Review: Lemon Lime Soda from Maine Root

Like most people that are told they have to give up eating gluten for life, I had to start reading food labels. Luckily for me, the wheat declaration labeling law was in effect the exact month of my diagnosis, so at least wheat would not be hidden anymore. However, since barley didn’t have to be called out (and still doesn’t), I became an expert label reader after much trial and error, of course.

One of the things I noticed was the odd places that corn syrup could be found in food products. To find it in soda was normal – if not healthy – but in soups and a plethora of so-called healthy or low fat snack foods was quite strange. To protect the guilty, I won’t name names, but a well known main stream company that makes a low and fat free snack line (in a green box) adds corn syrup in cookies and a host of other things you’d never think would contain it. In fact, this was shown on an episode of Dr. Sanjay Gupta’s health show on CNN.

As I became more aware of what was in the foods we ate (all gluten-free now, of course), we started to eat more cleanly. To me that means trying to avoid foods that are made with fake ingredients like chemicals and questionable preservatives and additives that are not allowed into the food supply in many other countries. The cleaner we eat, the better we feel. That old saying “you are what you eat” is definitely true for me, at least.

It wasn’t until a couple of years ago that I found out that sodas could actually be made without corn syrup. One of the best lines that makes such a product is Maine Root. We found their “Ginger Brew” at the health food store and used it to make a limeade type adult beverage. We had it at a party sans the vodka and someone mentioned how great it was with vodka. The “Ginger Brew” works great if you’re mixing it with something, but it’s too strong for me to drink straight.

About a month ago, some friends brought us some Maine Root “Blue Berry” soda, which my husband took quite a liking to. I’m not a fan of blueberry flavored drinks, but this one wasn’t bad. However, we ended up trying the “Lemon Lime” soda from Maine Root recently and it was quite exquisite. Think of regular Sprite and now think of it tasting fresher – cleaner – better. The all natural drink with no corn syrup runs rings around the popular Sprite (or 7-Up) drink.

Currently, the packaging of all Maine Root drinks sports the gluten-free term. However, due to some interesting requirements of certain large “healthy” grocery stores when it comes to gluten-free labeled items, the gluten-free term is going away. The drinks didn’t change and two people in the family that owns Maine Root can’t eat (or drink) gluten. Even so, to keep their product in stores it’s sold in now, they can’t continue to put gluten-free on the package. Interesting, huh?

When I noticed that the term gluten-free had disappeared from a frozen potato item that once had it clearly listed on the bag, the company representative I spoke with explained that we’d probably see far fewer items with gluten-free on the package. In fact, the company had just mentioned this in a meeting that week. This news was perplexing at the time, but now it’s starting to make some sense. At least I know what’s going on and can made educated choices about what products are safe, but many people might just assume something isn’t gluten-free anymore – even though it most certainly is.