Vitapod Review: Can Wellness Taste Good?

Vitapod Review: Can Wellness Taste Good?


| |
| |

Vitapod is a hydration brand that sells fruit-flavored pods that can be added to water or other liquids. These pods contain electrolytes, vitamins and other nutrients. The brand describes their pods as “transforming your tap water into a great tasting, hydrating and a more complete nutritious drink.”

But is Vitapod actually healthy or are they another overpriced flavor enhancer? Do the pods have any questionable additive ingredients? How do they compare to other popular electrolyte blends? And how do real users rate their taste and effects?

In this article we’ll answer all of these questions and more as we review the ingredients in Vitapods based on medical research to give our take on whether the product is healthy or unhealthy.

We’ll compare Vitapod to two other popular flavor enhancers: MiO and Waterdrop. Finally, we’ll share real, unsponsored user reviews of this product.

Is Vitapod Healthy or Unhealthy?

Vitapod Hydra+ Cotton Candy ingredients

The ingredients shown above are from Vitapod Hydra+ Cotton Candy flavor.

Most of the ingredients are a blend of vitamins and minerals such as magnesium oxide and vitamin A.

We haven’t come across any convincing medical evidence that vitamin and mineral supplementation is beneficial for those without a vitamin or mineral deficiency, and even for consumers who want to supplement with vitamins, this is not a cost-efficient way to do so. 

A typical multivitamin (like Nature Made Men’s Multivitamin on Amazon) costs $0.09 per serving, while Vitapod costs $1.25 per serving.

Steviol glycosides and erythritol are plant-based sweeteners which are healthier alternatives to processed sugar in our opinion. A 2020 medical review documented that erythritol actually has anti-diabetic effects which is the opposite of table sugar.

There are two ingredients in this formulation that we recommend avoiding:

Natural flavor is a broad categorical term that doesn’t describe the specific flavoring agents used. A medical review published in the Environmental Health Perspectives journal found there to be lacking safety data and potential toxicity regarding some natural flavoring agents and their metabolites.

Citric acid is a preservative and flavor enhancer that can cause whole-body inflammatory reactions in a small subset of individuals, as we documented in our review of Cirkul, another flavor enhancer that contains this ingredient.

Overall we don’t recommend Vitapod from a health perspective because of the two questionable additive ingredients, but mostly because we don’t really see the purpose of this product. 

It provides relatively low levels of electrolytes. Vitapod contains 50% of the Daily Value (DV) of magnesium, 4% DV sodium, 4% DV potassium and 2% DV calcium. So elite athletes that need an electrolyte drink would likely use a brand with higher levels of electrolytes.

Vitapod contains some vitamins, but it’s much cheaper to obtain vitamins from a multivitamin supplement.

It’s certainly a healthier option than soda, but from a functional perspective we don’t consider this product to be very well formulated.

Real, Unsponsored Vitapod User Reviews

A TikTok user named Abby gives a product demonstration that shows how to use the Vitapod and includes an unboxing:

@abby_2240 Loving my @Vitapodworld if you love flavored water this is the product for you #vitapod #vitapodworld #waterbottle #flavoredwater #sogood #fyp ♬ original sound - Abby🌻

One of the few video reviews that we could find that’s unsponsored is from a TikTok user named “rue” who claims the pods taste good:

@rue.thewitch @Vitapodworld sponser me ily #whatieatinaday #vegetarian #plantbased ♬ Love You So - The King Khan & BBQ Show

Are Vitapod’s Other Products Better?

Vitapod products image

The product we reviewed in the initial section is from the “Hydra+” line of products. Vitapod also sells pods that they claim to have other functional benefits, as well as a water bottle.

The brand has a “Beauty+” pod that contains collagen, but it may be underdosed at only 500 milligrams (mg). A 2019 medical review on oral collagen supplementation found that it reduced wrinkles, but the lowest dose used in any of the 11 trials examined was 2,500 mg, or 5x the amount in Vitapod Beauty+.

MSM is a chemical compound found in plants and animals that has been shown to be effective for reducing signs of visible skin aging. However, as we documented in our review of another anti-aging supplement called Dermal Repair Complex, the lowest dose we could identify with a proven effect was 1,000 mg, or 4x the amount in Vitapod Beauty+.

We can’t identify any ingredients in this formulation that we would consider likely to have an anti-aging effect at their stated doses.

The “Energy+” pods are likely to be effective for improving energy, because they contain an effective caffeine dose of 200 mg, which is equivalent to around the amount in two cups of coffee. 

We’re unable to identify any other active ingredients in this product that are shown to improve energy levels based on medical research, so this seems to us like a highly cost-inefficient way to boost energy levels at $1.70 per serving, given that caffeine alone can be taken much cheaper.

The water bottle sold by Vitapod, called the Vitapod Go bottle, is made from stainless steel so we have no issues with it from a health perspective. We recommend avoiding plastic bottles, as they’re bad for the environment and plastic chemicals are proven in clinical research to leach into liquids and be consumed.

There are no Vitapod products that we currently recommend.

How does Vitapod Compare to Other Flavor Enhancers?

MiO is one of the most popular flavor enhancers on the market. As we documented in our review of MiO ingredients, it contains a number of questionable additive ingredients such as preservatives, artificial sweeteners and artificial dye.

We consider Vitapod to be significantly healthier than MiO.

Waterdrop is another growing flavor enhancer that brands itself as a healthier alternative to commercial flavor enhancers. We reviewed the ingredients in Waterdrop and found that it has a very similar formulation to Vitapod. It contains added vitamins and minerals, citric acid, and natural colorants from fruits and vegetables.

We consider Waterdrop to be healthier than Vitapod because it’s free of natural flavors.

Our Healthy Hydration Pick

The healthy sports hydration drink we recommend is Once Upon a Coconut Pure Coconut Water.

This product has one single ingredient: coconut water. There are no artificial sweeteners, no added sugars and no preservatives. Coconut water is naturally rich in potassium and vitamin C so it can provide additional nutrition while exercising compared to drinking water alone.

This coconut water brand is also packaged in an aluminum can, which we consider a much healthier option (and better for the environment) than plastic.

Plastic is definitively endocrine-disrupting as documented in medical studies, and avoiding plastic in food packaging as much as possible can benefit health (especially for men, as plasticizing chemicals are estrogenic).

Interested consumers can check out Once Upon a Coconut Pure Coconut Water at this link to the product's Amazon listing.

Stay up-to-date on our research reviews

Conclusion

We don’t currently recommend any Vitapod products and we don’t understand the value proposition of the company.

The relatively small amount of nutrients and electrolytes contained in the pods can be obtained from diet, and we haven’t come across any medical evidence that taking supplemental vitamins and electrolytes is beneficial to human health for those not deficient.

This product is certainly healthier than drinking soda or sports nutrition drinks that are loaded with sugar, but we recommend water or whole food hydration drinks like coconut water.

We consider Vitapod to be healthier than MiO, and less healthy than Waterdrop.

At the time of publishing this article, Vitapod only appears to be available for purchase through the company’s official website, and is not available on other third-party retailers like Amazon or Walmart.




Illuminate Labs is a proud member of

Liquid error (layout/theme line 239): Could not find asset snippets/search-bar.liquid