I'm not exactly sure when or why, or by whom, this absolutely massive almost world-wide PSA campaign about drinking enough water started, but it has been so successful that probably not a single person alive and conscious hasn't heard the pitch.
You have probably heard at least some version of it, I'm sure. People don't drink enough water and get dehydrated. People should drink such and such amount of water every day. If you feel thirsty it's already too late, you are already dehydrated. Yada yada yada.
Have you, however, ever stopped to think: "Hmm, ok. But what exactly are the drawbacks and side-effects of this "dehydration" that I don't even notice, which seemingly happens because I don't drink enough water?"
Because almost nobody does. If a friend of yours, or somebody, ever tells you about you needing to drink enough water, or about being dehydrated even if you don't notice it, try asking him exactly what the consequences and drawbacks of that dehydration are. I'm quite certain that he will either struggle to say something, or will just invent something on the fly out of thin cloth.
Have you ever stopped to think that humans have survived for thousands and thousands of years, heck, millions of years, without all this "you should drink enough water" nonsense? Have you ever heard of people in the past suffering from illness or malaise caused by not drinking enough water (other than, you know, in actual times of severe drought when water has actually been scarce)?
Sure, there may be some minor side-effects if you are constantly badly dehydrated, like headaches and feeling a bit tired, but in the vast majority of normal situations all this "you need to drink enough water" is pretty much hogwash.
It's not like it's bad for you to drink more than your body signals you (unless you go really, really excessive), so in that sense it's kind of a harmless belief to have, but I don't think there's much benefit in it either. After a certain point of hydration, any excess water isn't going to do much. (There may be some minor benefit if you are eg. on a heavy exercise and food diet, trying to lose weight, but that's a rather different topic and reason. In normal situations it's not all that big of an effect.)
There is, however, a rather different harm that has come from this inexplicable massive world-wide rather useless PSA. Of the paving the road to hell with good intentions kind. But also of the kind that puts huge amounts of money into the pockets of certain megacorporations, at the expense of the environment.
And that's the bottled water industry. Plastic bottled water.
Especially in the United States, but to some extent also in many other countries, people have been so utterly brainwashed into this whole "you need to drink enough water" idea that they act like they will literally die if they don't carry a water bottle or two constantly with them, everywhere, at every time. Look at almost any person's backpack or purse, and there's a high chance there will be a water bottle there. A single-use plastic bottle.
And, indeed, selling of single-use bottled water is a huge multi-billion dollar business in the United States, and in many other countries. The water is no different from tap water (and is, in fact, often directly taken from tap water), but sold at outrageous prices. Like a hundred times more expensive than the tap water that it probably is. A water bottle might cost for example 50 cents, which doesn't sound much, but it's a lot when you consider that the water itself in the bottle costs maybe half a cent or even less. It's a minuscule amount of water all things considered.
Besides this world-wide PSA, bottled water is sold mostly via psychological manipulation. It doesn't take much: Just put the picture on the side of the bottle of a snowy mountain with a river that looks ice-cold, clean and fresh, and people will think that the water is somehow special, more pure and better tasting than tap water. Even though it's probably just tap water. The exact same that they can get from any faucet. (Blind tests have been performed, and the placebo effect is very strong indeed. Give a person such a bottle, with a picture of a snowy mountain, and they will say it tastes great. Pour them some water from a nearby faucet, and they will say it tastes worse. Even though the water in the bottle has been taken from that exact same faucet earlier, without them seeing it.)
Why is this a road to hell paved with good intentions, besides the corporations getting rich?
Well, consider where the (literally) millions of tons of plastic from those bottles are ending up.
Next time somebody starts sermoning you about environmentalism and they drink from a plastic bottle, you can show them their hypocrisy.
You have probably heard at least some version of it, I'm sure. People don't drink enough water and get dehydrated. People should drink such and such amount of water every day. If you feel thirsty it's already too late, you are already dehydrated. Yada yada yada.
Have you, however, ever stopped to think: "Hmm, ok. But what exactly are the drawbacks and side-effects of this "dehydration" that I don't even notice, which seemingly happens because I don't drink enough water?"
Because almost nobody does. If a friend of yours, or somebody, ever tells you about you needing to drink enough water, or about being dehydrated even if you don't notice it, try asking him exactly what the consequences and drawbacks of that dehydration are. I'm quite certain that he will either struggle to say something, or will just invent something on the fly out of thin cloth.
Have you ever stopped to think that humans have survived for thousands and thousands of years, heck, millions of years, without all this "you should drink enough water" nonsense? Have you ever heard of people in the past suffering from illness or malaise caused by not drinking enough water (other than, you know, in actual times of severe drought when water has actually been scarce)?
Sure, there may be some minor side-effects if you are constantly badly dehydrated, like headaches and feeling a bit tired, but in the vast majority of normal situations all this "you need to drink enough water" is pretty much hogwash.
It's not like it's bad for you to drink more than your body signals you (unless you go really, really excessive), so in that sense it's kind of a harmless belief to have, but I don't think there's much benefit in it either. After a certain point of hydration, any excess water isn't going to do much. (There may be some minor benefit if you are eg. on a heavy exercise and food diet, trying to lose weight, but that's a rather different topic and reason. In normal situations it's not all that big of an effect.)
There is, however, a rather different harm that has come from this inexplicable massive world-wide rather useless PSA. Of the paving the road to hell with good intentions kind. But also of the kind that puts huge amounts of money into the pockets of certain megacorporations, at the expense of the environment.
And that's the bottled water industry. Plastic bottled water.
Especially in the United States, but to some extent also in many other countries, people have been so utterly brainwashed into this whole "you need to drink enough water" idea that they act like they will literally die if they don't carry a water bottle or two constantly with them, everywhere, at every time. Look at almost any person's backpack or purse, and there's a high chance there will be a water bottle there. A single-use plastic bottle.
And, indeed, selling of single-use bottled water is a huge multi-billion dollar business in the United States, and in many other countries. The water is no different from tap water (and is, in fact, often directly taken from tap water), but sold at outrageous prices. Like a hundred times more expensive than the tap water that it probably is. A water bottle might cost for example 50 cents, which doesn't sound much, but it's a lot when you consider that the water itself in the bottle costs maybe half a cent or even less. It's a minuscule amount of water all things considered.
Besides this world-wide PSA, bottled water is sold mostly via psychological manipulation. It doesn't take much: Just put the picture on the side of the bottle of a snowy mountain with a river that looks ice-cold, clean and fresh, and people will think that the water is somehow special, more pure and better tasting than tap water. Even though it's probably just tap water. The exact same that they can get from any faucet. (Blind tests have been performed, and the placebo effect is very strong indeed. Give a person such a bottle, with a picture of a snowy mountain, and they will say it tastes great. Pour them some water from a nearby faucet, and they will say it tastes worse. Even though the water in the bottle has been taken from that exact same faucet earlier, without them seeing it.)
Why is this a road to hell paved with good intentions, besides the corporations getting rich?
Well, consider where the (literally) millions of tons of plastic from those bottles are ending up.
Next time somebody starts sermoning you about environmentalism and they drink from a plastic bottle, you can show them their hypocrisy.
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