This Now Exists: Fat-Infused Water

In southern California, bottled water mixed with coconut oil goes for $3.95
By Elizabeth Armstrong Moore,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 20, 2015 7:31 AM CDT
Updated Aug 23, 2015 9:50 AM CDT
'Fat' Water May Come to a Health Store Near You
FATwater comes in flavors like berry and lemon.   (FATwater)

Remember that guy who started the Bulletproof Coffee fad, where people add butter and oil to their cups of joe in the hopes of losing weight? Well he's at it again, this time with what the Silicon Valley techie calls "a disruptive technology for beverages," reports the New York Daily News. It's called FATwater, and creator Dave Asprey swears it's better than real water because it is infused with tiny droplets of fat extracted from coconut oil (he's patented this) that improve both hydration and fat burning. The cloud computing pioneer calls it "biohacking," or "taking control of the environment around you so you have control of your biology," he says. "You are less stressed and recover better and are a nicer person. I am making it easier for people to make those little changes and feel good all the time."

Not so fast, say the experts. "It is just getting crazier and crazier," one nutritionist says. "If you’re thirsty, drink water; if you’re hungry, eat food," Dr. Marie-Pierre St-Onge, who researches medium chain triglycerides (MCTs) at Columbia University’s Institute of Human Nutrition, tells Time. Asprey himself concedes that there isn't much research in this area, but he says he's got plenty of anecdotal evidence that because MCTs are digested differently than other fats, you do "get a little bump of energy." But St-Onge says he's actually got it backward because they're just burned off. "It's not useful energy." She adds that the 2 grams of fat in a bottle isn't close to enough to improve fat-burning. Meanwhile taste testers at both the Daily News and Time were unimpressed, describing the water as tasting like "lotion," "sweetened room water" that's gotten dusty from sitting around, and "liquid soap." FATwater is currently being sold in Santa Monica and Los Angeles. (Even asparagus water was a thing this summer.)

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