Mainely Tipping Points 24
Note: This essay is the second in a series of 3 essays on water, which started with viewing the documentary TAPPED and reading Elizabeth Royte’s BOTTLEMANIA.
TAPPED: The 8 x 8 Glasses of Water Myth
The documentary TAPPED traces the history of how the bottled water industry successfully encouraged people to drink a whole lot of water every day, which translated into people buying easily transportable single-serve bottles of water. The prevailing dictate insuring daily hydration for the average person is 64 ounces, or eight, eight-ounce glasses of water a day, or 8 X 8.
But, this recommendation, which is repeated by even such an august mainstream medical organization as the Mayo Clinic, not only has no scientific backing whatsoever, it could be dangerous for some people (http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/water/NU00283). Mayo notes the lack of science, but includes the 8 X 8 recommendation without qualifying until near the end of its posting the fact that much of the 64 ounces can come from ingested food. Other liquid sources, like coffee, tea, fruit drinks, and, even, soda, also contribute.
Elizabeth Royte, in BOTTLEMANIA (2008), surfaces the work of Heinz Valtin, a retired professor of physiology from Dartmouth Medical School who specialized in kidney research (35). Karen Bellenir discusses Valtin’s work also in a “Scientific American” article that appeared on 4 June 2009: “Fact or Fiction? You Must Drink 8 glasses of Water Daily” (www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=eight-glasses-water-per-day.com). Bellenir notes that Valtin “spent 45 years studying the biological system that keeps the water in our bodies in balance” and that Valtin can find “no scientific evidence supporting the notion that healthy individuals need to consume large quantities of water”—though Valtin acknowledges that for people with specific health concerns, like kidney stones or chronic urinary tract infections, drinking more “can be beneficial.”
Bellenir reports that in 2004 a panel of the Food and Nutrition Board “revisited the question of water consumption” and concluded that “ `the vast majority of healthy people adequately meet their daily hydration needs by letting thirst be their guide.’ ” In 2008, Bellenir writes, Dan Negoianu and Stanley Goldfarb reviewed the evidence about water intake for the “Journal of the American Society of Nephrology” and determined that there “ `is no clear evidence of benefit from drinking increased amounts of water.’ ”
Royte and Bellenir both write that the 8 X 8 myth likely started in 1945 with a recommendation from the Food and Nutrition Board of the National Research Council, which now functions under the auspices of the National Academy of Science’s Institute of Medicine. This board recommended about 64 ounces of water for the average person, but noted that much of the daily need for water is met with the water content in ingested food. How did the back end of this statement get so thoroughly lost and how did the resulting unscientific and, even, dangerous, 8 X 8 get so thoroughly embedded in our culture?
Royte notes that Valtin says he’s “tired of trying to prove a negative.” He believes that the “burden of proof that everyone needs eight by eight should fall on those who persist in advocating the high fluid intake without, apparently, citing any scientific support” (35-36). Royte notes also that Valtin analyzed “published surveys of healthy populations and found that most people weren’t drinking that much” (35). Valtin, writes Royte, said “ `The body can’t store water. If you have more than you need, you just pee it away.”
Drinking too much water leads to all sorts of problems, the most serious being death. Drinking large amounts of water in a short period of time can lead to hyponatremia, or “water intoxication,” where the kidneys cannot excrete enough excess water and where the electrolyte (mineral) content of the blood is diluted, which results in low sodium levels in the blood (Royte, 36; Mayo Clinic). Royte notes that hyponatremia can lead to “brain swelling, seizures, coma, and then death” (36).
Dr. Ben Kim, in “Why Drinking Too Much Water Is Dangerous,” notes that consistently imbibing too much water can damage the kidneys. Further, excess water increases blood volume within a closed system, which places an unnecessary burden on your heart and blood vessels. Kim is a chiropractor, but he has a wonderfully succinct analysis of this issue (http://drbenkim.com/drink-too-much-water-dangerous.html).
Dr. Thomas S. Cowan, an MD who is also a homeopath, in THE FOURFOLD PATH TO HEALING (2004), has an extended, excellent explanation of how the heart and the blood system interrelate (137-147). Cowan, like Kim, writes that “increasing total volume in the system makes it harder to move the blood because the excess water volume makes it heavier.” What you eat, combined with the presence of oxygen in the blood, helps the body release the water it needs. Specifically, the metabolism of healthy fats, especially saturated fats, liberates more water than either protein or carbohydrates. Thus, people who exercise and eat a diet “consisting plentifully of healthy fats and low in carbohydrates” have “the healthiest hearts and circulatory systems” (145). Fat deficiency, writes Cowan, cannot be solved by drinking more water; this practice “only makes the circulation more sluggish” (146).
Kathryne Pirtle, in “Acid Reflux: A Red Flag,” “Wise Traditions,” Summer 2010, 35-43), writes that too much water dilutes stomach acid, which leads to acid reflux. (Yes, low acid, not high acid causes problems, so, if needed, take hydrochloric acid with pepsin to increase acid in the stomach.) Pirtle says that in addition to mineral depletion and imbalances, too much water intake “can contribute to digestive disorders, as well as kidney disease, degenerative bone disease, muscular disorders and even cardiac arrest from electrical dysfunction.” She also notes, that “paradoxically, over-consumption of water may cause constipation” because “when too much water is added to a high-fiber diet, the fibrous foods swell and ferment in the intestinal track, leading to gas, bloating and other uncomfortable digestive symptoms” (39).
Pirtle notes that “traditional peoples did not drink large quantities of water.” Rather, “they stayed hydrated with raw milk, fermented beverages and bone broth soups, which have incredible nutrient qualities and do not upset the body’s homeostasis.” And, like Cowan, she notes that traditional people “also consumed plenty of traditional fats like butter, cream, lard and coconut oil” as “fats render much more water during metabolism than proteins or carbohydrates” (39).
The efficacy of thirst with regard to adequate hydration is a hotly debated topic. Both Royte and Bellenir note that some elderly have trouble experiencing thirst some time. Bellenir notes that “some drugs can cause problems with thirst regulation.” Processed foods, with their heavy loads of salt, sugar, bad fats, and chemical brews, create thirst. And, thirst is the body’s way of trying to cleanse itself. But, such cleansing can form a vicious cycle if constantly repeated because nutrients are flushed out as well.
TAPPED and Royte both trace the growth of bottled water as an industry. Real growth starts in the late 1970s when the French company Perrier began creating an American niche market for its distinctive dark green bottles of spring water. Perrier’s $6 million advertising budget targeted urban professionals. In 1978, sales were $20 million; in 1979, after an Orson Wells television ad, sales were $60 million (Royte 30).
In 1989, Coke and Pepsi got into the game. They put water into lightweight, clear plastic bottles and spent, TAPPED reports, “hundreds of millions of dollars telling us to `drink more water.’ “ They associated bottled water with celebrities, told us drinking water would make us thinner, and told us bottled water is “purer” and, thus, “safer,” than tap water. And, we did “drink it up.” By 2007, bottled water was an $11.5 billion business.
Bellenir writes that Dr. Barbara Rolls, professor of nutrition sciences at Pennsylvania State Unversity, argues that “ `drinking water and waiting for pounds to melt away does not work.” Further, “ `hunger and thirst are controlled by separate systems in the body.’ “ So, people do not confuse hunger for thirst.
Barbara Lippert, an Adweek Media critic, observed in TAPPED: “We’ve become like big toddlers. We’ve got the nipple to our lips constantly. We constantly need to know there’s something there just for us and that we can just throw away. We want everything individualized, personalized. We don’t want to wash it or take care of it. And we want it immediately available.” TAPPED punctuates Lippert’s comments with pictures of grown people walking with and regularly swigging from water bottles.
“Tapped” punctuates Lippert’s analysis with film of grown people on urban streets carrying and regularly swigging from water bottles. These people are metaphors for how industry advertising reduces us to individualized infants—a reduction that reduces also the power of community.
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