15 Fake-Healthy Consumer Products

From bottled water to anti-bacterial soaps, don’t fall for “health” products that aren’t especially good for you.

Who doesn’t love Life Savers, those hard candies shaped like the rings that cradled us as children learning to swim? That comforting message — sweet and safe — is the secret of many consumer products.

Too bad the message is a lie.

As we all know, sugar is shortening lives, not saving them, but somehow that’s not how it feels. Americans are running enormous health risks that worry us, though not quite enough to change our ways, and marketers tap into that worry when they sell products touted as a solution.

We’ve gathered just fifteen of many seemingly health-enhancing products you might as well skip.

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1. Bottled water

When you know that you need more sleep, exercise, and salad, you’re tempted to buy a bottled water with a label that summons up an enchanted land of health. But there’s no evidence that bottled water is better for you than American tap water, which is also filtered for contaminants and must meet regulatory standards.

It's possible that drinking water from plastic bottles poses its own risk.

If you opt for flavored water, you’ll also have to watch out for sugar generally in the form of corn syrup.  

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