Zet

Age 33
Male
Brisbane, Australia
Seen September 29th, 2021
Posted May 16th, 2020
7,687 posts
15.7 Years
EU officials concluded that, following a three-year investigation, there was no evidence to prove the previously undisputed fact.

Producers of bottled water are now forbidden by law from making the claim and will face a two-year jail sentence if they defy the edict, which comes into force in the UK next month.

Last night, critics claimed the EU was at odds with both science and common sense. Conservative MEP Roger Helmer said: “This is stupidity writ large.

“The euro is burning, the EU is falling apart and yet here they are: highly-paid, highly-pensioned officials worrying about the obvious qualities of water and trying to deny us the right to say what is patently true.

“If ever there were an episode which demonstrates the folly of the great European project then this is it.”
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NHS health guidelines state clearly that drinking water helps avoid dehydration, and that Britons should drink at least 1.2 litres per day.

The Department for Health disputed the wisdom of the new law. A spokesman said: “Of course water hydrates. While we support the EU in preventing false claims about products, we need to exercise common sense as far as possible."

German professors Dr Andreas Hahn and Dr Moritz Hagenmeyer, who advise food manufacturers on how to advertise their products, asked the European Commission if the claim could be made on labels.

They compiled what they assumed was an uncontroversial statement in order to test new laws which allow products to claim they can reduce the risk of disease, subject to EU approval.

They applied for the right to state that “regular consumption of significant amounts of water can reduce the risk of development of dehydration” as well as preventing a decrease in performance.

However, last February, the European Food Standards Authority (EFSA) refused to approve the statement.

A meeting of 21 scientists in Parma, Italy, concluded that reduced water content in the body was a symptom of dehydration and not something that drinking water could subsequently control.

Now the EFSA verdict has been turned into an EU directive which was issued on Wednesday.

Ukip MEP Paul Nuttall said the ruling made the “bendy banana law” look “positively sane”.

He said: “I had to read this four or five times before I believed it. It is a perfect example of what Brussels does best. Spend three years, with 20 separate pieces of correspondence before summoning 21 professors to Parma where they decide with great solemnity that drinking water cannot be sold as a way to combat dehydration.

“Then they make this judgment law and make it clear that if anybody dares sell water claiming that it is effective against dehydration they could get into serious legal bother.

EU regulations, which aim to uphold food standards across member states, are frequently criticised.

Rules banning bent bananas and curved cucumbers were scrapped in 2008 after causing international ridicule.

Prof Hahn, from the Institute for Food Science and Human Nutrition at Hanover Leibniz University, said the European Commission had made another mistake with its latest ruling.

“What is our reaction to the outcome? Let us put it this way: We are neither surprised nor delighted.

“The European Commission is wrong; it should have authorised the claim. That should be more than clear to anyone who has consumed water in the past, and who has not? We fear there is something wrong in the state of Europe.”

Prof Brian Ratcliffe, spokesman for the Nutrition Society, said dehydration was usually caused by a clinical condition and that one could remain adequately hydrated without drinking water.

He said: “The EU is saying that this does not reduce the risk of dehydration and that is correct.

“This claim is trying to imply that there is something special about bottled water which is not a reasonable claim.”
source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/eu/8897662/EU-bans-claim-that-water-can-prevent-dehydration.html
I think the title is good enough to sum up my feelings on this but I honestly hope I don't see "breathing doesn't prevent suffocation" in the news any time soon.

What are your thoughts on this? Do you agree with this "thorough" research? and finally Do you drink the recommended amount of water a day? :P

Esper

California
Seen June 30th, 2018
Posted June 30th, 2018
This was my thought process upon reading the thread title:

"I know that some brands of bottled water contain sodium (a.k.a. salt) and that you shouldn't drink salt water (like if you were stuck on a deserted island) because it will dehydrate you so I can therefore conclude that some bottled water will not hydrate you."

I don't know if it quite works that way, but that's what came to mind.

The 100 Mega Shock

Male
Seen March 10th, 2013
Posted March 23rd, 2012
1,234 posts
12.7 Years
Well, yeah. Dehydration is more than just not having enough water. Hence why we give people saline solutions to restore electrolytes, etc.

(And if we want to news sources trying to ridicule somebody for something that happened 9 months ago at each other, here's something explaining the situation in more detail)

Ivysaur

Grass dinosaur extraordinaire

Age 32
He/him
Madrid, Europe
Seen 1 Day Ago
Posted April 5th, 2023
21,076 posts
16.2 Years
If you drinik water with too much salt, you won't get hydrated.
If you drink water with no salt at all, you won't get hydrated.
If you drink water with some certain salts but without some others, you won't get fully hydrated.

So, seeing how the purpose of this law was preventing companies from advertising their food products as "good for x" unless they could prove they were, I think it makes sense. Everybody knows you have to drink water to survive, but that's a different thing from saying that water properly hydrates your body. If they wanted to use scientific terms, they had to stand scientific tests.

It's as if I wanted to advertise my potato chips saying "eating food is nutritive".

(About the article, it's the Torygraph, what do you expect).

Mario The World Champion

Tepig!

Age 41
Male
Western Massachusetts
Seen April 17th, 2017
Posted March 15th, 2017
3,299 posts
18.4 Years
Until the United States says that water will not rehydrate me, I'm still going to drink it when I out outside working on my personal hell: the lawn!

Or people can go drink Powerade and Gatorade. They claim to restore electrolytes. I actually drink it when I'm out of the house and out on the town.
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Dawn

Queen of Magical Girls

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East Coast, USA
Seen 20 Hours Ago
Posted December 13th, 2022
4,594 posts
14.7 Years
...So. Did anyone in this thread know that your body needs certain minerals and whatnot to actually properly metabolize water? You know those people who are crazy about purified water? Yeah... They still exist, and they're still misinformed. Water is not a magic health drink, and all the EU is doing is forcing companies to stop lying about it's qualities.

To demonstrate. The whole eight glasses a day thing? Yeah that was proved wrong a long, long time ago. The original study said eight glasses a day, but they were not sudying how many glasses a day a human should drink. They were studying how much water the human body should take in a day.

The thing being? That includes food! You get quite a few of those glasses from your food, depending on what you eat.

There's also the myths about soda not hydrating you. Basically? There are a whole lot of lies floating around the world of dieting.
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