“Drink more water”?

Last updated on: September 15, 2013 at 3:30 pm by Jane the Actuary

“Drink more water”? 2013-09-15T15:30:00-06:00 Jane the Actuary

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That is, apparently, the subject of Michelle Obama’s latest campaign, asking Americans to drink one more glass of water than they normally would, in order to “make a real difference for your health, your energy, and the way you feel.”

This is just odd. I, and you, too, most likely, have seen the articles popping up every now and again telling us that the need to drink eight glasses of water a day is a myth, that the proper way to judge whether we’ve had enough to drink is, quite simply, whether we’re thirsty or not, that the food we eat itself has lots of water in it, and that it’s even possible to drink too much water. See Snopes, for instance.

It also seems to me that the perceived “need” to drink water is in part a matter of conditioning. I tend to drink a lot during the course of a workday, but a lot of this is habit, in the way that other people are likely to drink coffee. I also try to battle the temptation to browse the pantry for a snack (remember, I work at home) by drinking water — usually with a Propel-type flavor packet. (* I couldn’t care less about the electrolytes and other additions to make it “sport water”; I used to consume tons of Crystal Light until a nasty spill on the rug and the realization that the food dyes used in these drinks are, in fact, dyes — Propel and the store-brand equivalent are the only non-colored ones.) And I generally tuck a water bottle into my purse or backpack when I’m out and about — a habit partly from the days of small, sometimes whiney kids.

But looking back, I don’t remember any such water-bottle-toting when I was a kid. Now the school has the kids bring water bottles into school, especially during a heat wave.

Articles about the “Drink Up” campaign also tie it to the fight against childhood obesity; an overweight child (or adult) who’s accustomed to drinking large quantities of full-sugar pop, or even “fruit punch” or fruit juices can well benefit from cutting out the caloric drinks, and swapping out for water — but the campaign carefully avoids this message. Diets also encourage drinking water before dinner, not for the purpose of hydration but as a mild appetite suppressant, but that isn’t the campaign’s message either. It’s “drink more” and nothing else.

Of course, what’s all the more odd about this campaign is that we’re being told fairly relentlessly that we should, as good stewards of the earth, tote a reusable water bottle around (I prefer the sort with a screw-top rather than fancy straw-like contraptions, which I doubt can be kept clean on an ongoing basis), rather than buying bottled water at home or out and about during the course of our day. But the First Lady is being sponsored in this campaign by the American Beverage Association and the International Bottled Water Association, as well as specific bottled-water brands.

I don’t really know what to make of this. Is this Michelle Obama’s initiative? Is this a publicity campaign by these corporate sponsors, and they made generous donations to the Barack Obama Presidential Library fund?

According to National Review Online, she said, ““I’ve come to realize that if we were going to take just one step to make ourselves and our families healthier, probably the single best thing we could do is to simply drink more water.” Does she have ADHD and lose interest in her Let’s Move campaign? This is such a level of pseudo-science — is she going to advise us to buy magnet-bracelets next?

ADDED: A non-trivial aspect of frequent reusable water-bottle usage is that they can get pretty germy. I tend to use wide-mouthed ones and dig out the bottle brush (though not as often as I should) to clean them. One of the top hits for a search on “water bottle” “germs” is this little gem, “Reused water bottles carry dangerous bacteria: researchers.”

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