Why We Must Read The Package Labels

The speaker discusses their experience at a food bank where they came across a product called Bubbler Sparking Water. The product claims to have natural caffeine and no artificial sweeteners, but upon reading the ingredients, the speaker discovers that it contains erythritol and stevia, which are considered artificial sweeteners. Additionally, the product contains guarana, an herb with naturally occurring caffeine. The speaker questions the amount of guarana in the drink and doubts if there is even a significant amount of natural caffeine. They criticize the deceptive advertising and urge people to read the ingredients instead of trusting the claims on the front of the packaging. The speaker concludes by expressing their frustration with the company's deceitfulness and hopes that consumers will be more cautious when it comes to such products. You're listening to Behind the Scenes with Dr. Troy. Hello and welcome. I'm Dr. Troy. I'll tell you what. You can't trust anything on the front of any box, can or anything. I'm shocked. I was out volunteering at a food bank and I'm looking around at the products and I see this product and it's called Bubbler with no E but it's apostrophe R. Bubbler Sparking Water. And I'm thinking, huh, and it says natural caffeine on the front and it says natural flavor, zero sugar, no artificial sweeteners. And I was thinking, my eye immediately and my brain decided to say that it also had no artificial flavors because they put it all together in such a way. I looked again and I was like, how interesting. My brain immediately leapt towards the fact that it probably was completely natural and no artificial flavors either. And as I got to thinking about it, I was looking at it more and more and I'm like, I've got to look at the ingredients. And I turn it around and the third ingredient is erythritol. I'm like, is that really considered not an artificial sweetener? And of course it has stevia, which now we know stevia spikes blood sugar still, so we probably shouldn't do it. And then about the fifth, sixth or seventh ingredient, it had caffeine. And I'm thinking, that ain't natural. And I turned the counter around and I looked at it and said, natural, natural caffeine. I'm thinking, how can they lie like that? And so then I'm like, oh, oh, got it. There's something in there that has a tiny little bit of natural caffeine and they could put that on the front of the can. They're not saying all the caffeine in it was natural, but they're definitely leading you to believe that the caffeine in it is natural. And so there in the second to last ingredient was guarana. Guarana is an herb that has naturally occurring caffeine. And I've seen it used way in the past, even in the 80s, as a support for weight loss and hormone this and energy that. And I thought, I wonder how much guarana is actually in this. And as I'm looking at these ingredients, I'm thinking, there can't be but a microgram or two of the ingredient right in front of it. And I'm just thinking, you got to be kidding me. There can't be I mean, did they just wave the guarana over it? And that's about all the amount that's in there. Is there even one thousandth of a milligram of natural caffeine in this drink? Probably not. That's probably giving it a gift. And yet they were able to use it on the front of the can and say that it has natural caffeine. I was just like, this is great. This this is awesome that they can even allow this. Not that they would allow it like it should be the government's job to regulate this. It's just that a company would be so deceptive and be OK with it. I mean, who does this and goes to bed and sleeps well at night? I just would hope that whoever is the advertising director on this and that actually decided to do that, that they actually have trouble sleeping. I mean, that would at least be something. I'm just thinking this is ridiculous. So the natural flavors and the zero sugar and the no artificial sweeteners, I just I'm like, I don't even believe you. I wouldn't even doubt it if you didn't put Splenda or Sucralose in it and you just didn't even put it on the ingredients, because if you're willing to say that, then what else are you willing to lie about? That's how I feel when it comes to a product like that. It just it's ridiculous. So just for my FYI, you can kind of go after some of these products, but I would hope that you would begin looking at some of these products that you see these fantastical things listed on the front and that you might decide, you know what, I think I'm just going to read some ingredients and not necessarily believe what it is that I'm reading on the front. So my two cents on the deceit in advertising. Until next time, I'm Dr. Troy. And remember, there is way more right with you than there is wrong with you. 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