Everyone's favorite user of the word "pamplemousse" is having a bit of a week. (That means grapefruit, for you non-obsessive LaCroix drinkers.)
LaCroix got slapped with a lawsuit Monday positing that the sparkling water's "natural" flavorings are in fact synthetic. Moreover, the class-action lawsuit alleges, the beverage uses chemicals found in cockroach poison.
Cue a thousand headlines linking the seltzer originally from La Crosse, Wis., to insecticide.
There is a bit of truth to the allegations, only in that linalool, one of the plant-derived chemicals LaCroix uses to flavor its beverages, is also found in cockroach poison. That doesn't make it human poison, though. As Popular Science pointed out in a comprehensive article challenging many of the claims in the lawsuit, "we don't ban chocolate just because dogs can't eat it."
Now, whether LaCroix is actually good for you is another question entirely. Healthwise, claiming to be "all natural" doesn't mean anything at all. It's just a marketing term, a pretty good one, at that. Plus, too much sparkling water can harm tooth enamel or cause you to, well, burp.
LaCroix called the lawsuit allegations "misleading" and "false" and reached out to supporters on Twitter to "stand with us as we defend our beloved LaCroix."
Twitter users had some fun taking a stand on behalf of their beloved beverage.
