Mike: I'm here with Seth Bovio of UltimaReplenisher.com, of the Ultima-Health products line. I understand you have a sports drink that's not sweetened with lots of refined sugars.
Bovio: Actually, there are no refined sugars whatsoever, and we keep it natural. The reason we do that is we want to keep the drink from spending time in the stomach. We want it to empty quickly, and be absorbed rapidly, thereby providing the electrolytes so that your blood flow and your oxygen flow is increased.
Mike: The sports drink market is very competitive. There are a lot of products on the market. Those products contain ingredients that are not very impressive to me personally, and probably not impressive to many consumers out there who know what they're talking about. What's better about your product in terms of ingredients?
Bovio: Well, when they chose teams for sports drinks, all the other drinks went to one side of the room, and our drink went to the other side. We stand alone. We're not like the competitors' drinks, which I'm very familiar with. We are not focusing on calorie replacement. We want to minimize calories, spend little time in the stomach, and have a benefit for hydration.
Mike: But you still offer electrolytes, the minerals that people need to replace?
Bovio: Absolutely. The electrolytes can be more readily absorbed because we have less carbohydrates and no sugar. Our drink specifically contains calcium chloride, magnesium, potassium, sodium, selenium, zinc, and phosphorus in ratios that the body can recognize. It's a tremendous difference for how the body feels.
Mike: Some of the popular products also have artificial colors in them. What about your products? What does it have?
Bovio: Well, we were proud to be, we believe, the only true sports drink in whole foods markets in the North Atlantic region, in Boston and New York. They bought us as an alternative to some of the products that contain "Yellow Number 5" and other artificial colors. We use natural colors. In the lemon, we don't use any colors. In the orange, the same thing that gives it the flavor gives it the color -- beta carotene. We use beets in our wild raspberry and passion flavors to gives it a red. It's not necessarily a perfect red, but the kids love it and they can recognize the colors.
Mike: Not the neon red and neon green?
Bovio: No, our colors are bland. Our drink is simple, and it's a harmless drink; but it's not as exciting as some of the other drinks.
Mike: The real athletes out there are looking for real nutrition, and they're not fooled by these gimmicks. A company could go out there and call their food bar a "sports bar," but it's really just a candy bar. And somebody could say they have a "sports drink," but it's really just a sugar drink. In contrast, this looks like real sports nutrition to me.
Bovio: Well, I'm a marathon runner, and I ran the Tucson half marathon in 2002, and won my age group there. I work a lot with some of the elite runners in America, and Greta Waitz is somebody that’s on our home page, who recommends Ultima. More recently, Colleen DeReuck, who won the Olympic trials last year, has been using Ultima for the last five years and is a personal friend of mine. She's somebody that believes in our products. We're in dugouts; we're on the sidelines. We exist, but we don't have the money to put our logo on coolers on the sidelines or in the dugouts.
Mike: Right, you may never have the big funds that Gatorade has, or some of the other big companies right there on the baseball field. Now, where can people buy this product today?
Bovio: In New England, we're everywhere. We're in Westerley Market, Wilderness Market, Whole Foods Market, all the running specialty stores, and most of the bike shops. In the rest of the country, we're gaining distribution. We're in Mother's Markets here in Orange County or LA County. We're in Central Markets in Austin Texas, in Mustard Seed Market and Cafe in Ohio, in Good Foods Grocery in Richmond, and we're in over 1,000 retailers nationwide and in Canada.
Mike: What about outside the US? Do you have anything in Australia?
Bovio: We’re in Canada, Mexico, the US, and some of the islands, such as Puerto Rico. We have not distributed to another continent yet.
Mike: Can people purchase it directly from your website if they can't find it locally?
Bovio: They can. They can go to http:// ultimareplenisher.com, and learn all about it, read the recommendations, and testimonials from Colleen DeReuck. Colleen recommends our product. We don't pay her to recommend our product. We don't pay anybody to recommend Ultima, and we really feel good about that.
Mike: Just one more question. You also have a phytoblend in your product?
Bovio: Correct.
Mike: And I see here grape seed extract, bilberry fruit extract, grape skin extract. There's not a huge amount in the drink, but these have some extraordinary medicinal qualities. Why are they formulated in your drink?
Bovio: Well, we also use CoQ10, which is perhaps the most expensive ingredient in our formula. The reason we use these ingredients is that we work a lot with people that have difficulties with nutrition -- people with Crohn's, colitis, people in chemotherapy, people with sensitive stomachs. We can add these things, because it doesn't spend time in the stomach. You mentioned the amounts are low; however, they're reasonable. The CoQ10 isn't that low; it's 5 mg per serving. These nutrients are nutrients the body can recognize and use, but they also help the body absorb the minerals and the water-soluble vitamins.
Mike: Outstanding. Thank you, Seth, for taking a few minutes here. I appreciate it.
Bovio: Thank you, Mike.
About the author: Mike Adams is a consumer health advocate and award-winning journalist with a passion for sharing empowering information to help improve personal and planetary health He has authored more than 1,800 articles and dozens of reports, guides and interviews on natural health topics, reaching millions of readers with information that is saving lives and improving personal health around the world. Adams is an honest, independent journalist and accepts no money or commissions on the third-party products he writes about or the companies he promotes. In 2010, Adams launched NaturalNews.TV, a natural health video site featuring videos on holistic health and green living. He also launched an online retailer of environmentally-friendly products (BetterLifeGoods.com) and uses a portion of its profits to help fund non-profit endeavors. He's also a veteran of the software technology industry, having founded a personalized mass email software product used to deliver email newsletters to subscribers. Adams volunteers his time to serve as the executive director of the Consumer Wellness Center, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization, and practices nature photography, Capoeira, martial arts and organic gardening. Known by his callsign, the 'Health Ranger,' Adams posts his missions statements, health statistics and health photos at www.HealthRanger.org
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Monday, June 06, 2005
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