Soft drink companies try many ploys to get us to believe that the sugar-laden, artificially coloured beverages they're pilfering are actually good for us. In fact, processed food companies collectively spend approximately $40 billion per year on food product advertising, drilling into us the idea that sports drinks are "better than water" at hydrating after a workout, for example.

It seems the latest means to get us to drink their sparkly, pretty-coloured drinks is the additions of vitamins. Combine the buzz word "vitamin" with the word thought of as the most natural hydrator "water" and you've got yourself a piece of marketing genius designed to make you think of these cocktails as the perfect health tonic. Vitamin water has been all the rage these last few years, but to me this represents the ultimate in deception.

My main problem with these drinks is that they are using vitamins and minerals as an irresponsible marketing gimmick, leading consumers to believe these drinks are a valid source of nutrition and not simply a soft drink with a twist. People do need these vitamins, but the best source of them is from real food, together with all their myriad constituents that help the vitamins to be absorbed and work properly in the body. These drinks provide fractionated vitamin extracts, not present in their natural state with all the natural catalysts and symbiotic phytonutrients usually present in nature. It is often the synergistic effect of all these constituents of a whole food that nourish on the body, not the isolated nutrients themselves.

Many argue there is a time and place for vitamin water and that is during or immediately following an intense workout when the body needs a quick replacement for lost vitamins, electrolytes and water. I will concede that this may be an excusable use for the beverage, although I would still argue there are alternatives that don't contain the sugar or "natural flavours" and can deliver the vitamins in their more natural form.

And, although some will argue that sugar is a necessary ingredient for the quick energy desirable for athletes, as Dr. Mercola says, "Sugar acts like an H-bomb on your system. There's a quick explosion of energy followed by a plummeting disaster, as your pancreas and other glands do all they can to balance out the toxic stimulation to blood sugar." Mercola also points out that less than one percent of those using these sports drinks actually need them for athletics.

I recommend getting your vitamins from whole foods like fruits, vegetables, grains, legumes and yes, even meats. It seems silly to try to get nutrition from a soft drink company. If you need additional vitamins, then take a real supplement; (preferably one that has come from a reputable company backed by real research, not discount vitamins from giant chain stores - not all vitamin supplements are created equal).

Try beet kvass, green drinks, homemade orangina or ginger ale to replenish vitamins and quench thirst. These drinks contain vitamins from whole foods in their whole form and provide a host of mineral electrolytes instead of just calcium, potassium and magnesium like vitamin waters and sports drinks. You could also try my recipe for a homemade sports drink. Or try adding a pinch of unrefined sea salt to reverse osmosis or distilled water to add in electrolytes and 92 different trace minerals. There are many options out there, don't let food advertising lead you to believe otherwise.

The Healthy Foodie is Doug DiPasquale, Holistic Nutritionist and trained chef, living in Toronto. You can email him with questions at dugdeep@gmail.com. And if you want to know just how Doug keeps so darn healthy and fit, click here.