WATER GONE BAD

There has been some discussion regarding the use of Vitaminwater at NCAA sponsored Championship events. The concern is that some of the products in this line contain substances that appear on the NCAA banned substance list or are considered non-permissible substances.

What is Vitaminwater?

Vitaminwater is an electrolyte and nutrient enhanced water.

Every bottle of Vitaminwater has at a minimum:

· 25% of four b vitamins

· 100% of vitamin c for most products

· calcium, magnesium and potassium electrolytes

· 32 g of sugar

The NCAA has reviewed the list of ingredients on the bottle labels per NCAA Bylaw 16.5.2.g and found that NCAA institutions may provide the following nine Vitaminwater products to their student-athletes:

· Revive – fruit punch

· Essential – orange-orange

· XXX – acai, blueberry, pomegranate

· Focus – kiwi strawberry

· Formula 50 – grape

· Multi-v – lemonade

· Charge – lemon-line

· Endurance – peach-mango

· Defense – raspberry-apple

What ingredients are not allowed per NCAA Bylaw 16.5.2.g and might be found in Vitaminwater varieties?

Taurine, L-theanine, green tea extract, or glucosamine.

What NCAA banned substances might be found in Vitaminwater varieties?

Caffeine or guarana seed extract.

The NCAA bans caffeine because it is found to be a performance enhancer, and because of concern about the effects of stimulant use during intense exercise. Caffeine will produce an NCAA positive drug test if amounts exceed 15 micrograms/mL in the urine sample collected.

Which Vitaminwater products contain impermissible or banned substances?

At this time, Vitaminwater has six products that are not allowed and contain banned substances. Those products are Power-C, Energy, B-Relaxed, Rescue, Vital-T and Balance.

Power-C (Drangonfruit) Impermissible Substance is Taurine

b-Relaxed (Jackfruit-Guava) Impermissible Substance is L-Theanine

Vital-T (Lemon tea-Rooibos) Impermissible Substance is Rooibos Tea Extract

Balance (Cran-Grapefruit) Impermissible Substance is Glucosamine

Energy (Tropical Fruit) Banned Substances are Caffeine and Guarana Seed Extract

Rescue (Green Tea) Banned Substance is Caffeine

Information provided by Mary Wilfert on behalf of the NCAA.

(thanks LSU Training Staff)