I was reading this afternoon about fortified water. You know, the bottles you see in the convenience store that look like water but then have added vitamins. I'll admit--they are pretty to look at and pretty compelling to buy, especially if you are trying to assuage your guilt that you already have a bag of chips in your other hand.
Here's the deal: isolated vitamins may or may not be absorbed in your body because they aren't accompanied by the phytonutrients found in food containing these same vitamins. Further, the vitamins the water contains could actually cause toxicity in your body if you have already eaten foods high in the vitamins cited on the label, or if you are dehydrated enough that there is a higher concentration of these vitamins present in the body, anyway.
But Carolyn, I hear Brian, the smiley face finger puppet on the top of my computer, say, I think you're forgetting that every day we need to get at least an ounce of liquid for every pound of weight we carry. How can that be bad if that's coupled with the fact that I haven't eaten well that day, anyway?
Okay. Anything worth doing is worth doing poorly, if not well. But keep it in the back of your mind, please?