Water Doesn’t Prevent Dehydration, Says European Commission

Pizza is a vegetable? Water doesn’t prevent dehydration? What in the world is going on? Shortly after congress ruled that the tomato paste used on a pizza could be considered a vegetable, the European Commission ruled that there was no evidence that bottled water could prevent dehydration.

Yes, the EU ruled that water does not prevent dehydration.

According to the Daily Mail, the EU studied the relationship between dehydration and bottled water for three years and found no evidence that bottled water prevented dehydration.

The EU says that any bottle water producer who makes that previously undisputed claim could face two years in jail.

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.”

The Department for Health also found the decision baffling:

“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.”

The Telegraph reports that the great water-hydration debate was started by two professors who advise food manufacturers on how to advertise their products. The two professors asked the European Commission if water manufacturers could claim that their product reduced the risk of dehydration. They applied for the right to say: “regular consumption of significant amounts of water can reduce the risk of development of dehydration.”

After 21 professors gathered in Parma to discuss the matter, the EU said: ‘The panel considers that the proposed claim does not comply with the requirements for a disease risk reduction claim.”

Prof Hahn, from the Institute for Food Science and Human Nutrition at Hanover Leibniz University, said:

“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 authorized 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.”

What do you think? Does bottled water help to keep you hydrated?