Lutein

They say that education continues throughout your life and I have to agree. I found another almost empty bottle of 'GLACEAU vitamin water' last week, this time in J.A.C. Russell Park next to the Puffing Billy station. The dregs in the bottle were the same syrupy pink colour and had the same fruity odour reminiscent of bubblegum and lollies in my childhood. Into my backpack it went for a closer look another day when I could sit quietly and think.

Here I am, some days later. This bottle contained a different variety of 'nutrient enhanced water beverage'. It says 'focus', then underneath, 'kiwi-strawberry (c+b+lutein)'. Underneath this is more amazing text, worth recording here in case you have not yet come across this product -

"now that everyone is glued to their mobile phones, no one really pays attention to what's going on around them. with all that walking and talking, you never know what you could be missing: birds chirping, flowers blooming, shoe sales, really good looking people, celebrities without make-up, telephone poles, or piles of poo (and we don't mean winnie). that's why this stuff has lutein - to help keep you focused, so keep your eyes peeled or that smell could be your shoe."

Lutein being another new word for me I went to my Chambers dictionary. No luck, but there is a listing for 'luteinizing hormone', as follows. "a hormone secreted by the pituitary gland in vertebrates, which stimulates ovulation and the formation of the corpus luteum in females, and the secretion of testesterone by the testes in males. (from Latin luteum, eggyolk)". Perhaps I'll need to do more homework to get the full picture, it's a little cloudy for me as yet.

Looking at the nutrition information grid and other small print I see this variety has the same sugar content (5.4 grams per 100ml) as the 'triple-x acai-blueberry-pomegranate' variety and also contains less than 1% juice. Lutein is listed at the bottom of the grid. There are 15.0 ug's in 100ml of product. More homework. I know a mg is a thousandth of a gram, a ug must be smaller again.

You learn every day.