“URSU is an awakening of the senses. It is the force of nature in its purest state. It is the breaking of the water in the spring, the green of the mountains, the light and unmistakable flavor.đ§”.
It is one of the messages with which it has been promoted Ursu9, a watermark endorsed by Cristiano Ronaldo âthey present him as their “main and greatest ambassador”â, a famous footballer and the highest-paid athlete in the world.
“Cristiano Ronaldo defends the benefits of URSU alkaline and antioxidant water, which represents a whole concept of health and lifestyle” and “Choosing URSU is choosing me! It is choosing to be physically and mentally well every day. It is choosing health, balance. It is lightness. @cristiano” are some of the messages shared by the firm.
However, this water has been embroiled in controversy in recent days, including criticism over the promised benefits and different aspects of its promotion.
The product was launched in June, with the presence of Cristiano Ronaldo â accompanied by his wife, Georgina, who has been seen drinking from it in public â and Aitor SĂĄnchez GarcĂa, a dietician-nutritionist, food technologist and educator with 93,000 followers on Twitter and 111,000 subscribers on YouTube, among other social networks and channels.
Recently, Sanchez Garcia (‘My diet is limping’on networks) has apologized in Twitter for supporting a product and promotion with some of whose messages he disagreed, and has announced that he will donate all the money from the collaboration.
The “benefits without scientific evidence” of Ursu9
He did so after Juan Revenga, also a dietician-nutritionist and member of the Spanish Foundation of Dieticians-Nutritionists (FEDN), published an article on his website in which he denounced that Ursu9 “promises health benefits without scientific evidence”.
This Saturday the 8th, Revenga has analyzed again, this time in The Countrywhich he considers to be “The lies behind Cristiano Ronaldo’s mineral water”.
In it, the expert criticizes and questions the various claims that have been made since the Ursu9 campaign, such as its benefits derived from the fact that it is a “mineral, natural, alkaline and antioxidant water.”
“Hydration with natural alkaline and antioxidant mineral water becomes our body’s best ally, as is the ingestion of a product naturally rich in minerals, essential for the proper functioning of the human body,” the brand highlights in one of its publications on its official account.
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Firstly, Revenga debunks the benefit of this water brand endorsed by Ronaldo being alkaline and having a pH of 9. He questions the reliability of the studies that record the virtues of drinking alkaline water, reminds us that there are no claims that can be made about alkaline water’s effects on health (regulated by EU regulation 432/2012) and states that the supposed benefits of alkaline water are simply “impossible”.
Furthermore, after analyzing several bottles of Ursu9 himself, he maintains that its pH is actually less than 9 (8.62), which means “an alkalinity three to four times less than advertised.”
He then goes on to describe the promoted antioxidant capacity of this brand of water as “nonsense”, since it would not be “supported by regulations” and clarifies that the antioxidant power of distilled water is already 0, and is very close to this value “with any other water, whether tap water or bottled, whether it has this pH or that one”.
A “made-up” story, “fake” images and a double face
The biologist, consultant and professor at the San Jorge University then goes on to criticize the story with which Ursu9 has been promoted âthe name would come from El Oso (Ăvila), where the water comes from (ursu is ‘bear’ in Latin), and its pH9âand the images that have been used for it.
“Hundreds of years ago… here lived populations of bears that came to this fountain to drink its water…. Today, it is here that we find… URSU, a force of nature!” praises another publication of the brand backed by Cristiano Ronaldo.
“The story is nice and credible, but it turns out to be a fabricated hoaxThere is very little doubt that the name El Oso comes from a secular derivation of lutosusa Latin word that translates as ‘muddy’ or ‘sludgey’. The environment where the water is collected lends itself more to that – it is a cereal-growing steppe with the occasional lagoon – than to a deciduous forest populated by bears, whether or not they are amorous, as confirmed by Emilio Nieto Ballester’s Brief Dictionary of Spanish Place Names. This has also been corroborated by sources consulted at the El Oso Town Hall,” says Revenga.
The ‘Official Tourism Page of the Provincial Council of Ăvila’ includes another possible explanation for the name of El Oso in this town: “In the town centre, opposite the church, on a stone pedestal, stands a Celtic, zoomorphic boar, which was interpreted as the representation of a bear and which possibly served to give the town its name.”
Likewise, the images used by Ursu9 in their promotional video have been criticized, since They are not from El Oso or Ăvila, but from Portugalas Revenga points out and several users on social media also highlight, with comments such as “The water could even be from Ăvila, Spain, but the images are from Fraga da Peña, in the Council of Arganil – Portugal” or “Portugal has some incredible places đđ”.
Finally, the dietician-nutritionist points out that Ursu9 water can be purchased at half price at the Auchan chain in Portugal: Share the technical data sheet for Ursu9 with a distributor brand and compare the price of 0.26 euros/litre in the Portuguese Auchan (in 1.5 l bottles) with 0.51 euros/litre if purchased with the brand label in Spain.
“You are absolutely right; I was wrong”
Dietician-nutritionist Aitor SĂĄnchez GarcĂa has been behind the Ursu9 project, who has shared the following statement on his social networks: “Alkaline waters are the most promising in the world of hydration to control oxidative stress.”
Following the publication of Revenga’s first article, as well as criticism from his community, this popularizer has published several videos on his Twitter account to apologize.
In them, @midietacojea explains that he got involved in the project with the aim of bringing the role of water closer to young people ahead of other drinks, despite the fact that “I didn’t buy” all the messages the brand was sending out.
“You have made me see that this balance of pros and cons was not well balanced,” that his support was not a “good decision” and that “I was wrong,” he continued.
“You are absolutely right: here I could have launched a misinterpreted message and perhaps I should not have been defending this message without having clarified it much better,” concludes SĂĄnchez GarcĂa, who says that he is going to donate all the money he has earned from his collaboration with Ursu9.
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Tags: Trending, Health, Diets, Science, Drink, Cristiano Ronaldo