The amount of money spent on sparkling water in America is billions upon billions of dollars, of which it is believed that the main reason why so much money is spent on sparkling water is that water is good for you. In fact, water is very good for the body, though, regrettably, not everything that is labeled as water is truly water. That is to say, a significant portion of flavored sparkling waters use artificial sweeteners such as stevia, aspartame, and sucralose that thereby makes these waters to have a very sweet taste, and though these artificial sweeteners have barely any calories at all, they are not good for the body, and are especially problematic for those that believe that what they are drinking is pure water when it is not.
It doesn’t seem right that artificially sweetened water is on the same shelf as regular water, along with water that is “naturally” flavored, because these “waters” are not all the same thing. In reality, artificially sweetened water shouldn’t be considered to be water, but should be seen as water that has been artificially sweetened to give those who crave a sweet taste, that very taste, though in doing so, they have taken the goodness of water and corrupted it.
For a certainty, many people want to drink what is good for their body, and they know that water is one of those things that is good, so that when they mistakenly believe that artificially sweetened water is the same as pure water, they have been fooled, which is quite unfortunate, and is the reason why artificially sweetened water should be clearly labeled as something other than water, or should simply be placed on shelves that contain soda, which it has a lot in common with. To do anything less than that does a disservice to the consumer, because many a consumer is easily fooled, or allows themselves to be fooled, or simply do not have the knowledge to know when they are being fooled.
It isn’t so much that artificially sweetened water should be banned, it just needs to be clearly identified so that people that buy and consume it, recognize that its sweet taste comes from that water being artificially sweetened, which is not something that is going to be healthy for the body over the long term. That is to say, to believe that artificial sweeteners can give a person who craves a sweet taste, that very taste, without some price being extracted for the tricks so done to keep that sweetness without the calories, misunderstands the bargain that they have made.
It is one thing for a manufacturer to desire to give the consumer a sweet or flavored taste, but it should be done, when the product is water, in a way and manner that the value and goodness of water is not compromised, because when that occurs, many a consumer of the product believes that they are consuming a product that is good for their body, when in reality, they really are not.