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Water: the magic ingredient

Published: 14/07/2021

As part of our #FoodFuture project we’re asking how we can deliver truly sustainable food systems. We’re listening to farmers, consumers, policymakers, businesses, NGOs, academics and others. By listening and working together, we will create a better future. This month we’re looking at the active lifestyles and we spoke to Patricia Fosselard, Secretary General of Natural Mineral Waters Europe, to tell us more.

It is summer 2021 and cautious gasps of relief cross through Europe. We see progress in Covid-19 vaccination rates, we are back in our favourite restaurant, temperatures have hit high records in several EU countries and finally football fans can applaud a new Euros champion.

Summer is the time where we must pay increased attention to staying sufficiently hydrated throughout the day. But do you know just how much you need to drink to be sufficiently hydrated? Why is it so important that we drink enough? And why is it even more important that we drink water specifically?

Did you know that on average 60% of an adult’s body weight is composed of water? As such, water is our most important macro-nutrient and plays a key role in our body. It is essential to life, from every cell and tissue to each vital organ, everything in our body requires water to function. Without water we would only survive a few days.

Hydration is critical during sports for instance. To support a healthy lifestyle, doctors prescribe regular exercise, which naturally leads to water loss in our body by sweating. Can you believe that a football player can lose up to 3 litres of their body mass in water during a match?

Hydration also plays a key role in the prevention of some non-communicable diseases and scientific studies have shown that it also affects our mood. Free of calories, sugar and additives, water is the most healthy and natural way to stay hydrated.

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Even if this is not new information for you, it is not well known by everyone. Available data still suggests that Europeans at all stages of life are not drinking enough and are not meeting the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) guidelines for daily water intake. To allow our body to perform optimally, EFSA recommends that we drink between 1.6 for a female and 2 litres for a male on average a day. Those values have to be adapted to climate and physical activity.

At Natural Mineral Waters Europe, we believe that the health of European citizens is our shared responsibility! That is why we promote access to water from every source, because all waters support a healthier diet and lifestyle. Making water people’s first choice should always be promoted, natural mineral waters and spring waters have a special role to play.

Natural mineral and spring water producers take special pride in valuing water and protecting water sources, many of them for several generations. European natural mineral waters offer a wide range of tastes and compositions. By giving consumers the possibility to choose their water by taste depending on mineral content and their preference for still or sparkling, we are meeting the growing demand for healthy and natural products.

We believe everyone should be empowered with the information they need to make the healthiest diet and lifestyle choices: what to eat, what to drink and how much to exercise. We want to be a partner in enabling consumers to make informed and healthy choices in their daily life.