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Last post Author Topic: FUNNY~! Drinking Water DOES NOT Hydrate!  (Read 29735 times)

Renegade

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FUNNY~! Drinking Water DOES NOT Hydrate!
« on: November 20, 2011, 07:15 AM »
This is just WWWAAAAYYY too funny. Hysterical! Utter... Total... Chaotic... Rolling on the floor pissing yourself while you try to grasp a breath of air and nearly suffocate because you're laughing so hard funny. Really!

Leave it to EU bureaucrats to figure out that it is illegal to claim that drinking water hydrates you:

http://www.telegraph...ent-dehydration.html

Full text
EU bans claim that water can prevent dehydration
 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.”


 NHS health guidelines state clearly that drinking water helps avoid dehydration, and that Britons should drink at least 1.2 litres per day.

 The Department for Health disputed the wisdom of the new law. A spokesman said: “Of course water hydrates. While we support the EU in preventing false claims about products, we need to exercise common sense as far as possible."

 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.

 However, last February, the European Food Standards Authority (EFSA) refused to approve the statement.

 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.

 Now the EFSA verdict has been turned into an EU directive which was issued on Wednesday.

 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.

 “Then they make this judgment law and make it clear that if anybody dares sell water claiming that it is effective against dehydration they could get into serious legal bother.

 EU regulations, which aim to uphold food standards across member states, are frequently criticised.

 Rules banning bent bananas and curved cucumbers were scrapped in 2008 after causing international ridicule.

 Prof Hahn, from the Institute for Food Science and Human Nutrition at Hanover Leibniz University, said the European Commission had made another mistake with its latest ruling.

 “What is our reaction to the outcome? Let us put it this way: We are neither surprised nor delighted.

 “The European Commission is wrong; it should have authorised the claim. That should be more than clear to anyone who has consumed water in the past, and who has not? We fear there is something wrong in the state of Europe.”

 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.”


EU bans claim that water can prevent dehydration

 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.

...

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.

...


 “The European Commission is wrong; it should have authorised the claim. That should be more than clear to anyone who has consumed water in the past, and who has not? We fear there is something wrong in the state of Europe.

And, it only took them 3 years to figure it out? ;D

Bwahahahahah~!

And people wonder WHY there is a crisis in Europe? Hahahahah~! ;D :P

And they're JUST figuring out that there is something WRONG in Europe? BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA~! ;D :P

You CANNOT make this stuff up! You just can't!



NOTE: I just had to share this. The devil in me is giggling thinking about how many people will pee themselves laughing, while the angel really wishes to entertain. :P


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Renegade

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Re: FUNNY~! Drinking Water DOES NOT Hydrate!
« Reply #1 on: November 20, 2011, 08:23 AM »
Here it is from the horse's mouth:

http://www.efsa.euro...journal/doc/1982.pdf

The claimed effect is “regular consumption of significant amounts of water can reduce the
risk of development of dehydration and of concomitant decrease of performance”. The target
population is assumed to be the general population. Dehydration is a condition of body water
depletion. The proposed risk factors are measures of water depletion and thus are measures of
the disease. The  proposed  claim does not comply  with the requirements for a disease risk
reduction claim pursuant to Article 14 of Regulation (EC) No 1924/2006.

It gets even better!

They DEFINE what water is!

According to the applicant, “water (chemical formula H2O, MW=18.015), a transparent, odourless and
tasteless liquid (melting point: 0°C=273,15 K; boiling point: 100°C=373,15 K). In small quantities
colourless, the colour of water in thick layers is of a slight blue hue. Water is generally considered an
essential nutrient.”

(Original version submitted in German: “Wasser (Wasserstoffoxid, H2O, MR 18,015), eine klare,
geruch- und geschmacklose, generell farblose, in dicker Schicht bläulich schimmernde Flüssigkeit
(Schmelzpunkt 0°C=273,15 K, Siedepunkt 100°C=373,15 K), die ernährungswissenschaftlich
allgemein als essentieller Nährstoff gilt.“

In English and German!

Oh, thank you for the enlightenment! I feel so smart now! ;D

But just when you thought it couldn't, it DOES get even better~! :D

EFSA DISCLAIMER
The present opinion does not constitute, and cannot be construed as, an authorisation to the marketing
of water, a positive assessment of its safety, nor a decision on whether water is, or is not, classified as
a foodstuff

A disclaimer to note that they cannot decide whether water is food or not?

You CANNOT make this stuff up~! ;D


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Freedom is the right to be wrong, not the right to do wrong. - John Diefenbaker

40hz

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Re: FUNNY~! Drinking Water DOES NOT Hydrate!
« Reply #2 on: November 20, 2011, 08:37 AM »
It took the Soviet Union something like 69 years to collapse under the weight of it's over zealous, ridiculously self-righteous, and magical-thinking bureaucracy.

Apparently, the EU is intent on accomplishing the same collapse in less than a third the time.

What further proof for the superiority of Western thinking do we need than that?

professorfirefly.jpg

Suggestion: let's transfer California's state government to Brussels; combine it with the EU;  put a big fence around the city (with a sign that says: DANGER! 100,000 Dolts!) - and make that the European Union!

Then the rest of the world's population can get on with their lives, safe in the sure knowledge that all the regulatory 'nut cases' are humanely confined and accounted for.
 8)

Eóin

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Re: FUNNY~! Drinking Water DOES NOT Hydrate!
« Reply #3 on: November 20, 2011, 12:30 PM »
Medical claims require scientific backing? My god what is the world coming to? The ignorance expressed in this thread is hilarious, yet expected.

Renegade

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Re: FUNNY~! Drinking Water DOES NOT Hydrate!
« Reply #4 on: November 20, 2011, 04:56 PM »
Medical claims require scientific backing? My god what is the world coming to? The ignorance expressed in this thread is hilarious, yet expected.

Seriously?

hy·drate
Verb: Cause to absorb water

It is true apriori.

i.e. It is trivially true.

maybe not recommended reading
It shows what sort of mental masturbation goes on in EU bureaucracy.


In other reports, there is no medical evidence that a bullet in the head does not cause death.

The BMJ has an article on the medical efficacy of parachutes and how they are unproven. Again, a complete lack of evidence for a health issue...

Seriously?


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Eóin

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Re: FUNNY~! Drinking Water DOES NOT Hydrate!
« Reply #5 on: November 20, 2011, 05:28 PM »
Yeah seriously! Dehydration as a medical/biological state was obviously defined in such a way that the claim the water will cure it is not medically proven enough that companies can go around claiming their products are a cure.

The issue seems to be the dehydration is a symptom which can have causes other than simply not drinking enough. In such cases drinking water is not a cure. If you even just read to the end of the article you linked you'd have realised this. Companies shouldn't be allowed to make medical claims willy-nilly and the only way to stop them is through regulations.

But as usual people don't care about the actual case or the facts behind it, it's more fun to assume everyone else is stupid and if that means misrepresenting facts and outright lying most people are happy.

Deozaan

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Re: FUNNY~! Drinking Water DOES NOT Hydrate!
« Reply #6 on: November 20, 2011, 05:30 PM »
So here's what I don't understand: Since drinking water so obviously helps to prevent dehydration, why do they feel the need to market bottled water as something that combats dehydration?

You don't need to specify in your marketing that a toaster toasts bread or that a coffee maker makes coffee or that a tea kettle boils water. Those features are obvious and it would be a waste of marketing space/time to point them out. It is more pertinent to point out features such as how many slices of bread the toaster can toast at once. Or perhaps that the slots are big enough to also toast bagels. Or perhaps the coffee maker plays your favorite song when the coffee is ready, or has a bigger pot than normal so it can brew much more coffee than the standard coffee maker. Or maybe the tea kettle changes colors to indicate the temperature of the water. Or maybe the speed at which it can get water boiling is noteworthy.

doctorfrog

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Re: FUNNY~! Drinking Water DOES NOT Hydrate!
« Reply #7 on: November 20, 2011, 05:31 PM »
To quote two other commenters:

"The wonderful thing is, that after reading both the Daily Telegraph and the Daily Mail pronounce this as an absurdity, I am sure that the EU has ruled correctly.

And lo, the Guardian speaks sense, once again. I would be happy but for the knowledge that, like the lies over bendy bananas, boring pub cunts will still be prattling on about this in a decade's time."

"This kind of makes sense to me. "Water hydrates" would be a valid claim, but "water prevents dehydration" is problematic because dehydration is generally caused by factors that water can't prevent, like viral or bacterial infections."

This isn't so much about a governmental body picking nits, as it is about companies putting dopey misleading health claims on anything and everything. If a silly thing like water bottles is over legislated a bit to prevent pizza sauce as being declared a vegetable in children's lunch menus, it's a net gain.

Medical claims require scientific backing? My god what is the world coming to? The ignorance expressed in this thread is hilarious, yet expected.

This also.  

Eóin

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Re: FUNNY~! Drinking Water DOES NOT Hydrate!
« Reply #8 on: November 20, 2011, 05:45 PM »
Yeah I was a bit surprised to see mention of the bendy bananas in the article when that was a lie in the first place.

fenixproductions

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Re: FUNNY~! Drinking Water DOES NOT Hydrate!
« Reply #9 on: November 20, 2011, 06:16 PM »

Eóin

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Re: FUNNY~! Drinking Water DOES NOT Hydrate!
« Reply #10 on: November 20, 2011, 06:44 PM »
Lies are never surprising  :-\

Carrot is fruit?

For the purposes of this Directive, tomatoes, the edible parts of rhubarb stalks, carrots, sweet potatoes, cucumbers, pumpkins, melons and water-melons are considered to be fruit

So wasn't a reclassification of carrots, just just a lumping of various ingredients for jam under the heading fruit to cut down on words in that directive. As usual though the lie is funnier.

Snail is fish? Don't know, can't find a single credible citation to that. But feel free to supply one.

Banana must be sized properly? Bananas must be above a certain minimum size, and free for excessive malformations. What about that exactly offends you?

Generally speaking it wouldn't hurt to do a wee bit a googleing before you repost someones else's lies and embarrass yourself.

Edvard

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Re: FUNNY~! Drinking Water DOES NOT Hydrate!
« Reply #11 on: November 20, 2011, 07:04 PM »
This entire subject is just boggling.
The claims, the misinterpretations, the justifications, it's all too much, and I can't stand it.
Right or wrong, the EFSA could have issued a much clearer ruling that didn't patently invite ridicule.
Could they not see the ramifications?

Maybe folks should read the thing for themselves:
http://eur-lex.europ...299:0001:0003:EN:PDF

Actually, maybe the EU ought to just ban the stuff altogether:
http://www.dhmo.org/

Eóin

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Re: FUNNY~! Drinking Water DOES NOT Hydrate!
« Reply #12 on: November 20, 2011, 07:18 PM »
Sometimes things are complicated, it's when the papers/bloggers bastardise the truth that suddenly something very reasonable seems ridiculous.

But in this case there is nothing complicated, the pdf you linked is very clear and unambiguous. The only ramifications/confusion come from the lies.

fenixproductions

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Re: FUNNY~! Drinking Water DOES NOT Hydrate!
« Reply #13 on: November 20, 2011, 07:27 PM »
This entire subject is just boggling.
The claims, the misinterpretations, the justifications, it's all too much, and I can't stand it.
Me neither but the thing I am afraid of is the end result. I mean: what will future bring us if the legislation goes against science (carrots case)? No matter what are the reasons behind funny law, they may not be remembered in next 20 years. Our kids may learn in school what carrot is but if they go to shop they will see: "Natural Fruits Juice" with it inside and don't understand what mindf**k it is.

I can think about speculations and lies at this moment but cannot help thoughts about world going upside down.

Eóin

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Re: FUNNY~! Drinking Water DOES NOT Hydrate!
« Reply #14 on: November 20, 2011, 09:00 PM »
Carrots were never reclassified as a fruit, it never happened! Stop saying it did when it didn't???

Frankly what future would be be more afraid of

1) Companies are allowed do what they want, selling grapes while calling them apples and claiming their recycled, feces covered, toiletroll cures cancer.

or

2) Regulations are drawn up under the eyes of 100s (1000s even) of civil servants being briefed by umpteen experts in the appropriate fields all in public view, to define want an apple actually is or what medical claims can actually be made about a product.


The only thing which will stop the world going upside is sufficient bureaucracy and regulation. It's the unregulated systems which collapse, and individuals with too much power who pass crazy laws.

There is a good reason so many stories are made up about this nonsense law, or that ridiculous legislation coming from Brussels - there just aren't anywhere near enough legitimate cock-ups to keep the newspapers with something to say.

Renegade

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Re: FUNNY~! Drinking Water DOES NOT Hydrate!
« Reply #15 on: November 20, 2011, 09:23 PM »
Yeah seriously! Dehydration as a medical/biological state was obviously defined in such a way that the claim the water will cure it is not medically proven enough that companies can go around claiming their products are a cure.


Actually, that's not a correct characterization.

The Panel notes that dehydration was identified as the disease by the applicant. Dehydrationis a condition of body water depletion.  Upon request for clarification on the risk factor, the applicant proposed “water loss in tissues” or “reduced water content in tissues” as risk factors, the reduction of which was proposed to lead to a reduction of the risk of development of dehydration. The Panel notes that the proposed risk factors are measures of water depletion and thus are measures of the disease (dehydration).


In a living organism, “water loss in tissues” or “reduced water content in tissues” are "dehydration".

The panel there simply stated that the 'risk factors' are not 'risk factors' and are merely 'measures' of dehydration. As risk factor would be something like being stranded in the desert, or whatever.

There is no mention or implication of any condition that causes dehydration, e.g. a virus, diarrhea, vomiting, etc.

As a concrete example, there is no claim that drinking water will 'cure' diarrhea.

To expand the quote above:

FROM:

“water loss in tissues” or “reduced water content in tissues” as risk factors, the reduction of which was proposed to lead to a reduction of the risk of development of dehydration.

TO:

the reduction of ("water loss in tissues" or "reduced water content in tissues") was proposed to lead to a reduction of the risk of development of ("water loss in tissues" or "reduced water content in tissues").

i.e. It's trivial, as I stated above.


But seriously, only Humpty Dumpty would characterize "dehydration" as a "disease".

http://en.wikipedia....gh_the_Looking-Glass

“I don’t know what you mean by ‘glory,’ ” Alice said.
Humpty Dumpty smiled contemptuously. “Of course you don’t—till I tell you. I meant ‘there’s a nice knock-down argument for you!’ ”
“But ‘glory’ doesn’t mean ‘a nice knock-down argument’,” Alice objected.
“When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean—neither more nor less.”
“The question is,” said Alice, “whether you can make words mean so many different things.”
“The question is,” said Humpty Dumpty, “which is to be master that’s all.”
Alice was too much puzzled to say anything, so after a minute Humpty Dumpty began again. “They’ve a temper, some of them—particularly verbs, they’re the proudest—adjectives you can do anything with, but not verbs—however, I can manage the whole lot! Impenetrability! That’s what I say!”


The issue seems to be the dehydration is a symptom which can have causes other than simply not drinking enough. In such cases drinking water is not a cure. If you even just read to the end of the article you linked you'd have realised this.


As above, that's not a correct characterization of the claim.

The claim was a trivial one. There was nothing extraordinary or non-trivial in the claim, and no mention of any cause beyond “water loss in tissues” and “reduced water content in tissues”, which is merely to say, "dehydration", which occurs naturally all the time. Breathing slowly dehydrates you, etc. etc. Your body loses water all the time. This IS dehydration. Perhaps not extreme, but it is none the less, dehydration. The claim makes no mention of degree of dehydration.

i.e. (Re)hydration is the opposite of dehydration.

If you are dehydrated, then you need to drink water. If you are drinking enough water, you will not become dehydrated (under normal conditions).

Claims about curing diarrea or some other condition are entirely different.

If you have severe diarrea, drinking water is little different than pouring water into a glass with a hole in the bottom. Are you "hydrating"? Yes. Is it doing any good? No. Because the rate of dehydration is greater than any possible rate of hydration that you can achieve. The issue there is not about de/hydration, the issue is about diarrea accelerating dehydration beyond any capacity to hydrate.

The claim made no mention of extraordinary factors.

Under normal conditions, drinking water will rehydrate you and prevent dehydration. Everyone experiences this whenever they are thirsty. There is no magic there.


Companies shouldn't be allowed to make medical claims willy-nilly and the only way to stop them is through regulations.


Absolutely agreed about not making medical claims.

As for regulation, I have no strong opinion on that topic at the moment. My inclination is that corporations are so psychopathic and corrupt, that regulation is needed.


But as usual people don't care about the actual case or the facts behind it, it's more fun to assume everyone else is stupid and if that means misrepresenting facts and outright lying most people are happy.


It's still completely hilarious. The claim is trivial, and it took the EFSA 3 years to figure it out. 3 YEARS! With 21 scientists!


 


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Renegade

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Re: FUNNY~! Drinking Water DOES NOT Hydrate!
« Reply #16 on: November 20, 2011, 09:31 PM »
More on the hilarious front:

http://www.bmj.com/c...t/327/7429/1459.full

Parachute use to prevent death and major trauma related to gravitational challenge: systematic review of randomised controlled trials


Abstract
Objectives To determine whether parachutes are effective in preventing major trauma related to gravitational challenge.

Design Systematic review of randomised controlled trials.

Data sources: Medline, Web of Science, Embase, and the Cochrane Library databases; appropriate internet sites and citation lists.

Study selection: Studies showing the effects of using a parachute during free fall.

Main outcome measure Death or major trauma, defined as an injury severity score > 15.

Results We were unable to identify any randomised controlled trials of parachute intervention.

Conclusions As with many interventions intended to prevent ill health, the effectiveness of parachutes has not been subjected to rigorous evaluation by using randomised controlled trials. Advocates of evidence based medicine have criticised the adoption of interventions evaluated by using only observational data. We think that everyone might benefit if the most radical protagonists of evidence based medicine organised and participated in a double blind, randomised, placebo controlled, crossover trial of the parachute.

...


That's just excellent~! ;D

You really must read the whole thing though.

The point of the BMJ parachute experiment proposal is to suggest that it's ok to not be a complete buffoon and that some things can be safely taken at face value.

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Eóin

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Re: FUNNY~! Drinking Water DOES NOT Hydrate!
« Reply #17 on: November 20, 2011, 09:49 PM »
I would think it took 3 years because of how borderline the claim is. In the end they decided you can't claim drinking water reduced the risk of dehydration because the "risk-factors" were so badly defined.

Simple really, if you want to claim your product reduces the risk-factors of something, you'd really want to know what those risk factors are. These guys clearly didn't.

If someone else can come along and show otherwise the regulations will undoubtedly be changed. The media won't report that of course, because that would be boring.

mrainey

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Re: FUNNY~! Drinking Water DOES NOT Hydrate!
« Reply #18 on: November 20, 2011, 09:59 PM »
Maybe the manufacturers should be required to include a line stating that drinking large amounts of water in a short period of time can result in death (which is true).
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Renegade

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Re: FUNNY~! Drinking Water DOES NOT Hydrate!
« Reply #19 on: November 20, 2011, 11:25 PM »
I would think it took 3 years because of how borderline the claim is. In the end they decided you can't claim drinking water reduced the risk of dehydration because the "risk-factors" were so badly defined.


The original claim is just as silly as the response. Ask a silly question, get a silly answer? :P


Simple really, if you want to claim your product reduces the risk-factors of something, you'd really want to know what those risk factors are. These guys clearly didn't.


Yep. Which only makes the whole thing all that much funnier~! ;D


If someone else can come along and show otherwise the regulations will undoubtedly be changed. The media won't report that of course, because that would be boring.


The media rarely reports anything useful.

Actually, I like the communist China English news. It's a refreshing perspective. Slanted? Sure. But still refreshing.

Al Jazeera is excellent. Again, a much broader perspective that's nice to hear from.


Maybe the manufacturers should be required to include a line stating that drinking large amounts of water in a short period of time can result in death (which is true).


That would be hilarious!

What would be even better is to have some bottler package their water in slightly smaller bottles, e.g. 495 ml vs. 500 ml bottles, then claim that their water is less deadly than the competition~! ;D In some twisted way, it would be true... :P
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Re: FUNNY~! Drinking Water DOES NOT Hydrate!
« Reply #20 on: November 21, 2011, 06:26 AM »
From what I understand from the only information I read on the matter, this was actually an attempt to have the EU remove the laws that prevent manufacturers from writing their product cures all kinds of problems on its packing.
I think it was a clever trick, but I'm happy that the EU did this ruling, I don't think it'd be nice for us to have the packing of french fries saying they cure cancer.

[edit] obviously, Eóin had already said something similar to this in his previous posts, so just carry on  :-[ [/Edit]
« Last Edit: November 21, 2011, 12:05 PM by jgpaiva, Reason: typo »

40hz

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Re: FUNNY~! Drinking Water DOES NOT Hydrate!
« Reply #21 on: November 21, 2011, 09:00 AM »
I'm happy that the EU did this ruling, I don't think it'd be nice for us to have the packing of french fries saying they cure cancer.

Very true, except for the fact that no French fry producer ever has, or is ever likely, to make such a claim.

Gotta be very cautious when you want to send a message you're serious about enforcing a piece of legislation. It's very important to carefully choose your test case. If you don't, you're wide open to public ridicule and outrage - which usually results in the law being widely flaunted or ignored. Take a look at "sexual harassment" "persons with disabilities" and many consumer protection laws. Ridiculous suits, and even more ridiculous court rulings on obviously bogus cases, have brought those very laws into question. Which is a shame. Because the problems those laws were passed to address are very real.
 :)

app103

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Re: FUNNY~! Drinking Water DOES NOT Hydrate!
« Reply #22 on: November 22, 2011, 01:38 AM »
Actually it has more to do with sugar loaded soft drinks than water itself. Soft drink manufacturers do not want bottled water producers to make claims that they can not legally put on their own bottles. Unless Coca Cola can make matching health claims on their product, they don't want anyone else to state the obvious. To claim that water can prevent or treat dehydration on the packaging of your product is to say that water is better for you than sugar-loaded soda pop...

And we can't have that, because people will start drinking water instead of soda pop, and Coca Cola will unfairly suffer an economic loss. If a soft drink manufacturer can not make the same claim, based on the water content of their product (almost every beverage can prevent dehydration in the same way that water can, because most contain water) then it is an unfair advantage given to the bottled water producers. So, they have to punish the bottled water producers, disallow them to make the claim, and thereby preventing soda pop manufacturers to make the same claim, fooling the public into thinking that sugar-loaded soda pop is actually good for you and they should drink more of it without any guilt.

It also might lead people to believe that bottled water works better at preventing/treating dehydration than tap water, that somehow the water in the bottle has some sort of magical properties that tap water does not. After all, where is the label with the same health claims on your faucet? There is none.

I'm happy that the EU did this ruling, I don't think it'd be nice for us to have the packing of french fries saying they cure cancer.

Very true, except for the fact that no French fry producer ever has, or is ever likely, to make such a claim.

But if they allow bottled water producers to claim it can prevent dehydration, what would stop the french fry maker from claiming their product can prevent low blood sugar, and then the ignorant consumer saying to themselves "Oh, I don't want low blood sugar to happen to me, so I better eat more french fries" and then eating themselves right into a case of Type 2 Diabetes, all the while thinking they were doing something healthy to themselves?.

Don't think that a french fry manufacturer wouldn't do that. Back in the 80's when everybody got cholesterol crazy and it was determined that liquid soybean oil didn't raise your cholesterol level the same as animal fats, butter, or margarine, the place where my husband worked, that deep fried everything, hung up a big sign advertising how their product was good for your heart, cooked in cholesterol-free soybean oil. And something like this should NEVER have a claim attached to it intended to try to fool the public into thinking that it is healthy and good for you!

Deozaan

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Re: FUNNY~! Drinking Water DOES NOT Hydrate!
« Reply #23 on: November 22, 2011, 03:47 AM »
Unless Coca Cola can make matching health claims on their product, they don't want anyone else to state the obvious. To claim that water can prevent or treat dehydration on the packaging of your product is to say that water is better for you than sugar-loaded soda pop...

And we can't have that, because people will start drinking water instead of soda pop, and Coca Cola will unfairly suffer an economic loss.

I'm not sure I believe that conspiracy theory, since Coca-Cola actually owns at least one bottled water company.

How's this for scary? List of Coca-Cola brandsw

capitalH

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Re: FUNNY~! Drinking Water DOES NOT Hydrate!
« Reply #24 on: November 22, 2011, 03:49 AM »
Hmm, does this means next up they will ban sport car advertisers from advertising that it helps attract girls?