been on ingredient labels for years, become more complicated. I truly did believe it was purely a marketing ploy, but I guess we have our government to thank for that. I appreciate your patience with me in making your point.
Yea, I maintain the ERP solution for Vitamin Water (soon to end thanks to the Coke acquisition and thus being moved to SAP…THen again, soon in the SAP world could be years)
At least these guys show a per container number. These huge 20oz Vitamin Water bottles would show “serving” calories, but who the hell actually doesn’t consume the whole bottle and thus that is 2 servings.
I already consume too many calories, I don’t need more in a beverage, especially with how good Splenda tastes.
I just pray, that I don’t die of cancer because all my health food nuts tell me I’m killing myself…
BTW, one thing I did learn at Vitamin Water is Crystaline Fructose is more expensive than Corn Syrup (which most cheap drinks, including Coke, use) but it is somewhat healthier and tastes alot “cleaner”. You can also get away with using far less of it and having something that tastes ok. Small amounts of Corn Syrup taste disgusting which is why it’s flooded into so many of our unhealthy foods.
The dirty secret, though, is the cost of mfg any of these beverages is tiny. The gross margins are huge. The big expenses are marketing, paying rappers like 50cent (or giving stock) to plug your product, and both inbound and outbound freight as water is one of the heaviest consumables on the market. Add the $4.50/gallon for diesel to transport and the beverage liquid itself, probably makes up 5%, if that much, of the retail price.
Reidme, what is wrong with marketing spin?
A huge percentage of what we piss our money away on is marketing? Is a mercedes with a breakdown record worse then the 1970’s Ford, worth twice as much as Toyota that almost never breaks? No, but it makes you feel good in front of friends…
Same for Diamonds which are artificially kept scarce buy an organization that makes the mob look like nice folks, same for almost all fashion.
Hell even water. Look how many plain ol, non “enhanced” waters are on the shelf and it costs 1000x as much as tap water and yet tap water in most parts of the US has been proven to be as good, if not better than all this premium water. THey charge more for this premium water in most cases then you pay for Gas, even at today’s prices.
If you owned the business and wanted to sell water with sugar, you wouldn’t get the time of day, if you just called the bottle….Tap water with sugar.
Thats the beauty of free enterprise. Just don’t claim it makes you lose weight faster than water, those types of claims get you screwed (aka the latest Airborne fiasco)
umm, well to start with I think water implies zero calories — at least it does to me. Maybe I’m odd that way.