{"id":843,"date":"2013-09-15T15:30:00","date_gmt":"2013-09-15T15:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2013\/09\/drink-more-water.html"},"modified":"2013-09-15T15:30:00","modified_gmt":"2013-09-15T15:30:00","slug":"drink-more-water","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2013\/09\/drink-more-water.html","title":{"rendered":"“Drink more water”?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

That is, apparently, the subject of Michelle Obama\u2019s latest campaign, asking Americans to drink one more glass of water than they normally would, in order to \u201cmake a real difference for your health, your energy, and the way you feel.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

This is just odd.\u00a0 I, and you, too, most likely, have seen the articles popping up every now and again telling us that\u00a0the need to drink\u00a0eight glasses of water a day is a myth, that the proper way to judge whether we\u2019ve had enough to drink is, quite simply,\u00a0whether we\u2019re thirsty or not, that the food we eat itself has lots of water in it, and that it\u2019s even possible to drink too much water.\u00a0 See Snopes<\/a>, for instance.<\/p>\n

It also seems to me that the perceived \u201cneed\u201d to drink water is in part a matter of conditioning. I tend to drink a lot during the course of a workday, but a lot of this is habit, in the way that other people are likely to drink coffee.\u00a0 I also try to battle the temptation to browse the pantry for a snack (remember, I work at home) by drinking water \u2014 usually with a Propel-type flavor packet.\u00a0 (* I couldn\u2019t care less about the electrolytes and other additions to make it \u201csport water\u201d; I used to consume tons of Crystal Light until a nasty spill on the rug and the realization that the food dyes used in these drinks are, in fact, dyes \u2014 Propel and the store-brand equivalent are the only non-colored ones.)\u00a0 And I generally tuck a water bottle into my purse or backpack when I\u2019m out and about \u2014 a habit partly from the days of small, sometimes whiney kids.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

But looking back, I don\u2019t remember any such water-bottle-toting when I was a kid.\u00a0 Now the school has the kids bring water bottles into school, especially during a heat wave.<\/p>\n

Articles about the \u201cDrink Up\u201d campaign also tie it to the fight against childhood obesity; an overweight\u00a0child (or adult) who\u2019s accustomed to drinking large quantities of full-sugar pop, or even \u201cfruit punch\u201d or fruit juices can well benefit from cutting out the caloric drinks, and swapping out for water \u2014 but the campaign carefully avoids this message.\u00a0 Diets also encourage drinking water before dinner, not for the purpose of hydration but as a mild appetite suppressant, but that isn\u2019t the campaign\u2019s message either.\u00a0 It\u2019s \u201cdrink more\u201d and nothing else.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

Of course, what\u2019s all the more odd about this campaign is that we\u2019re being told fairly relentlessly that we should, as good stewards of the earth, tote a reusable\u00a0water bottle around (I prefer the sort with a screw-top rather than fancy straw-like contraptions, which I doubt can be kept clean on an ongoing basis), rather than buying bottled water at home or\u00a0out and about during the course of our day.\u00a0 But the First Lady is being sponsored in this campaign by the American Beverage Association and the International Bottled Water Association, as well as specific bottled-water brands.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t really know what to make of this.\u00a0 Is this Michelle Obama\u2019s initiative?\u00a0 Is this a publicity campaign by these corporate sponsors, and they\u00a0made generous donations to the Barack Obama\u00a0Presidential Library fund?\u00a0 <\/p>\n

According to National Review Online, she said, \u201c\u201cI\u2019ve come to realize that if we were going to take just one step to make ourselves and our families healthier, probably the single best thing we could do is to simply drink more water.\u201d\u00a0 Does she have\u00a0ADHD\u00a0and lose interest in her Let\u2019s Move campaign?\u00a0 This\u00a0is such a level of pseudo-science \u2014 is she going to advise us to buy magnet-bracelets next? <\/p>\n

ADDED: A non-trivial aspect of frequent reusable water-bottle usage is that they can get pretty germy. I tend to use wide-mouthed ones and dig out the bottle brush (though not as often as I should) to clean them. One of the top hits for a search on \u201cwater bottle\u201d \u201cgerms\u201d is this little gem, \u201cReused water bottles carry dangerous bacteria: researchers<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

That is, apparently, the subject of Michelle Obama\u2019s latest campaign, asking Americans to drink one more glass of water than they normally would, in order to \u201cmake a real difference for your health, your energy, and the way you feel.\u201d This is just odd.\u00a0 I, and you, too, most likely, have seen the articles popping […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2209,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-843","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n"Drink more water"?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"That is, apparently, the subject of Michelle Obama's latest campaign, asking Americans to drink one more glass of water than they normally would, in order\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, 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