News Flash - Drinking Water Doesn't Prevent Dehydration

(Thanks to Simply Fresh)

Do you know what dehydration is? If you say you do, I'll bet that the European Union disagrees with you.

You probably think "oh, that just means lack of water, right?"

That's sure what the dictionary says.

"to remove bound water or hydrogen and oxygen from (a chemical compound) in the proportion in which they form water"

"Not so fast!" says the EU officials! "That's not true at all!"

That's the only thing I can take from the latest insanity from the EU. While countries are falling deeper and deeper into debt, as other countries in the Union have to bail out the poorer ones due to financial mismanagement, this is what they're dealing with?

Yes, EU bureaucrats are prohibiting producers of bottled water from saying that their product can help prevent dehydration. That drinking water will not help a body that is lacking water and other fluids.

Sure, they try to wrap it up in weird claims that really make no sense. The justifications are almost as ludicrous as the prohibition itself.

"Prof Brian Ratcliffe, spokesman for the Nutrition Society, said dehydration was usually caused by a clinical condition and that one could remain adequately hydrated without drinking water.

He said: “The EU is saying that this does not reduce the risk of dehydration and that is correct.

“This claim is trying to imply that there is something special about bottled water which is not a reasonable claim.”

No, they're not implying there's something special about bottled water. They're stating the obvious fact that drinking water is a good thing! It's not like they're saying that they are the *only* thing that prevents dehydration. If they were making that claim, I'd be right there with the bureaucrats, with the pitchforks and 2-hour lunches. But they're not!

Denying that bottled water can help re-hydrate a body is just insane.

That's not the only claim that was made, however.

"A meeting of 21 scientists in Parma, Italy, concluded that reduced water content in the body was a symptom of dehydration and not something that drinking water could subsequently control."

This statement makes no sense to me. If you can explain it, then please do so. Drinking water can't "subsequently control" reduced water content?

Can you believe that people who defy this ban can get up to two years in prison? Seriously?

It's no wonder that the EU is spiraling down in flames.

Remember, these are the same bureaucrats who said that bananas and cucumbers shouldn't bend too much. They didn't outright ban bananas with too much curvature (that was the myth, that they were banned), but they did make some vague law about how much a banana can bend. Cucumbers too.

Will this turn out to be one of those myths too? The Telegraph article quotes a lot of people and experts, so I'm thinking this is actually true.

If it is true, the level of stupidity is just stultifying.