Back two years ago when Gatorade launched Propel in the Philippine market, I wondered if they were going to come out with a low-calorie version. Then they released Propel Vitamin Water, with big “CALORIE FREE” markings on the label.
Yesterday, though, was the first time I actually examined the contents as listed on the label.
According to Food & Drug regulations worldwide, a product has to contain less than 1 calorie to be allowed to call itself low-calorie, and should have no caloric content at all to be considered zero-calorie.
Most people don’t read the Nutritional Information, which is the mistake I’ve been making for some time. But there’s 10 calories per serving, and each bottle contains more than 1 serving. That is definitely not low-calorie at all.
When I saw this, I wondered why the product could have any calories. After all, it was just supposed to be flavored water fortified with vitamins, right? Checking the ingredient list, I saw the second ingredient: sucrose.
It was totally disingenuous for Gatorade to mark a product as “calorie-free” when it’s not, but that’s a lesson learned not to trust claims of a product unless it’s backed up by the nutritional information and ingredients.
And those calories are from simple sugar π