Ingredient List and Nutrition Facts for zero calorie Propel

I like to stay hydrated, but don't drink a lot of water, energy drinks or soda pop. This year I began using Propel, which I cut by half with water, or plain tea or juice. I use "immune support" because the energy drinks have caffeine. 

Information from Foodzilla:  "To give you a better understanding of Propel's composition, here is a typical ingredient list and nutrition facts for a Propel beverage: Ingredient List: 

Water, Citric Acid, Sodium Hexametaphosphate, Natural Flavor, Potassium Sorbate (Preserves Freshness), Potassium Citrate, Ascorbic Acid (Vitamin C), Sucralose (derived from sugar same as Splenda, 600x sweeter than sugar), Sodium Citrate, Acesulfame Potassium, synthetic 200x sweeter than sugar) Calcium Disodium EDTA (Preserves Freshness), Niacinamide (Vitamin B3), Vitamin E Acetate, Calcium Pantothenate (Vitamin B5), Pyridoxine Hydrochloride (Vitamin B6).

From advertisement: 

Immune Support: Propel Immune Support helps support a healthy immune system with 100% of the recommended Daily Value of Vitamin C per bottle and an excellent source of Zinc.

Zero Calories and Zero Sugar: Created by the makers of Gatorade, Propel is a zero calorie, zero sugar, fitness water made to replenish and rehydrate active lifestyles.​

Electrolyte Hydration: Made with Gatorade Electrolytes, Propel helps you hydrate and enjoy your best workout with zero sugar.

Vitamin Enhanced Water: Propel is the original zero calorie electrolyte water that offers a variety of flavors and is an excellent source of vitamins B3, B5, B6, Vitamin C and Zinc.

Nutrition Facts (per 1 bottle (591 ml) serving):

Calories: 10
Total Fat: 0g
Sodium: 270mg
Potassium: 70mg
Total Carbohydrates: 0g
Protein: 0g"

So in other words, it's water with a vitamin pill and artificial flavor and artificial sugar.

The "tea" I use isn't really tea, but Celestial Seasonings herbal supplement, Vitamin C Shine, which contains "natural flavors."  What Do Natural Flavors Mean on the Ingredients List?

While studies are mixed, a 2022 study in the Journal of Physical Education, Health and Sport suggests that coconut water rehydrates as well as traditional sports drinks. These study authors also point out that coconut water has antioxidants, which traditional sports drinks typically lack. The antioxidants might be able to help with minimizing stress at the cellular level from intense exercise. (This is an Indonesian journal--not sure of its quality.)

How to fight Covid at home

I'm not a doctor or nurse, so is there anything to this advice that my mother or grandmother probably didn't know (except for the OTC meds and prescriptions)? I'd heard about the dehydration. You just never know on the internet whether it's someone's dog or a real person.

"HOW TO FIGHT COVID AT HOME

No one ever talks about how to fight Covid at home. I came down with Covid in November. I went to the hospital, running a fever of 103, a rapid heart beat, and other common symptoms that come with Covid. While I was there they treated me for the high fever, dehydration and pneumonia. 

The doctor sent me home to fight Covid with two prescriptions - Azithromycin 250mg & Dexamethasone 6mg. When the nurse came in to discharge me, I asked her, "What can I do to help fight this at home?" She said, “Sleep on your stomach at all times with Covid. If you can’t sleep on your stomach because of heath issues sleep on your side. Do not lay on your back no matter what because it smashes your lungs and that will allow fluid to set in.

Set your clock every two hours while sleeping on your stomach, then get out of bed and walk for 15-30 min, no matter how tired or weak that you are. Also move your arms around frequently, it helps to open your lungs. Breathe in thru your nose, and out thru your mouth. This will help build up your lungs, plus help get rid of the Pneumonia or other fluid you may have.

When sitting in a recliner, sit up straight - do not lay back in the recliner, again this will smash your lungs. While watching TV - get up and walk during every commercial.

Eat at least 1 - 2 eggs a day, plus bananas, avocado and asparagus. These are good for Potassium. Drink Pedialyte, Gatorade Zero, Powerade Zero & Water with Electrolytes to prevent you from becoming dehydrated. Do not drink anything cold - have it at room temperature or warm it up. Water with lemon, and little honey, peppermint tea, apple cider are good suggestions for getting in fluids. No milk products, or pork. Vitamin’s D3, C, B, Zinc, Probiotic One-Day are good ideas. Tylenol for fever. Mucinex, or Mucinex DM for drainage, plus helps the cough. Pepcid helps for cramps in your legs. One baby aspirin everyday can help prevent getting a blood clot, which can occur from low activity. 

Drink a smoothie of blueberries, strawberries, bananas, honey, tea and a spoon or two of peanut butter."

How to read the new nutrition label

This is the final week of programming at Lakeside, and the director of education uses our own Lakeside "experts" who present fine programming. Yesterday was Wendy Stuhldreher a retired professor of nutrition and public health explaining the new labeling for food (she used a one page FDA graphic issued Jan. 2018 which I've been unable to find). My take away was, "just eat your vegetables." She said it many times, especially at Q & A. Her point was that although vegetables may not be high in protein or calcium, they perform with other nutrients as an orchestra, and all play their part.

She also stressed that vegetarians must find compensatory nutrition because they don't eat red meat. The audience was definitely in the osteoporosis/bone loss age group, so she also stressed calcium, but added that it was an investment we needed to make when we were young because the body starts making withdrawals from the bank of our bones by middle age. For a cheese good for protein and calcium, she recommended cottage cheese.

My mother's generation started that 2% and 1% milk trend (she was 5'1" and always watched her weight), and now my generation is probably low on the calcium reserves that needed the fat content for our bones. I think I continued with the 1% and skim until a few years ago.  Don't give young children skim milk as a replacement for whole.

When I first decided to attend Wendy’s lecture, I thought I knew how to read a label, but there have been significant changes, and we found out why, like Vit. D is now listed, but Vit. A & C have been removed because deficiencies in those are rare. Sugar is sugar on the new label. Fat is fat, and "calories from fat" has been removed. Potassium need has been added. (You can't get enough by eating a banana, which most of the audience believed).

The public health concern about sun damage and advertising about sunscreen has been so successful, we now don't get enough Vit. D and today's children don't play outside as much as the boomers and Gen-Xers. She gave the new thinking on sodium/salt--because more of us are eating out, we're not eating as many vegetables--and it's not the sodium, it's the lack of vegetables.  One woman (very thin) in the audience commented about addiction to sugar, and Wendy said that has not been proven and commented on the difficulty of using control groups for nutrition studies.  But one she did recall concluded sugar was less harmful than other sweeteners.

I know how we all love to read those organic and health food websites, but when doing an initial search, I add USDA or FDA to check the research, aka bibliography/footnotes.

Orange peel nutrition

It’s not a scientific study, but since I’ve been preparing orange peel for eating (about 2 years), I haven’t had any sore throats or colds.  The peel is more nutritious than the fruit, but I enjoy the orange, too.  I haven’t been able to find any information on how cooking the peel degrades the nutritional value.  On the other hand, I assume any testing was done on cooked peel.  Using the peel of one orange (in sections) I heat it in a cup in the microwave, change the water, and repeat about 3 times. I cut each section into small strips.  Then I soak it over night in sugar water, drain, and sprinkle with sugar and refrigerate.  It’s not like orange peel candy, much softer and still slightly bitter.  However, I don’t eat much at one time.  Maybe one small strip a day.

Fruits and Vegetables—five servings a day

“Dietary guidelines of 5 servings per day of fruits and vegetables (FV) offer a reasonable amount of vitamins to control organic processes, which may contribute to a favorable cardiometabolic profile.”

It seems I’ve heard that recommendation most of my life—that and “eat all the colors.”  So I tested myself this morning on yesterday’s meals—because that’s about as far back as I can remember.

Breakfast:  one orange, a handful of raw carrots and almonds (2)

Lunch: a sandwich on whole wheat bread with sliced ham and cheese, included a few slices of onion, and some dark leaf lettuce (it’s stretching the definition to call this two servings—more like 2 tastes)

I had a few pieces of dark chocolate left from Valentine’s Day, but chocolate is not a vegetable. Slice of raw cabbage. (1)

Supper: 2 helpings of butternut squash, “unstuffed cabbage” casserole containing tomatoes, cabbage and ground beef, cream pie with crushed pineapple  (5)

So, it’s not difficult, even with eliminating the poor showing at lunch, I had eight servings of fruits and vegetables combined, but for each 5  vegetable, and 3 for fruit. With just a little more effort at lunch, I could have had 5 FV each.

“Pro-vitamin A carotenoids and vitamins C and E, present in FV, are essential for proper physiological functioning. The importance of vitamin E for maintaining oxidative-antioxidant balance is widely recognized [8,9], but this must be accompanied by vitamin C in order to enhance antioxidant protection [8-10]. Pro-vitamin A carotenoids are present in brightly colored FV; such micronutrients modulate immune system and exert a protective action by reducing LDL-cholesterol oxidation via induction of antioxidant enzymes [10,11]. “  “Association of fruits and vegetables consumption and related-vitamins with inflammatory and oxidative stress markers in prediabetic individuals,” Diabetol Metab Syndr. 2014; 6: 22.

Vegetables high in Vitamin A

Vitamin A is a broad group of related nutrients. Each of these nutrients provides us with health benefits, but these benefits may be quite different and they may be provided in different ways.

I love all of these vegetables. Help with all this. . .

• Vision
• Immune system
• Inflammatory system
• Growth
• Reproduction

Read more here.

"Vitamin A in Reproduction and Development," Nutrients. 2011 April; 3(4): 385–428. This article although difficult, provides amazing information and references.

2298 I love this gal's name

Tara Parker Pope, the medical/science columnist, had an extensive article in the Wall Street Journal today about the mixed reviews and studies on vitamins--ran through the whole list of maybes, probably nots and NoNo's. Studies are suggesting that these mega doses some are taking may be doing more harm than good. If you eat all the colors, you’ll get most of all you need, or maybe a multi-vitamin. Some disease problems that are helped by A or C, cause other problems by encouraging other conditions like heart or cancer. $7 billion a year business. WSJ is usually a pro-business paper, but when the women write the stories, they often have a very skeptical slant. I love her name. Have written a poem about her.

Tara Parker Pope--
such a lovely name;
sing it, play it,
hang it on a rope.

Tara Parker Pope,
she of Wall Street fame;
read her, write her,
She will help you cope.