Bai is a popular fruit-flavored drink that comes in exotic colors and flavors like "Brasilia Blueberry" and "Zambia Bing Cherry." The brand describes its product line as "Antioxidant Infusion Drinks" with no artificial sweeteners.
But is Bai actually good for you, or are these just marketing claims? Does the brand use any questionable additive ingredients? How is Bai sweetened if it has barely any sugar? And why was the company sued in 2018 over one of its ingredients?
In this article we'll answer all of these questions and more, as we analyze the ingredients in Bai based on clinical studies to give our take on whether or not the drink brand is good for you.
We'll also feature unsponsored customer reviews, and explain why Bai was sued in 2018.
Ingredient Analysis
The ingredients in the Kula Watermelon flavor of Bai are shown above.
The good news is that the brand uses fruit as part of the sweetener blend.
Watermelon juice was shown to improve cognitive function in a 2021 clinical trial.
Vegetable juice concentrate is a much healthier colorant than artificial colors, as we documented in our article on is BodyArmor good for you.
Unfortunately, Bai also contains several ingredients that may be questionable from a health perspective.
Erythritol is a sweetener that's clinically shown to be associated with greater risk of stroke, according to a 2023 medical review, which also documented that this sweetener increases blood clotting.
We don't understand how Bai claims to be free of artificial sweeteners when erythritol is described as an artificial sweetener by the National Institutes of Health.
Citric acid is clinically shown to cause whole-body inflammation in some individuals.
Natural flavors is a broad, categorical descriptor that can include preservatives according to a medical review published in the Food and Chemical Toxicology journal.
Overall, we do not consider Bai to be good for you given the three additives discussed above. We consider plain filtered water to be a healthier option.
Does the Packaging Make Bai Unhealthy?
Bai is packaged in plastic, which we consider to be suboptimal from a health perspective.
Plastic leaches chemicals that can be harmful to human health, according to a 2021 medical study.
Plastics are also harmful to the environment.
We consider drinking filtered water out of glass or any non-plastic material like metal cans to be a superior health and environmental choice to drinking from plastic bottles like Bai.
Even for consumers who need to stop in a gas station or convenience store for a drink, there are now many glass bottle and metal bottle options available.
Why Was Bai Sued?
In 2018, Bai Brands was sued in a class-action lawsuit over allegations of false advertising.
The company uses malic acid in some of their formulations, and thus the company was false advertising by suggesting all of the ingredients were natural, according to the plaintiff.
As documented by ClassAction.org, the plaintiffs alleged that malic acid is produced at petrochemical plants and may have "highly toxic" chemical precursors or byproducts.
This case was dismissed in 2020 according to Bloomberg Law.
We don't consider this to be a consumer safety issue. Our concerns about Bai's formulation relate to the ingredients cited in the Ingredient Analysis section like erythritol, not malic acid.
Real People Try Bai
A YouTube creator named Trevor Barnett reviewed three different Bai flavors in a video with over 25,000 views:
A TikTok creator named Twils had a worse experience with Bai:
@twils7 Bae or bi #bai #drink #review #taste #busting #blueberry #drink ♬ original sound - Twils
Our Clean Water Flavoring Pick
Pique Daily Radiance is our top flavor enhancing packet that can be added to water.
This product comes in convenient stick packs that can be mixed into water, and is naturally flavored with nutritious, whole food ingredients like organic elderberry juice concentrate (which is clinically shown to support the immune system) and organic lemon juice concentrate.
Most importantly, Pique's flavor enhancer is entirely free of citric acid, preservatives, artificial sweeteners and flavoring additives. There are no ingredients in this formulation that we consider to be unhealthy.
Interested consumers can check out Pique Daily Radiance at this link to the product page on the brand's official website.
