Another current advertising campaign has me scratching my head.

A fit and healthy looking young man says that he has accepted a challenge to drink a litre and a half of a particular brand of mineral water every day for a month. Bits of video are shown of him drinking water. Then he says his month is up and he feels much fitter and healthier than before.

Cut to a picture of a mountain where the water is apparently filtered through the layers of rock so that when you drink it, it produces "Deep Volcanic Hydration".


Sorry guys. "Deep Volcanic Hydration" is about as meaningful a phrase as "Fluffy Liquid Loveliness". Drinking water is certainly good for you but drinking tap water, which is free, is just as efficacious as drinking expensive bottled mineral water - well it is in this country anyway. I wonder, though, just how many people buy into this pseudo-scientific stuff. By all means sell bottled water on the merits of its taste (personally I don't think it tastes any different to tap water but I'm happy to concede that this is a matter of opinion) but implying that the man in the advert feels better because he has drunk this brand of expensive water seems to me to be a bit of a reach.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: BobHale,

Agreed, Bob, about the "deep volcanic hydration" description.

I have never understood the intrigue of bottled water either. However, I know some who don't see the difference between tap and cask beer, so each to his (or her) own, I guess.

There's a sucker born every minute, right?

I admit that I do taste a difference in some bottled waters, and there are a few that I truly enjoy having from time to time. I also will sometimes purchase waters with added vitamins if I'm feeling particularly punky on a given day. I almost always use the bottle the rest of the day, then recycle it and use my good stainless steel bottle or a glass again after. I try to drink a lot of water, though.

Assuming the subject of the challenge was being truthful, and he did in fact feel fitter and healthier than before, it might well have been because he was drinking more water than before.

According to Wikipedia, "Health authorities have historically suggested at least eight glasses, eight fluid ounces each (168 ml), of water per day (64 fluid ounces, or 1.89 litres) and the British Dietetic Association recommends 1.8 litres".

quote:

Health authorities have historically suggested at least eight glasses,

Even if you're outdoors in Arizona? Do you need that much if you're in a more humid clime? I have been around for quite a few years and cannot remember when I ever drank that much water in one day.

As for bottled water, it is all peer pressure. Once someone noticed a trendstter drinking a bottled beverage, everyone had to follow. We're not in a desert here (during summer, temps seldom go past the 90s), yet nearly everyone younger than thirty carries a water bottle as if heatstroke was inevitable without it. They spend a dollar a bottle for something they can get free at any faucet. Why not just fill an empty bottle and save money while retaining image?

And, naturally, bottled water isn't enough now. It has to be "fortified" in some way. Which raises profit margins and keeps customers and consumers buying over-priced and unnecessary -- not to mention environmentally-harmful -- products.

On the online shopping site for my local supermarket it also tells me that the water is



"VOLCANO FILTERED SO IT'S FULL OF VOLCANICITY."



Whatever that means.

quote:

"VOLCANO FILTERED SO IT'S FULL OF VOLCANICITY."

A rough translation:

"ARE YOU STUPID ENOUGH TO BUY THIS CRAP?"

quote:

Originally posted by arnie:
According to Wikipedia, "Health authorities have historically suggested at least eight glasses, eight fluid ounces each (168 ml), of water per day (64 fluid ounces, or 1.89 litres) and the British Dietetic Association recommends 1.8 litres".

Later on in that same article (under "Requirements") it says:

quote:

It is a common misconception that everyone should drink two litres (68 ounces, or about eight 8-oz glasses) of water per day and is not supported by scientific research

A doctor once told me that "eight 8-oz glasses" meant just that. The water in food didn't count and neither did the water in other drinks. I never did believe it. The above quote from Wikipedia seem to justify my skepticism. Wikipedia cites three sources:

Research debunks health value of guzzling water, Reuters, April 2008.

"Drink at least eight glasses of water a day." Really? Is there scientific evidence for "8 × 8"?, Am J Physiol Regul Integr Comp Physiol 283: R993-R1004, 2002.

Just Add Water, J. Am. Soc. Nephrol. 19: 1041-1043, 2008.

In the second article Dr. Heinz Valtin of Dartmouth Medical School concluded there was no scientific basis for the "8X 8" advice. He couldn't find the origin of this advice but He did find the following quote by Frederick J. Stare (1910–2002) which he speculated may have been the origin of the advice.

quote:

How much water each day? This is usually well regulated by various physiological mechanisms, but for the average adult, somewhere around 6 to 8 glasses per 24 hours and this can be in the form of coffee, tea, milk, soft drinks, beer, etc. Fruits and vegetables are also good sources of water.

This quote is from a 1974 book and I think I heard that 8X8 nonsense before then. Although he says coffee is ok, in his 1998 book, Fad-Free Nutrition, co-written with Dr. Elizabeth Whelan, he cautions against too much caffeine-containing beverages, especially coffee, since caffeine is a diuretic.

In the last article, the authors conclude:

quote:

There is no clear evidence of benefit from drinking increased amounts of water. Although we wish we could demolish all of the urban myths found on the Internet regarding the benefits of supplemental water ingestion, we concede there is also no clear evidence of lack of benefit. In fact, there is simply a lack of evidence in general.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: tinman,

quote:

In fact, there is simply a lack of evidence in general.

Except for the evidence that too much water can kill you.

Snopes, as usual, has some references as well as a discussion of this meme (link).

There are several examples of the Volvic commercials on YouTube. Here's one.

They seem rather tongue in cheek. (Maybe it's the UK accents.)

The adverts I looked at are all a few years old. I don't think I've seen the latest ones Bob mentioned, although they've been using the "Volcanicity" theme for several years, going back to even before the ones on YouTube.