I am a vitamin water zero freak. I love it and it has kept me in line as I journey down the low carb trail. The other day, my husband says to me as we are each downing a bottle, if it has zero calories, why does it say 7 grams of carbs? I grabbed the bottle and sure enough, that is what it said, so I did some research and I have copied what their website has to say about this:



On the bottle label, you will find that it has 0 calories but 3 grams of carbohydrates and sugar, less then 1gram. How does this work? Doesn’t 1 gram of carbohydrates contain 4 calories? Yes, it does. So, theoretically, there are 30 calories in each bottle. Not quite, however, as Erythritol is almost non-caloric, with only 0.2 calories per gram vs. 4 calories for sugar (20 times fewer calories). Thus, Erythritol is uniquely qualified as a zero calorie bulk sweetener for formulating “reduced calorie” and “light” products which require a 25 percent or more calorie reduction from the standard formulation. Under U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) labeling requirements, it has a caloric value of 0.2 calories per gram. That’s why the Vitamin Water Zero can be labeled as zero calorie, although it doesn’t have really zero calories. (Look at the label again. 1 gram of sugar is listed. Sugar is a carbohydrate. And each gram of it has 4 calories.) There are 2.5 servings in 1 bottle.

So, just so you know, you are getting about 18 grams of carbs with each bottle. Zero does not always mean zero I guess. I drink the lemonade zero and it has 7 grams while others have 3.

This is one thing that bugs me, as often the manufacturers know full well that most people would eat/drink the whole pack and not notice it was supposed to be more than one serving.

Thanks for posting this! It's so important that we all know exactly what we're drinking (and eating)!

I did the same thing! I used to love the stuff, until I looked at the carb count more closely. I hate that serving size trick. Who really gets 2.5 servings out of one drink?

Tbf though why the hell would you buy such a product? Just pop a couple of pills every morning and drink them with tap water. Or berocca

Keep in mind that we are Americans and thus think that tap water is poisonous.

Yeah I made the mistake of buying Diet Crush, not realizing it had six carbs and the first ingredient was HFCS. I'm glad I noticed it before I drank it. Still mad at wasting the money.

Okay, THAT does it! I'm not buying ANYMORE bottled drinks! These bozos are flat out lying to us and it makes me mad! I'm not going to sit there in the store examining ingredient lists and banging on my calculator, the definition of deception is concealment of information and I'm not giving these liars anymore of my money.

The only thing I will touch anymore is Crystal Light bottled Raspberry Ice. However, I can only order it online. I get monthly shipments via Amazon. They no longer sell it in stores. It's truly a zero drink made with Splenda. Of course, the artificial flavors and colors are probably going to give me cancer.

Tragedian. I hear you. I feel mislead also. I was looking at calories and not actual grams of carbs. These companies do not have to list calories if carb levels are at a certain level because of the types of sugars used. But some people don't know that 7 carbs equals 28 calories, I'm not sure why these companies cannot add that information to the label. It would certainly clear it up for many. But then, they are trying to sell a 0 calorie drink and that is what people are looking for. I am going to stick to plain water for now. Better for me anyway.

This is not intended to defend these companies, but I really think it is up to every individual to look at ingredients and nutritional values each and every time they purchase something.

DH complains about how long I take while shopping but companies will change ingredients in their products all the time depending on what is available and what option is the least expensive at time of production. (Ex. Our dog can not eat wheat. So last night I took 20 minutes looking at dog food labels. Two of our usual foods had now added wheat, and I didn't know that the store had moved some of the food to the next aisle so I didn't see our other usual options until I was done and had found that one brand we had never bought before now had no wheat.)

I feel that this is like parents taking fast food places to court. I really don't think it's McDonald's responsibility to only feed your child healthy food - it is the parents respsonsibility to make healthy choices for their child and to educate their children about healthy foods, and when they do make unhealthy choices that it really is just a rare "treat".

BTW, I also think that nutritional labeling laws need to be updated globally. I don't think nutritional labels should be able to deduct anything and they should not be able to round values down. They should be required to display all info so consumers can make an informed choice, not everyone understands how to find hidden carbs or calories.

Honestly, I think this stinks.

I really hate it when people try to mislead me. We have 2 coeliacs and an anaphylactic amongst our crew, and labeling is vitally important for us.

And they lie to us.

So more and more I buy ingredients, not products. Still, I am lucky, I work from home, and that means I can make muffins for the crew and nip back into the workroom whilst they cook etc. (It also means lovely yummy muffins sit out on the counter whilst I try and IF.....)

Erythritol is a sugar alcohol that doesn't affect blood glucose. Most people low carbing don't count it in their carb counts.

It really is our responsibility to read and from now on, I will hone in on carb numbers and skip over how many calories it has in it.