Brussels bureaucrats were ridiculed yesterday after banning drink manufacturers from claiming that water can prevent dehydration.
EU officials concluded that, following a three-year investigation, there was no evidence to prove the previously undisputed fact. Producers of bottled water are now forbidden by law from making the claim and will face a two-year jail sentence if they defy the edict, which comes into force in the UK next month. Last night, critics claimed the EU was at odds with both science and common sense. 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.” German professors Dr Andreas Hahn and Dr Moritz Hagenmeyer, who advise food manufacturers on how to advertise their products, asked the European Commission if the claim could be made on labels.
They compiled what they assumed was an uncontroversial statement in order to test new laws which allow products to claim they can reduce the risk of disease, subject to EU approval.They applied for the right to state that “regular consumption of significant amounts of water can reduce the risk of development of dehydration” as well as preventing a decrease in performance. Ukip MEP Paul Nuttall said the ruling made the “bendy banana law” look “positively sane”. He said: “I had to read this four or five times before I believed it. It is a perfect example of what Brussels does best. Spend three years, with 20 separate pieces of correspondence before summoning 21 professors to Parma where they decide with great solemnity that drinking water cannot be sold as a way to combat dehydration.
Uh, don’t these people have ANYTHING to do?
When I saw this a couple of days ago, I was aghast.
A medical dictionary definition:
hy·dra·tion n.
1. The addition of water to a chemical molecule without hydrolysis.
2. The process of providing an adequate amount of liquid to bodily tissues.
I guess that second def will need to be modified in EU medical dictionaries.
“Prof Brian Ratcliffe, … said … one could remain adequately hydrated without drinking water.” Absolutely incorrect! A moronic claim. You absolutely need to consume water is some form, orange juice, coffee, tea, Gatorade, chicken noodle soup, something with water in it. (Okay, I suppose he’s ‘technically’ correct. You could get your hydration without drinking it if you want to have a tube sticking out of some part of your body BUT you are still taking on water.)
I know what they were trying to do: Deny claims that expensive bottled or designer water is better for you than any other sort of water. I think the “experts” involved in this decision should be required to avoid consuming any source of water for the next two weeks. Then some sensible people can revisit the claims.
Just occurred to me, Jack Abramoff is out of prison, could he be lobbying in the EU, now?
How ridiculous, next they’ll be telling us that Pizza is a vegetable… oh, wait.
🙂
It’s obvious that you must drink beer to remain hydrated.
“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.”
So, you disagree with this?
“This claim is trying to imply that there is something special about bottled water which is not a reasonable claim.”
just look around you and and at the ridiculous claims made by different products, and mind who is the main source for the piece, “consultants for food industry”… read between the lines folks.
“… as well as preventing a decrease in performance.”
Like I already posted in the “This Week’s Rant Against the EU” topic:
Think again:
From campaigns like “Is it In You?” to “Hydrate or Die”, we’ve all been taught by a multi-billion-dollar drinks industry that dehydration is deadly. What we haven’t been taught, because there’s no money in it, is that the best rule of thumb is only to drink when you’re thirsty.
http://adventure-journal.com/2011/09/almost-everything-you-know-about-hydrating-is-wrong/
You could possibly survive without drinking any water – but you’d have to eat water-‘rich’ foods, like maybe water mellon or lettice or similar to make up for it. Of course, whether you’d want to or not…
There was an article here
http://theregister.co.uk/2011/11/18/euro_water/
and while on the face of it the idea was somewhat absurd, what I think they were trying for was to stop manufacturers making outlandish claims about bottled water, when most countries tap water is just as good. (Several $ per litre for bottled water vs 14.3 cents per kilo-litre for tap water- I looked at my water rates for this figure).
Another point is that if you are severely dehydrated, then drinking water without the right amount of sodium and potassium sats can kill you or at least make you worse off, as your body’s electrolytes are already well out of whack, and drinking plain water by itself (be it bottled, tap or rainwater) screws up the balance even further.
You have to be pretty crook already to be at that point though.
Shouldn’t we all be focusing more on the bendy banana law? This issue may be a diversion.
As for the moon being made of cheese…
Back in the early days of the space age, when the composition of the Moon was still unknown, their was an article in Science magazine about the data obtained from instruments on the Moon’s surface that detected the arrival of shock waves from the impacts of meteorites [or perhaps it was a deliberate impact of a space craft – I really don’t remember after 50 years.]
The shock wave travel velocities thru the lunar crust were calculated, and compared to those known from a number of different terrestrial rock types. Also in the table was the velocity for some sort of cheese, which (it turned out) was closer to the figures from lunar rocks than any of the terrestrial rock types…
The conclusion of the article (in Science – an ultra respectable publication) was something on the order of “Perhaps old hypotheses are best…”
Wish I still had that article so I could provide a proper citation…
Drifter: Used to be you could go to Google’s map of the moon and, when you zoomed in to maximum, it looked like swiss cheese.
The world’s no fun, anymore.
When you think about it all medicine is highly prepared food, so really all a Doctor is is a kind of sommelier
They are also the only people who can stop everyone eating certain foods (e.g. cannabis, tobacco etc)
What kind of idiocratzy is this?
BRAWNDO! THE THIRST MUTILATOR!……..IT HAS ELECTROLYTES!
ITS LIKE A MONSTER TRUCK YOU CAN POUR INTO YOUR FACE!
IT MAKES PLANTS GROW! DONT DRINK WATER BECAUSE ITS FROM THE TOLIET! AND IVE NEVER SEEN PLANTS GROW OUT OF THE TOLIET!
Except no, you are all the silly ones.
They are not saying it can’t quench thirst – but dehydration is a medical condition, and just drinking some water WILL NOT cure it – you need several other components as well – these commercial vultures want to claim that their water can be used as medicine, which it can’t. THAT is what the department in question do, and their job btw is to make sure that people can’t just claim all kinds of crap in advertising (perhaps you can in the US), so this landed on their desk.
Grow up kids, and join the adults.
Love it! The responses serve to illustrate the problems faced by the EU and humanity in general. The more people you feed into the mix the lower the overall IQ becomes. We could dicker about details or how each idiot is going to make this claim or that. Sure, a person needs more than just water. You also need water. Lots of it. If you can’t tell the difference between basic requirements and brand names then you deserve to sell your soul to gatorade. People who think for themselves don’t need a politician to overthink it for them. People who won’t think for themselves deserve whatever they get. Good luck.
We all seem to agree that the the people running the government have mental issues. This leaves the question of why some of you want to give the government unlimited power over everyone.
The very same EU that supports the validity of Global Warming, and ardors Darwin’s theory of Evolution. But can’t quite bring itself to believe that drinking water prevents dehydration. Case closed!