Vitaminwater Ingredients: 27 Grams of Fructose With Vitamins on Top

Last reviewed: October 2026. Reflects the U.S. label on Vitaminwater Power-C Dragonfruit, 20 fl oz bottle (©2025 label), photographed in store. Other flavors use the same base with different vitamins, flavors, and colors; the “energy” flavors add caffeine. Vitaminwater Zero Sugar is covered below.

Vitaminwater is the drink that made “nutrient enhanced water beverage” a category, and it’s built on a simple trade: a bottle of water, 27 grams of sugar, and a few cents’ worth of vitamins most people already get. The sugar is crystalline fructose — nearly pure fructose, the half of table sugar people worry about most. The label lists “electrolytes” and has 0 mg of sodium. The dragonfruit on the front isn’t in the bottle. And when consumer advocates sued over the health marketing, Coca-Cola’s defense was that no reasonable consumer could think Vitaminwater was a healthy beverage. Here’s every Vitaminwater ingredients, what each one does, and how it stacks up against the drinks it sits next to.

Quick answer: what’s in Vitaminwater?

The full Vitaminwater ingredients list

Three things to notice. After the water, there are only two ingredients in meaningful amounts — water and crystalline fructose — and everything else together is under half a percent of the bottle. That under-0.5% group includes the “electrolytes,” which is why the panel shows 0 mg of sodium and marks potassium and magnesium as not significant. And there’s no dragonfruit: the flavor is “natural flavors,” and the pink color is “vegetable juices,” which is a small credit — no Red 40 — and a reminder that the fruit on the label is a flavor name, not an ingredient.

Vitaminwater ingredients explained

Reverse osmosis water Fine

Filtered water, the same base used in most bottled drinks. “Reverse osmosis” sounds technical but just means purified.

Crystalline fructose Flagged: 27 g

The defining ingredient. Crystalline fructose is fructose purified and crystallized, at least 98% fructose — compare table sugar, which is 50% fructose and 50% glucose, and high fructose corn syrup, which is 42 or 55% fructose. Fructose tastes sweeter than sucrose, so less of it is needed for the same sweetness, which is part of how Vitaminwater gets to 27 g instead of a soda’s 39 g a can. Fructose also barely raises blood glucose directly, which lets drinks built on it advertise a lower glycemic impact. The catch is where it goes instead: fructose is metabolized mainly in the liver, and in controlled feeding studies, high intakes of fructose in drinks raise liver fat and triglycerides more than the same calories of glucose. At 27 g in one bottle, the practical health story is the same as for any sugary drink — daily intake is linked to weight gain and type 2 diabetes — with the liver piece weighted a little more heavily.

Vitamins C, B5, B6, and B12 Mostly surplus

The selling point. One bottle delivers 200% of the daily value for vitamin C and 100% for B6, B12, and pantothenic acid. They’re real, they’re absorbed, and they’re also water-soluble: whatever your body doesn’t need is excreted. Deficiencies in these vitamins are uncommon in people eating a normal diet (B12 is the exception for some older adults and vegans), so for most drinkers the vitamins add nothing they weren’t already getting. The FDA’s fortification policy has long discouraged adding vitamins to sugary drinks and snacks for exactly this reason — it puts a health halo on a sugar drink. That policy was central to the lawsuit below.

Electrolytes (calcium and magnesium lactates, potassium phosphate) Flagged: label vs. dose

“Electrolytes” is on the label and the bottle has 0 mg of sodium — the electrolyte that matters most for hydration and the one lost in sweat. Potassium and magnesium are marked as not significant sources, and calcium doesn’t even make the panel. These minerals are present in flavor-and-mouthfeel amounts, not hydration amounts. For comparison, a 20 oz Gatorade has 270 mg of sodium. If you need to replace sweat, Vitaminwater isn’t built for it; our sports drinks comparison sorts the ones that are.

Taurine Undisclosed dose

The same amino acid found in energy drinks, here in an undisclosed small amount. It isn’t a stimulant and has a good safety record; in this bottle it’s more marketing than function. Our taurine explainer covers what it does and doesn’t do.

Zinc gluconate Fine

25% of the daily value for zinc, a mineral involved in immune function — which is why it’s in a flavor called “Power-C.” Zinc deficiency is uncommon in the U.S.; this dose is safe and modest.

Chromium polynicotinate Marketing

25% of the daily value for chromium, a trace mineral sold as a supplement for blood-sugar control. The evidence that chromium supplements meaningfully improve blood sugar in people who aren’t deficient is weak, and there’s an obvious irony in adding it to a drink with 27 g of sugar. Safe at this dose; not doing much.

Cane sugar Trace

A second sugar, but listed in the under-0.5% group, so it’s a small amount used to round out the taste. Nearly all of the 27 g is the fructose.

Citric acid Fine

Tartness and a mild preservative. Combined with sugar and sipped over time, it’s part of why sweetened drinks are hard on teeth.

Natural flavors Undisclosed

The “dragonfruit.” Flavor compounds from natural sources, not fruit juice; the bottle has none.

Vegetable juices (for color) No dyes

The pink comes from vegetable juice concentrates, not synthetic dyes like Red 40 — a genuine credit, and better than most red and pink drinks in the cooler, including several sports drinks. Our synthetic dyes breakdown explains why that matters most for kids.

The “healthy” lawsuit and Coca-Cola’s defense

Coca-Cola bought Glacéau, Vitaminwater’s maker, in 2007. In 2009, the Center for Science in the Public Interest sued, arguing that names like “defense” and “revive,” slogans like “vitamins + water = all you need,” and claims about immunity and eye health marketed a sugar drink as a healthy alternative to soda. Coca-Cola’s motion to dismiss argued that no consumer could reasonably be misled into thinking Vitaminwater was a healthy beverage. In 2010 a federal judge in Brooklyn denied the motion, writing that the product names and label language could reinforce a consumer’s mistaken belief that the drink was made of only vitamins and water.

Copycat suits followed in several states, and in 2014 Coca-Cola agreed to settle them for $1.2 million in attorneys’ fees, with no refunds to buyers. Consumer groups objected that the deal only barred statements the company had already stopped using and still allowed the “nutrient enhanced water beverage” tagline, the health-sounding flavor names, and fruit names on bottles with little or no juice. Twelve years later, the bottle photographed for this post still says “nutrient enhanced water beverage” and “power-c,” and still has no dragonfruit in it. The case didn’t change what’s in the bottle; it’s mainly a useful reminder of how the company itself described the product in court.

Vitaminwater nutrition facts

On sugar, Vitaminwater sits in the middle: less than Gatorade or soda, about the same as BodyArmor. On hydration, it’s last — no sodium and negligible potassium. Gatorade and BodyArmor figures are from the bottles photographed for our posts on each; Coca-Cola from its 20 oz label.

Vitaminwater vs. Gatorade: which is better?

They’re built for different jobs, and neither is a daily drink. Gatorade is an exercise drink: 270 mg of sodium and fast sugar, formulated to replace sweat losses during long, hard activity, with a synthetic dye in many flavors. Vitaminwater is a flavored sugar water with vitamins: less sugar and no dye, but no sodium, so it does nothing Gatorade does during exercise. If you’re sweating for over an hour, Gatorade is the more useful bottle. If you’re at a desk, both are sugar drinks, and Vitaminwater is the smaller dose. Our Gatorade breakdown has the electrolyte math.

Vitaminwater Zero Sugar

The zero-sugar line replaces the fructose with erythritol, a sugar alcohol, and stevia leaf extract, keeping the vitamins and dropping the calories to zero. That removes the main problem. Erythritol is well tolerated by most people, though large amounts can cause bloating, and a 2023 observational study from the Cleveland Clinic linked higher blood erythritol levels to cardiovascular events, a finding that hasn’t been confirmed by trials and is still being studied. Stevia is a plant-derived, non-caloric sweetener with a good safety record. If you like the taste of Vitaminwater, Zero Sugar is the clearly better bottle; whether you need the vitamins at all is the same question either way.

Is Vitaminwater healthy?

The concerns, ranked by evidence:

1. Sugar. 27 g of added sugar, almost all fructose, in a drink positioned as water. Daily sugary-drink intake is the clearest long-term harm.
2. The health halo. The name, vitamins, and “electrolytes” lead people to drink it instead of water, often daily — which is the habit the sugar research is about.
3. Not a hydration drink. No sodium; not useful for replacing sweat losses.
4. Teeth. Sugar plus citric acid, sipped over time.
5. Everything else. The vitamins, minerals, taurine, and vegetable-juice color are safe at these doses — and mostly unnecessary.

Vitaminwater for kids, pregnancy, and diabetes

Kids: 27 g of added sugar is more than the American Heart Association’s recommended daily maximum of 25 g for children, in one bottle. The vitamins don’t change that. Water or milk is the better default.

Pregnancy: the regular flavors like this one have no caffeine, but the “energy” flavors do, so check the bottle. Vitamin doses are within normal ranges, but a prenatal vitamin already covers them.

Diabetes: fructose raises blood glucose less directly than glucose, but 27 g of sugar still counts as 27 g of carbohydrate. The chromium on the label isn’t a reason to choose it. Zero Sugar is the version that fits.

Cleaner alternatives

For the flavor without the sugar: Vitaminwater Zero Sugar, or plain sparkling water with citrus. For vitamins: food, or a multivitamin if you have a real gap, either of which costs less per dose than a bottle of sugar water. For hydration during exercise: a drink with real sodium, like Gatorade or Liquid I.V. when you actually need it. For everyday thirst: water, which is what the “water” in Vitaminwater already is.

This article is for informational purposes and is not medical advice. Talk to a doctor or registered dietitian about your individual nutrition needs.