There is a long history of companies adding things to coffee in an attempt to make their product stand out from the rest. type “coffee with added…” into a search engine and you’ll find all sorts of amazing extras.
there is coffee with fats like butter or coconut oil. then there are flavor enhancers like vanilla extract, cinnamon or cocoa. you’ll even find people who recommend adding salt (look it up, honestly, it’s real!).
Reading: Vita cup coffee reviews
so maybe it was only a matter of time before someone decided to add vitamins to their morning cup of joe. and here is our vitacup review for you.
the vitacup review: quick response
the vitacup will come in handy if you don’t get enough sun. and, if you do not follow a balanced diet, or are vegan, vitacup could provide you with additional vitamin b. other than that, vitacup is just regular coffee for you.
Do you want the details? let me explain!
the story of vitacup
vitacup was launched in 2017 and the idea behind it is simple. Many people, the press release states, have some type of vitamin deficiency, and many of them drink coffee regularly. Put those two things together, and there’s an obvious health benefit to infusing coffee with vitamins.
company founder brandon fishman, based in san diego, has his own health story to tell. he had found himself without energy, unable to complete a “normal workout”. Added to that, he had frequent colds and suffered hangovers after just one or two alcoholic drinks.
fishman sought medical attention and blood tests showed that he was deficient in vitamins b6 and b12. she took supplements and the problems disappeared. it was this experience, he says, that inspired him to create vitacup (1).
what is vitacup & ingredients
vitacup launched three products: a French roast and French vanilla coffee and a green tea. since then, the company has expanded its offerings with a decaffeinated coffee and three other coffee blends.
all take the form of capsules. They are compatible with a range of Keurig and Mr. coffee, icoffee and hamilton beach one-cup machines.
And then there are the added vitamins. there are six different types added to the drinks. Five of them are B vitamins: B1, B5, B6, B9, and B12. then there’s vitamin d6 and antioxidants.
some of the products have other extras. green tea has added matcha and moringa, while the genius blend has medium chain triglycerides, turmeric, and cinnamon.
1. ingredients of the genius vanilla coffee capsules
2. focus coffee capsules ingredients
3. ingredients of the thin coffee bags
does the vitacup really work?
vitacup is not a cheap product. You can expect to pay about the same price for 16 pods as you would for a standard 40 K-Cups. So is it worth all those extra vitamins?
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Well, there are certainly many customers who say they are. but let’s take a closer look at those claims.
do you need extra vitamins?
There’s a multi-billion dollar vitamin supplement industry that wants you to believe the answer to this is “yes.” the truth, however, is not that simple.
For most people, a balanced diet will provide all the vitamins they need. And if you do have a deficiency, the best way to address it is to choose foods rich in the right vitamins. those are very often particular vegetables or fruits, and will provide you with other health benefits at the same time (2).
However, some vitamins are a bit more complicated.
vitamin d is one of them. it is more difficult to obtain through food than other types of vitamins. your body makes it when you’re exposed to sunlight, and as long as you get enough sun, you’ll be fine.
But if you’re in an area that doesn’t get much sun or you can’t get out often, supplements will help. It can also be harder for people with darker skin to get enough vitamin d.
In the UK, the National Health Service recommends that everyone take a vitamin D supplement between October and May, when there is less sunshine (3).
vitamin d3, the one in vitacup, is the same form of vitamin d that your body makes from sunlight. As such, it is the one recommended by nutritionists and gives VitaCup a boost over other supplements that use D2(4).
another of the vitamins in vitacup, b9 -also known as folic acid- is recommended as a supplement for pregnant women.
can help prevent diseases such as spina bifida in babies. the nhs recommends supplements for women trying to get pregnant and up to the twelfth week of pregnancy.
So the answer to whether vitamin supplements are beneficial is “sometimes, for some groups.””
what about the vitamins in vitacup?
we have seen that it is sometimes necessary to supplement even a balanced diet with additional vitamin d and b9. vitacup has both vitamins and more. And couldn’t your daily cup of coffee be part of that “balanced diet” anyway?
To answer that question, we need to look at another topic: how many of those vitamins should you be consuming?
vitacup product labels list the amounts of each vitamin in each cup, as required by regulations. that makes it easy to compare those amounts to the “daily value.” this is a guide to the recommended amount to consume each day (5).
a quick look at the label reveals big differences between the vitamins in a single cup of vitacup. in some cases, a cup contains many more vitamins than the daily value, and in one case it is less.
vitamin b9 or folic acid
We have already talked about vitamin B9 or folic acid. vitacup has the lowest daily value ratio here at 25%. and it is important to remember that the daily value, in this case, is general. women hoping to become pregnant should aim to consume up to twice that amount of folic acid.
Therefore, vitacup will not be a good folic acid supplement for women who are pregnant or trying to have a baby. they would have to drink up to eight cups of coffee to reach their daily value. Even with decaf, that means drinking a lot of caffeine, with its less positive effects, along with the vitamins!
vitamin b12
At the other end of the spectrum, a single cup of VitaCup provides forty times the amount of Vitamin B12 as the Daily Value. is that good or bad?
in the case of vitamin b12, neither is it. It’s not considered toxic, so there’s no upper limit on the amount you can take. but taking that much won’t do you any good either.
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That’s because your body can only absorb a small amount of the vitamin, about 10 micrograms a day. more than that is simply removed from your system (6).
if you’re already getting the amount of b12 you need from your daily diet, the extra vitacup will literally go overboard. however, if you are vegan, the vitacup could help you. meat, fish, and dairy products are particularly good sources of this vitamin.
the other b vitamins in vitacup (b1, b5 and b6) range from 100-300% of the daily value.
vitamin b1
There is 300% of the daily value of vitamin b1, also known as thiamin, in one cup of vitacup. Thiamine is water soluble, so if you take too much of it, it will be excreted in your urine. still, some side effects of excessive consumption have been reported, including stomach upset and skin irritation.
Interestingly, coffee can reduce the amount of thiamin in the body (7). what the vitacup label doesn’t say is how the thiamin will interact with the coffee it’s been added to.
vitamin b5
for vitamin b5, one cup of vitacup will give you exactly the daily value of 10 milligrams. like thiamin, it is soluble in water, so more than that should simply pass into the urine.
However, doses as low as 10 to 20 milligrams per day have been reported to cause side effects in some people. these include gastric problems such as diarrhea and nausea.
The evidence here is incomplete, so don’t be alarmed. but if you are taking vitamin b5 supplements, whether in vitacup or any other product, try cutting them out if you have an upset stomach.
vitamin b6
now we come to vitamin b6, where each cup of vitacup will give you 5 milligrams. that’s 250% of the daily value. and this is a vitamin where overdoing things can lead to more serious problems.
High doses of vitamin B6 can cause a condition called peripheral neuropathy. this is where you lose feeling in your arms and legs. the uk department of health suggests this is related to doses of 200mg a day taken over a long period of time.
You’d have to drink a lot of vitacup to get to these kinds of levels! Even so, it is recommended not to consume more than 10 mg of vitamin B6 per day. that’s just two cups of vitacup, assuming no other vitamin b6 is in your diet.
so what’s the verdict?
Overall, then, the vitamins in vitacup are a mixed bag.
Vitamin D will be helpful if you don’t get enough sunlight.
if you eat a balanced diet, you’ll probably still get the b vitamins you need. in most cases, any extras will simply be flushed out of your body unused. however, the extra vitamin b12 can help if you are vegan.
if you are in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy or expecting to become pregnant, vitacup is not a great folic acid supplement. you’ll need to drink many cups to get your daily recommended amount, and that will also mean a lot of caffeine.
and be careful with vitamin b6. just two cups of vitacup a day will mean your intake is above recommended levels.
oh, and those antioxidants are in tea and coffee anyway. so it doesn’t make sense to pay more for vitacup.
conclusion
A lot of people seem to love the flavors of vitacup coffee, and that’s great. drink it if you like the taste and don’t mind paying more for it than other k-cups.
if you are vegan or sun deprived, vitamin d and b12 can be beneficial. but don’t drink too much! even two cups of vitacup a day start to increase vitamin b6 levels, and that has been linked to nerve problems.
And don’t expect to see massive health benefits. if you experience an energy boost, it’s probably just the caffeine.
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