Jason Raish

Water is a drink that doesn't mean much. There's no advertising song about water, no water's house secret recipe, it doesn't even taste, really. But people don't seem to drink enough water.

"Every day, every week, people come to my office and say, 'I'm afraid I'm not rehydration enough.'" Lauren Antonucci, a nutritionist in New York City, said.

Their concern may be due to conventional wisdom. There's a famous suggestion to drink eight glasses of water a day, and another that warns that if you're thirsty, you're dehydrated.

But anxiety about drinking water may also stem from another, more philosophical source, and now water supplementation is being marketed as a cure for almost all the pain in life.

The answer to all questions

In recent years, water has been given a panacea-like magic. The latest hipster skincare tips? Oh, it's water. Feeling tired? You may need more water. Career and love without inspiration or hope? Well, did you drink water today?

As if rehydration is a matter of personal reputation. Wherever they went, they faithfully carried water bottles with them, drank them with interest and filled them with water.

Some people even use logs or mobile apps to record their drinking water (one app uses plants to describe a user's health, which can be lush or withering depending on how much water the user drinks). )

Rehydration is a sign of a successful person who is calm and calm. On January 1st Twitter was flooded with New Year's resolutions about drinking plenty of water, including Twitter's brand account.

But will deliberately adding more water really make 2020 any better?

"There's no evidence that a little dehydration really affects anyone's condition," Dr. Mitchell Rosner, a kidney specialist at the University of Virginia, said in a telephone interview. Rosner studied the problem of excessive drinking in athletes.

Most of the advice on rehydration comes from studies of athletes who lose water quickly during exercise or competition, he said, at a much higher risk of dehydration than the average person.

'For those of us who sit at our desks all day, it's best to drink water only when we're thirsty, ' says Mr. Rosner.

Too much water, he says, is not good for anyone. "It's best to "pee water out," but in the worst case, it can cause sodium and electrolyte levels in the body to drop to dangerously low levels, Rosner said. Hyponanamicemia can lead to hospitalization and death.(It doesn't happen very often, but... There's no harm in knowing. )

If your goal is to rehydration, drinking water may not be the most water-replenishing drink. A study of 72 male subjects published in 2015 found that whole milk, skimmed milk and orange juice were better than drinking water.

So is there going to be a dairy revolution in America? It's unlikely. Because water is more than just a drinking preference to be subverted. It is the innate of virtue.

How did this happen?

In 2017, bottled water surpassed soft drinks to become the largest-selling beverage in the U.S., up 7 percent from the previous year, according to Beverage Marketing Corporation, a beverage consultancy. Since then, sales have continued to grow.

"It's no accident that it became number one, " says Michael Bellas, chairman of beverage marketing. "It's a good example of built the perfect scene and the category of goods."

In the 1970s, advertising campaigns for Evian and Perrier introduced the concept of bottled water as a high-end, resusperated drink, Mr. Velas said. Until then, bottled water was sold only as an alternative to tap water.

The new publicity allows bottled water to compete with other beverages sold in grocery stores such as juice, coffee, soda and beer.

By the beginning of the century, Bellas said, people were drinking more than just bottled water when they ate. They drink all day long. Consumers may limit their caffeine or sugary drinks, but they have no reason to limit zero-calorie, thirsty water. They carry water wherever they go.

"It's changed the way drinks are consumed," Velas said. If people drink water wherever they go, it can be sold anywhere. That's true. Bottled water has an unlimited shelf life and easy-to-produce products that continue to grow.

With the popularity of disposable plastic water bottles, the environmental awareness of reusable water bottles has also emerged. Nalgene started out as a producer of liquid containers in an ordinary plastic lab until scientists studying outdoor sports discovered that such containers were the best choice for camping, and that their products became an essential item for college students in the early 2000s.

Camping college students can choose a Nalgene water bottle that best reflects their personality, and then put stickers on top of what they like: college radio, the student council, the Dave Matthews Band.

The rise of Nalgene water bottles coincides with Velas's observation that carrying bottled water has been symbolic since the beginning of the century.

"It's cool to carry a water bottle with you," he said. "It's healthy. It's like a manifesto. The same is true of reusable water bottles, but with the addition of environmentally friendly elements. "

In recent years, growing environmental and health problems have turned portable water bottles into a declaration that can be used as gifts. Well-budgeted consumers can opt for the Yeti insulation cup. The Hydro Flask brand is great for girls who like to fix photos with VSCO. Buyers with an aesthetic vision may prefer products from avant-garde design firms such as Bkr or Hay.

Any water bottle can be used as a gift to say: "I love you, I hope you drink more water." "

Are all the health benefits true?

Water is the panacea of choice for a variety of diseases: fatigue, headache, indigestion, inflammation, dry skin, acne.

"It's a popular view among patients and in the consumer media that rehydration can bring healthy skin," said Joshua Zeigler, a dermatologist at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City.

But that is not the case. "It's nonsense to drink eight glasses of water a day to keep your skin hydred," he said. Still, many consumers still see water as an anti-aging artifact.

We think water is good for us, so other drinks require a big marketing budget, but the bottled water industry doesn't need to spend a lot of money to convince us to buy drinking water.

In 2018, the bottled water industry spent $109 million on advertising, the beer industry spent more than $1.5 billion on advertising, and the soft drinks industry spent nearly $1 billion on advertising, according to Kantar Media.

The truth is that, to a large extent, consumers don't care what brand of bottled water they buy; according to Statista, an online statistics portal, the best-selling bottled water brands are "private brands", another term for "unregistered brands". "Consumers don't even know who made it and where it was made."

In any case, the benefits of water are exaggerated and do not seem to affect it - we do need water to survive, after all. Its benefits even became a kind of mim. Some social media accounts have been dedicated to rebuke followers for not adding enough water.

But if you haven't finished your drinking quota today, don't worry: your 2020 is not ruined. You think flavorful drinks like coffee, tea and beer will dehydrated you, but they're actually rehydrated.

"Coffee is a water-replenishing drink, " says nutritionist Antonucci. "If you drink, don't feel guilty. Enjoy it. "

Translation: Jin Qi angle

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