EU bans claim that water can prevent dehydration

[J-man]

Keep in mind that the source is the telegraph... So you never know if it's actually true.

 

[Atticus]

I'm in a bit of hurry atm, but just wanted to tell about recent case when newspapers told that EU is going to ban balloons from kids under the age of eight (or was it nine). People had heated discussions about it, and concluded that EU is stupid. My sister who is a judge of an appeal court told that the law is just stupid. The funniest part is that EU isn't going to ban balloons from kids under the age of eight (or nine). I don't think any newspaper has gone through the trouble of correcting this information.

Sadly that kind of news usually benefit anti-EU parties, which are often far right anti-immigrant, blatantly rasist or neo-nazies.

 

[Silurian]

If anybody is interested in what the European Food Safety Authority actually said see this

http://www.efsa.europa.eu/en/efsajournal/doc/1982.pdf

 

[Camikaze]

So this stops bottled water companies from selling more of their product under the false claim that if you buy lots of it and drink it really often, you're not going to become dehydrated? That long term use reduces the risk? Sounds a fair enough regulation, though odd at first glance.

 

[Silurian]

They will be able to say it quenches your thirst on a hot day, is better for you than a sugary drink, etc.

Just no unfounded medical claims.

 

[Tahuti]

Keep in mind that the source is the telegraph... So you never know if it's actually true.

Daily Telegraph is IMO much better than the Daily Mail though. That said, still not so very good to put it lightly.

 

[MagisterCultuum]

At least tomatoes are a vegetable.

Wrong. Despite the supreme court's ruling, tomatoes are clearly fruit.

 

[Syterion]

Read the Guardian article about it. The EU is not wrong on this. Actual dehydration involves more than just water, it also involves salt retention. Just because your intuition is the opposite doesn't make it wrong.

 

[Terxpahseyton]

Bottled water, and the idea that water needs to be marketed, are both crazy notions in the west.

Maybe you'd be fine with water bags in Canada, but yes, I prefer it bottled.

But even regardless of that I don't see why it is crazy as a concept. And I highly suspect that such a notion is not thought through well. Same goes for marketing, as the quality of bottled water can differ (and with it the taste).

 

[J.K. Stockholme]

I don't think this fact of the EU is indicative of something bad. What company would have such a terrible bottle of water that the only positive quality they plaster over it is that it does indeed contain water? I appreciate the bureaucracy taking its job seriously (I especially appreciate it giving me a good laugh), and I like the notion that this makes marketing harder for companies.

 

[Fugitive Sisyphus]

Wrong. Despite the supreme court's ruling, tomatoes are clearly fruit.

Actually the supreme court already ruled that the tomato is a vegetable. Nix v.Hedden

 

[MagisterCultuum]

That is why I said Despite.

 

[Yeekim]

1) You may drink water every day for fifty years but doing so won't "reduce risk of dehydration" once you happen to get cholera or something. That is the first point of this ruling.
2) Once you are suffering from dehydration, simply drinking water is not enough to combat it. You also need minerals. That is the second point of this ruling.

 

[Mise]

This isn't a question of whether water will dehydrate; this is a question of whether businesses should be allowed to market their products as something that can prevent dehydration.

1) Water isn't the only product that will dehydrate you. Coca Cola will too, but if Coca Cola tried to say “regular consumption of significant amounts of Coca Cola can reduce the risk of development of dehydration”, we would rightly tell them to shove off, even though the statement is factually accurate.

2) Water will not necessarily rehydrate you, if you are suffering from dehydration. Many people have already said why: it's not just a matter of liquid, but also minerals, salts, and the presence of disease.

3) Water will obviously make you less thirsty. If you feel dehydrated - that is, if you feel thirsty - then it's pretty god damn obvious that drinking water will make you less thirsty. It is completely unnecessary to advertise the product as "drinking regular amounts of this product will make you less thirsty". See the cereal comic.

4) By advertising that this bottle of water can prevent dehydration, it implies that there is something special about this bottle of water. As I said, everyone old enough to talk knows that drinking water will make you less thirsty; if a product says that it is explicitly rehydrating, then that implies that there is something more to this water than simply being water. Perhaps it has special rehydration properties that I'm not aware of. Who knows.

For all those reasons, water shouldn't be allowed to be marketed as "rehydrating", or whatever. At best, it's a completely unnecessary statement of the obvious, and at worst it is a dangerously misleading ploy to get you to buy a product that comes out of your taps for 0.1% of the cost. Laws and regulations exist to benefit society at large. What benefit to society is there of allowing marketers to advertise water as rehydrating?

 

[Terxpahseyton]

What benefit to society is there of allowing marketers to advertise water as rehydrating?

I agree on everything you said, except I already suggested an answer to that - the benefit that pure water has it easier to manifest itself as something healthy and modern in the minds of the people, prompted by the guys whose legal job it is to mess with the minds of the people - marketing. The reason in this case would be flawed, yes, but the result is good nevertheless. I.e. possibly a higher consumption of pure water, which means a step ahead on the road of fighting obesity and with it stuff like concentration problems caused by too much sugar (for instance taken in by soda).
Of course, that is not exactly on the agenda of the regulatory body we are talking about. So it would step out of its bounds with such reasoning I guess. And I can't say if the effect of such a dehydration campaign would be actually meaningful regarding average pure-water-consumption.

 

[Mise]

I agree on everything you said, except I already suggested an answer to that - the benefit that pure water has it easier to manifest itself as something healthy and modern in the minds of the people, prompted by the guys whose legal job it is to mess with the minds of the people - marketing. The reason in this case would be flawed, yes, but the result is good nevertheless. I.e. possibly a higher consumption of pure water, which means a step ahead on the road of fighting obesity and with it stuff like concentration problems caused by too much sugar (for instance taken in by soda).
Of course, that is not exactly on the agenda of the regulatory body we are talking about. So it would step out of its bounds with such reasoning I guess. And I can't say if the effect of such a dehydration campaign would be actually meaningful regarding average pure-water-consumption.

That's a good point, thanks. But yeah, there are surely better ways of reducing obesity than advertising water as a magic dehydration prevention medicine.

 

[Bugfatty300]

I fail to see the false advertising.

Drinking water is the best way to stay hydrated.

 

[Silurian]

I fail to see the false advertising.

Drinking water is the best way to stay hydrated.

An apple would be better.

 

[mayor]

Bottled water, and the idea that water needs to be marketed, are both crazy notions in the west.

True for some countries, like The Netherlands (our tabwater is among the highest in quality, I believe)
But there still are countries were you can't drink tabwater, so it's not that crazy that compagnies sell bottled water..

 

[Silurian]

True for some countries, like The Netherlands (our tabwater is among the highest in quality, I believe)
But there still are countries were you can't drink tabwater, so it's not that crazy that compagnies sell bottled water..

When I worked in Bahrain in the 1980s I boiled the tap water then put it through a water filter. I was working outside in temperatures over 40C and would take 1.5 gallons of this water with me to work each day. No need for bottled water in most parts of the world.