The Life Ledger

Fitness is a way of life.

photo credit: thelifeledger

I recently received this e-mail from someone at Fleishman-Hillard, who apparently represents Gatorade in PR matters:

Great post on calorie disclosure. Did you know that you would have to take 2,640 more steps to burn off the calories in vitamin waters? Propel has one-fifth of the calories and punches up water. With that said, we would like to invite you and your readers to view our channel on YouTube at http://youtube.com/PropelFitWater…

I’ve long been fascinated with the growing fitness water trend and the marketing games they play. For instance, as Mark’s Daily Apple points out, most fitness water manufacturers will market a calorie claim on the label (only 10 calories!), but the bottle holds more than one serving. Does anyone here measure out their serving size when drinking water from a bottle? I don’t either.

At any rate, after reading the e-mail, I was interested in what people have to say about Propel. However, I couldn’t find any articles comparing Propel to other products - beyond short articles like the one at Trying Fitness, there doesn’t seem to be much info. To satisfy my curiosity, I bought several enhanced water products, tried them myself, and put together a comparison.

My personal takeaway? Fitness waters are nothing more than “dietary supplements” with bottled water from unknown sources thrown in. Drink regular water and eat varied colors of fruits and vegetables to get the same nutrient naturally. If you need some tips on drinking more water, Diet-Blog lists a couple to get you started.

photo credit: thelifeledger

Bot (www.botbeverages.com)

Flavor Tried
Berry Bot; refreshing, clean, only slight aftertaste; tastes like water with a little flavoring.

My Take
The clean taste isn’t the only thing that’s refreshing about Bot - it’s also the only product whose label reflects the calorie count of the entire bottle. While technically accurate, it’s still purposefully misleading to market one bottle of fitness water as 2.5 servings, then place in bold letters “Only 10 calories!” It’s also nice to see only ingredients I recognize, including pure cane sugar. Definitely top of my list.

Nutrition Information
Serving Size: 12 fl oz, 1 per container
Calories: 40 per serving (40 per container)
Sugar: 9g per serving (9g per container)
Vitamins per serving: B3 10%; B12 10%; B5 10%; B6 10%

Ingredients
filtered, deionized water, pure cane sugar, natural flavors, citric acid, niacinamide (vit. B3), calcium D pantothenate (vit. B5), pyridoxine hydrochloride (vit. B6), cyanocobalamine (vit. B12)

photo credit: thelifeledger

Vitamin Water (www.vitaminwater.com)

Flavor Tried
XXX (Acai, Blueberry, Pomegranate): too sweet, no aftertaste, good flavor; tastes like fruit punch, not water.

My Take
Vitamin Water gets a lot of rave reviews. As long as you’re expecting fruit punch as opposed to a clean water taste, you’re in for a treat. In my opinion, it also gets high marks for using real sugar and no preservatives - it could stand to be less sweet, but at least it’s not using sugar alternatives or HFCS. I would treat this as a soda alternative, something I drank maybe once a day - it’s not as healthy as water, but it’s a good lot better than a Coke.

Nutrition Information
Serving Size: 8 fl oz, 2.5 per container
Calories: 50 per serving (125 per container)
Sugar: 13g per serving (33g per container)
Vitamins per serving: C 100%; B3 10%; B12 10%; B5 10%; B6 10%

Ingredients
vapor distilled, deionized, and/or reverse osmosis water, crystalline fructose, cane sugar, citric acid, vegetable juice (color), ascorbic acid (vit c), natural flavor, berry and fruit extracts (acai, blueberry, pomegranate and apple), magnesium lactate (electrolyte), calcium lactate (electrolyte), monopotassium phosphate (electrolyte), niacin (B3), pantothenic acid (B5), pyridoxine hydrochloride (B6), cyanocobalamin (B12)

photo credit: thelifeledger

Voosh (www.drinkvoosh.com)

Flavor Tried
Acai, Blueberry, Pomegranate: refreshing, clean taste; good balance between sweetness/flavoring and clean water.

My Take
I’ve never heard of Voosh, but I’m glad I tried it - with a pleasant, clean taste, the flavoring complements the water without overpowering that refreshing, quenched taste I get from water. It’s got more junk than Bot, including electrolytes which I tend to steer clear of, but many people like. In my opinion, this is a fantastic alternative to Propel or Gatorade - what you lose in some “repleneshment” and nutritional additives from Gatorade products, you gain in lack of sucralose and preservatives. Voosh is second to Bot on my list.

Nutrition Information
Serving Size: 8 fl oz, 2.5 per container
Calories: 50 per serving (125 per container)
Sugar: 13g per serving (33g per container)
Vitamins per serving: C 100%; niacin 10%; B12 15%; pantothenic acid 10%; B6 10%

Ingredients:

water, crystalline fructose, citric acid, vitamin blend (ascorbic acid, grape seed extract, niacinamide, d-calcium pantothenate, vitamin b12, pyridoxine hcl), fruit and vegetable juices for color, natural flavors, magnesium lactate, calcium lactate, potassium phosphate

photo credit: thelifeledger

LifeWater (www.sobelifewater.com)

Flavor Tried
Blackberry Grape: too sweet, slight aftertaste, good flavor; tastes like syrup-based beverage, not water.

My Take
I had high hopes for LifeWater. I like many other Sobe beverages, and expected this to be no different. And to be honest, if I hadn’t gone to the local whole foods grocery store (Earth Fare in my area) and discovered Bot and Voosh, LifeWater would have been my favorite pick. While not as overpoweringly sweet as Vitamin Water, it’s still obviously not water, and doesn’t quench my thirst like water should. It also lists things like food starch and gum arabic that I expect from more processed products - perhaps that’s the reason Sobe markets LifeWater as a “Vitamin Enhanced Water Beverage” instead of a fitness water or something similar. All in all, it’s not a bad drink, and like any of these I’d drink LifeWater over any soda, but there are definitely better ones out there.

Nutrition Information
Serving Size: 8 fl oz, 2.5 per container
Calories: 40 per serving (100 per container)
Sugar: 10g per serving (25g per container)
Vitamins per serving: C 100%; E 20%; niacin 10%; pantothenic acid 10%; B12 10%; B6 10%

Ingredients
filtered water, sugar, natural flavor, citric acid, ascorbic acid (C), grape skin extract (color), sodium citrate, modified food starch, l-theanine, vitamin e acetate, calcium phosphate, gum arabic, calcium pantothenate, yerba mate exctract, niacinamide, pyridoxine hydrochloride (B6), cyanocobalamin (b12)

photo credit: thelifeledger

Propel (www.propelwater.com)

Flavor Tried
Kiwi-Strawberry: bitter aftertaste, doesn’t quench thirst, tastes unnatural.

My Take
Here we go, the drink that started this whole article. I tell you what, I don’t like soda, but I think I’d drink a Sprite over this stuff. It tastes bitter and doesn’t slake my thirst, probably due to the sucralose (Splenda) used to sweeten the drink. Also, the “natural kiwi and strawberry flavors” listed in the ingredients taste anything but natural - I can’t tell what it tastes like. Sorry Gatorade, but I’ll pass on this drink - I’d rather have the higher calorie count of one of the other drinks than sucralose, sucrose syrup and bad taste. Or, just drink water.

Nutrition Information
Serving Size: 8 fl oz, 2 per container
Calories: 10 per serving (25 per container) (yes, I know mathematically this shouldn’t be the case, but that’s what’s listed on the bottle)
Sugar: 2g per serving (4g per container)
Vitamins per serving: C 10%; E 10%; niacin 25%; B12 4%; pantothenic acid 25%; B6 25%

Ingredients:
water, sucrose syrup, citric acid, natural kiwi and strawberry flavors with other natural flavors, sodium citrate, potassium citrate, sucralose, vit c (ascorbic acid), vit e acetate, niacinamide (b3), calcium disodium edta (protects freshness), calcium pantothenate (vit b5), pyridoxine hydrochloride (b6), acesulfame potassium, vit b12

How about you - did I dis or skip your favorite fitness water drink?

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photo credit: Zervas

Is your coffee creamer the silent killer in your diet? CPSI thinks so, writing a news release stating that

The nutrition label on the powdered Coffee-mate in your office kitchen might list 10 calories and just a half a gram of saturated fat. Those sound like reassuringly low levels of both. But use a more realistic tablespoon-size serving instead of the miserly teaspoon the Food and Drug Administration allows—and unround the rounded down numbers on the label—and you’re looking at 45 calories and three grams of heart-harmful saturated fat. Have three of four servings of your office coffee thusly “creamed” and you’ve stealthily consumed half a day’s saturated fat.

But the liquid version of Coffee-mate—flavored or Original—is worse. Instead of using the coconut and palm kernel oils Nestlé employs in the powdered version, the liquid versions use partially hydrogenated soybean or cottonseed oil. Three mugs of coffee with that (and without Nestlé’s innovative arithmetic) delivers 1.86 grams of saturated fat , not to mention the 2.76 grams of trans fat—which is more than an entire day’s worth of the kind of fat that raises your bad cholesterol and lowers your good cholesterol.

CPSI also released a brochure worth looking at, comparing coffee creamers and listing related nutrition facts.

Interestingly enough, Nestle’s nutrition facts label lists 0g of trans fat per tablespoon, despite the fact “partially hydrogenated soybean and/or cottonseed oil” is listed as the third ingredient. Nestle appears to be following the growing trend for nutrition labels, which they describe on their FAQ pages:

COFFEE-MATE Liquid flavors contain less than 0.5g of trans fat per serving. Although the ingredient statement lists partially hydrogenated oil, the amount is trivial. Therefore, it can be listed as 0 (per FDA guidelines) on the nutritional statement.

Even more alarming is Nestle’s “Concentrate” products, like the French Vanilla Concentrate, which lists .5g saturated fat and 1g trans fat per serving. Assuming the 2tsp serving size is correct, that’s 3g of trans fat per day, just from your coffee!

Personally, I made the switch to using agave and silk when I’m of a mind to drink my coffee with cream and sugar. How about you - after reading about the hidden health cost in using cream in your coffee, will you change your habits?

Did you know each turkey leg has over 1400 calories? Start at the beginning of the series for some general Disney World nutrition information.

photo credit: maduarte

Far from a typical theme park, Epcot offers visitors a blend of entertainment and education. Using fun, animatronics and Disney flair, Epcot urges recognition of the part one plays in the world, the environment, and our shared future. At Epcot’s Futureworld, visitors experience space, sea, speed, land and imagination, and the one thing that ties all the disparate experiences together is, of course, food.

Below, I’ll list vendors and restaurants offering healthier snacks and meals. We’re compiling most of the information below from great Disney sites like MousePlanet.com and AllEars.net. If you’re not like the folks at the WDW Today Podcast who can visualize every nook and cranny, you might want to review a park map like the one found at http://www.wdisneyw.co.uk/. Also, keep in mind I am in no way proposing the suggestions below are healthy, particularly since I have no nutrition information - rather, the suggestions appear healthier in comparison to the standard fare. Finally, we’ll be skipping the character meals, because let’s be honest - if you’re paying for a character meal, you’re paying for the experience, not the food. With that in mind, let’s get started!

photo credit: Mista Gargoyle

Sunshine Season Food Fair
Land Pavillion, located in lower level outside entrance to Soaring.

After taking a leisurely flight over California, a boat ride through the history and future of agriculture and learned about the Circle of Life, Sunshine Season Food Fair offers a great (albeit loud) place to catch your breath before continuing your adventure. Sunshine Season is a huge counter-service area with many options for breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks, and organized into “bays” serving different foods. The Asian area offers steamed vegetables, sushi and (usually) a vegetarian meal option. There are several fish options, including Seared Tuna on Mixed Greens with Sesame Rice Wine dressing and Grilled Salmon with Mashed Potatoes with Kalamata Olive Pesto. If you’re not keen on fish, both the Grilled Vegetable Cuban Sandwich and Rotisserie Chicken or Beef Flatbread with Wild Greens and Tabbouleh appear to be tasty, healthy alternatives.

photo credit: ColeMatthew - all rights reserved

Coral Reef Restaurant
Living Seas Pavillion, located just inside main entrance.

Coral Reef offers a pleasant, if pricey, dining experience, providing guests full view to large fish tanks - photos like this one illustrate the dining experience. As MousePlanet puts it, “For some, there may be a bit of a cognitive disconnect in serving a mostly-seafood menu while watching fish swim around you.” Or as Len Testa eloquently puts it, “them’s good eatin’!” If you don’t mind eying both before and after versions of your meal at the same time, Coral Reef does have some healthy-sounding alternatives, including Pan-seared Tilapia - served with a roasted white and green bean salad tossed in a tomato vinaigrette and Grilled Mahi Mahi - served over Israeli couscous and arugula with honey soy glaze. Land-lubbers can try the Grilled Chicken Breast - with Jasmine rice and chicken broth.

photo credit: XISMZERO - all rights reserved

Electric Umbrella Restaurant
Future World, located inside Innoventions West near the Fountain.

Electric Umbrella offers fast counter-service fare with a few healthy alternatives to the standard hamburger. If you’re in the mood for a quick salad, try the Tossed Island Chicken Salad with mango, pineapple, and raisins, in a fat-free Italian dressing. If you’re more in the mood for a quick sandwich, try the Vegetable Wrap with hummus, zucchini, lettuce, cucumber, carrotts, roasted red peppers, balsamic vinaigrette and apple slices or Grilled Chicken Sandwich - with lettuce and tomato served with a wheat bun with apple slices. Or, if you’re really courageous, you could try the Len Testa Build-Your-Own-Salad salad bar(otherwise known as the fixins bar), although you might get some odd stares.

Next up - Epcot’s World Showcase.

Did you know each turkey leg has over 1400 calories? Start at the beginning of the series for some general Disney World nutrition information.

photo credit: Calamity Meg

With a staggering 16.64 million guests a year, Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom is consistently the most-visited theme park in the world. With that kind of volume, I would expect Disney to concentrate on cheap, consistent foods that appeal to the general masses and are quick to devour (like the 1400-calorie turkey legs), which pretty much cuts out most healthy meal choices. However, even with this volume, Disney manages to make some healthier choices available at Magic Kingdom - the trick is knowing where to find them.

Below, I’ll list vendors and restaurants offering healthier snacks and meals. We’re compiling most of the information below from great Disney sites like MousePlanet.com and AllEars.net. If you’re not like the folks at the WDW Today Podcast who can visualize every nook and cranny, you might want to review a park map like the one found at http://www.wdisneyw.co.uk/. Also, keep in mind I am in no way proposing the suggestions below are healthy, particularly since I have no nutrition information - rather, the suggestions appear healthier in comparison to the standard fare. Finally, we’ll be skipping the character meals, because let’s be honest - if you’re paying for a character meal, you’re paying for the experience, not the food. With that in mind, let’s get started!

Snacks

photo credit: stretchdog

Aloha Isle
Adventureland, located just past the entrance from Main Street.

Aloha Aisle is home of the absolutely scrumptious Dole Whip pineapple soft serve ice cream. Unfortunately, it’s ice cream, so we’ll have to overlook it in favor of the fresh pineapple spears - a great snack and a good alternative to the common apples and carrots found elsewhere. If you’re thirsty and in the mood for juice, Aloha Isle offers apple, orange and - of course - pineapple.

photo credit: pinkpollyanna

Liberty Square Market
Liberty Square, located across from the Liberty Square Riverboat and next to the Hall of Presidents

If you’re craving fruit, Liberty Square Market has the biggest selection. It’s a little pricey, but then, so are the hamburgers. At the Market, you’ll find grapes, apple sauce, oranges, apples, bananas, watermelon and mixed fruit bowls. They also offer pickles, corn on the cob, carrot sticks and celery sticks. Trust me - get your snacks here and bank your calories for a Dole Whip dessert at Aloha Isle. You won’t regret it.

photo credit: joeandy

Main Street Bakery
Main Street, located halfway down Main Street on right

Apple turnovers, Mickey head frosted cookies, banana bread pudding - Disney lists Main Street Bakery as an official location for purchasing fresh fruit. Beware, however - it will take some serious willpower to resist all those sweet treats in favor of fruit. Fruit selection, which according to Allears.net includes strawberries and cantaloupe, likely changes with the season. What doesn’t change is the danger of hiding a cheesecake slice under those fresh strawberries.

photo credit: BMS-LOU - all rights reserved

Toontown Farmers Market
Toontown, located between The Barnstormer and Donald’s Boat.

Like the Main Street Bakery, Toontown Farmers Market is an official location for purchasing fresh fruit. The Market is conveniently located across the street from the character meet & greet site at the Judge’s Tent, allowing one parent to wade through multiple queues obtaining pictures and autographs from various princesses and woodland creatures while another forages through the cotton candy and popcorn to find apples, fruit cups, oranges, grapes, bananas, yogurt cups and frozen lemonade.

Meals

photo credit: andreaweckerle

Columbia Harbour House
Liberty Square, located across from Haunted Mansion’s entrance.

Fried fish, fried chicken, french fries - this restaurant gives all appearances of being a standard fried seafood joint. However, amidst all the batter there are a couple of healthier alternative meals to be had, starting with their Lighthouse Sandwich (hummus with tomato & broccoli slaw). If you’re still hungry, add a bowl of vegetarian chili. Finally, if you’re more in the mood for a salad, they’ve got you covered with their Garden Galley Salad (mixed greens with chicken, pecans, pineapple and feta cheese), and I’m sure you can request they hold the cheese.

photo credit: zesmerelda

Cosmic Ray’s Starlight Cafe
Tomorrowland, located across from the Tomorrowland Speedway loading area.

Home of the purple ketchup, Cosmic Ray’s offers three counter-service “bays”, each with its own selection of food: Unhealthy, Unhealthier and Passable…. I mean Chicken, Burgers and Sandwiches. Skip Burgers, don’t collect your 200 extra calories and head directly to the Sandwich bay, where you’ll find humongous Chicken Wraps with a side of Strawberry Yogurt, apples or grapes. Beats a burger any day.

photo credit: stretchdog

Plaza Restaurant
Main Street, located at the end of Main Street on the right, next to Plaza Ice Cream Parlor.

Decorated as a turn-of-the-century ice cream parlor restaurant, Plaza Restaurant hosts a variety of sandwiches and salads. For healthier alternatives, skip the famous Reuben and head straight for a Chicken Strawberry Salad (fresh garden greens, grilled chicken breast, fresh strawberries, gorgonzola cheese, tossed in a white zinfandel vinaigrette dressing) or Vegetarian Sandwich (fresh mozzarella, hummus, basil pesto, cucumber, roasted red pepper, vine-ripened tomato, and lettuce on a freshly baked foccaccia bread served with sweet potato chips). Other offerings that appear to be on the lighter side include the Tuna Salad Sandwich, Turkey Sandwich and Plaza Club. As with any sandwiches, hold the mayo to keep the extra calories down.

photo credit: sansaarai - all rights reserved

Tomorrowland Terrace Noodle Station
Tomorrowland, located at the entrance of Tomorrowland from Main Street past Plaza Restaurant.

Open seasonally, the Noodle Station offers a pleasant alternative to the ubiquitous hamburgers and chicken strips. Best described as “Asian inspired,” the Noodle Station serves noodle bowls such as Chicken Noodle Bowl and Vegetable Noodle Bowl with Tofu. Also available are Teriyaki Chicken or Tofu and Beef and Broccoli, both served with steamed white rice. Also, an added perk - the terrace provides a nice view of the castle during the fireworks show.

photo credit: cafeplushenko - all rights reserved

Tony’s Town Square
Main Street, located on the right side of Town Square as you enter the park.

If you like seafood, Italian cuisine or Lady and the Tramp, Tony’s has you covered. Amidst the cheese and bread you’ll find dishes like their Grilled Salmon (over Mixed Greens with beets, feta, and candied walnuts, tossed in an orange-shallot vinaigrette), Catch of the Day (served with Orzo pasta tossed with pancetta, roasted garlic and seasonal vegetables topped with balsamic maple glaze) and Seafood Diavoli (linguini pasta with clams, mussels, calamari, shrimp, and salmon in a spicy tomato sauce). You can even splurge on a healthy(ier) dessert with a Seasonal No-Sugar Added Sorbet with fruit.

From fruit to fish and Asian to Italian, Magic Kingdom makes available many more food options than hamburgers and fries. Did I miss your favorite haunt for healthy(ier) meal and snack alternatives? I’d love to hear about it - leave me a comment below.

Next up - Epcot!

photo credit: disneyandy

I love Disney World. No really, I *LOVE* Disney World. From the moment I enter the “happiest place on Earth” to the moment my vacation ends with the “saddest drive on Earth,” I feel nothing but magic and peace… except, of course, at meal times. The “happiest place on Earth” has traditionally also been home to the unhealthiest food on Earth - greasy hamburgers, hot dogs, fries, turkey legs, fried chicken fingers. Not exactly the kind of faire I’d like to be consuming for six days straight.

Before heading to Disney World this past trip a couple weeks ago, I ran across this article at CalorieLab discussing the difficulties the author’s family experienced finding healthy food at Disney World. The author makes some good points - in general, fruits and vegetables aren’t as available as hamburgers and Mickey-shaped ice cream sandwiches, and while meal choices have become more nutritionally desirable, snack choices are still generally abysmal. But is the author’s basic premise, that healthy choices are “hard to find,” really accurate? I decided to pay attention on this trip and find out. I’ll cover each park in detail, pointing out where healthy choices can be found, over the next few articles. To start with, however, here’s some healthy-eating tips that apply to all the parks.

Nutritional information is generally not available.
Disney World maintains four e-mail addresses (one for each park) for nutrition information requests. I wrote to each address, explaining I have to strictly monitor my daily caloric intake and asking for nutrition information for their in-park restaurants. I imagine the employees receiving my query wondered why the **** I am visiting Disney World if I’m worried about what foods I’m eating, but they politely responded with “our foods change so frequently it is impossible to maintain that kind of information.” I received the same response at counter-service and seated restaurants. If you have particular dietary needs like food allergies, you can submit a form before visiting the parks and it appears restaurants will bend over backwards to meet your needs. There’s also a highly-recommended book, Passporter’s Open Mouse by Deb Wills and Debra Koma, that covers how best to handle many “special needs” issues, including diet, when visiting Disney World. For poor schlubs like me that just want to count their calories, it looks like we have to rely on educated guesses.

photo credit: mfshadow

All turkey legs are created equal.
One item of interest I received from the Disney nutrition e-mail contacts was a list of portion sizes and general ingredients for several common snack and counter-service items. I compiled a couple of those documents to create the table below. It’s worth doing a little research into the caloric content in these foods - for example, one turkey leg contains approximately 2 calories per gram, or over 1400 calories. Articles like this one from the Orange County Register are rare, but seem to support general guesses, which is all I can make until Disney starts publishing nutrition information.

Bring your own snacks and bottled water.
One thing the Disney respondents shared was this tidbit:

The Guests are allowed to bring food items, such as snacks or foods that do not require heating, into any WALT DISNEY WORLD® Theme Park. Just inform a Security Cast Member checking the bags that you have food allergies and they will gladly allow you to bring in these items.

I always bring a few Odwalla Bars with me, which serve as my snacks throughout the day. I typically visit a grocery store like the one at Crossroads on my first day, buy a week’s worth of bars and a few bottled waters, and freeze the water overnight so it melts throughout the day and stays cool. This way, I steer clear of high-calorie snacks like ice cream and pretzels, save money I would otherwise spend on expensive snacks and bottled water, and save the 30 minutes it would normally take to stand in line and eat so I can …. well, stand in a different line.

photo credit: avainyeh

Search for the fruit.
If you’re going to spend the cash for snacks at Disney World, you still have healthy alternative options, most notably fresh fruit. According to Disney, there are some permanent sources for purchasing fresh fruit in the parks. On entering the park, take a look at the map to locate the fruit vendors and plan to pass by those areas at “snack times.” Disney’s recommended fruit vendors include:

• Magic Kindgom: Liberty Square Market (seasonal), Mickey’s Toontown Farmers Market, Main Street Bakery
• Epcot: “Most quick service locations” [From previous experience, the Land pavillion consistently sells fruit, but I don’t recall a comparable vendor in World Showcase]
• Disney’s Hollywood Studios: Sunset Ranch Market, ABC Commissary
• Disney’s Animal Kingdom: Harambe Fruit Market, Drinkwallah

Do you have healthy eating tips you’d like to share, or favorite places to buy healthy snacks? I’d love to hear them - please share in the comments below. Next stop - healthy(ier) eating at the Magic Kindgom!