MiO is a flavor enhancer that’s added to water to improve its taste. The brand proudly advertises that their products have "bold taste" while containing zero sugar and zero calories.
But what’s actually in MiO? Are there any unhealthy flavoring ingredients? How do the ingredients in MiO Energy compare to the ingredients in MiO Original? And how does MiO compare to other popular flavoring products like Cirkul in terms of healthiness?
In this article we’ll answer all of these questions and more, as we analyze the ingredients in MiO Original and MiO Energy to give our take on whether or not they're bad for you.
We'll also compare MiO to other popular water flavoring enhancers to pick our winners (and losers) in terms of healthiness.
Key takeaways:
- Contains many inactive ingredients we consider unhealthy
- MiO Energy is also unhealthy in our view
- We consider MiO to be bad for you
MiO Original Analysis
The ingredients in the Lemonade flavor of MiO Original are shown below:
image source: https://www.kraftheinz.com/mio/products
There are a number of ingredients that we consider to be unhealthy.
Citric acid is a flavor enhancer that’s been documented in a series of medical case reports to cause whole-body inflammation in some individuals.
Sucralose is an artificial sweetener that was shown in a 2018 clinical trial to cause negative changes to insulin sensitivity in healthy young adults, even at only 15% of the acceptable daily intake (ADI) level.
Healthy insulin function is necessary for prevention of type 2 diabetes.
Natural flavor is a broad term that could refer to any number of chemical compounds.
As we referenced in our article examining is Body Armor good for you, there exists medical research suggesting that some natural flavoring compounds are unhealthy.
Sodium benzoate is a preservative that was shown in an animal study to negatively impact memory and coordination.
Potassium sorbate and sucrose acetate isobutyrate are two other preservatives in this flavor enhancer.
Yellow 5 is an artificial food dye that was shown in a meta-study published in the International Journal of Occupational Medicine and Environmental Health to be contaminated with carcinogens (cancer-causing chemicals) in some cases.
Overall, we consider MiO Original to be bad for you, because it contains seven ingredients we recommend avoiding.
MiO Energy Analysis
The ingredients in the Black Cherry flavor of MiO Energy are shown below:
image source: https://www.kraftheinz.com/mio/products
This formulation is similar to MiO Original, and contains ingredients we already reviewed in the previous section and consider unhealthy: citric acid, natural flavor, sucralose, sucrose acetate isobutyrate, and potassium sorbate.
Red 40 and Blue 1 are artificial food dyes.
Red 40 was shown to be contaminated with carcinogens and Blue 1 was shown to cause hypersensitivity reactions according to the medical review on food dyes we cited in the previous section of this article.
Acesulfame potassium is an artificial sweetener that’s been shown to cause negative changes to brain and gut function in animal studies, as we documented in our recent Prime hydration drink review.
Vitamin B3 and vitamin B6 are part of a vitamin blend in MiO Energy.
We have not come across any medical evidence that supplemental vitamins improve energy in otherwise healthy individuals.
Overall, we consider MiO Energy to be unhealthy due to its additive ingredients.
MiO vs. Popular Flavoring Products
Here's how MiO compares to other popular water flavoring products in terms of healthiness, in our opinion:
Vitapod
Contains a sugar alcohol which is clinically shown to be associated with significantly increased stroke risk in some individuals.
This ingredient is more of an acute health risk than anything in MiO in our view, so we consider MiO to be the safer choice.
Winner: MiO
Cirkul
Cirkul flavors contain some ingredients we consider unhealthy, like citric acid and artificial sweetener.
However, the flavors we analyzed in the above-linked review did not contain synthetic dyes.
We consider Cirkul to be a healthier choice for that reason.
Winner: Cirkul
Skinny Mixes
This brand is even less healthy than MiO.
It contains essentially all of the same ingredients we highlighted in our Ingredient Analysis above, but also contains artificial flavors.
We give MiO the advantage because the products we analyzed were free of artificial flavors.
Winner: MiO
