According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 34 percent of Americans are now obese, fewer than 6 percent are extremely or morbidly obese and another 32.7 percent are considered overweight. These results, from the “2005-2006 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey” (NHANES), were released on January 9, 2009 by the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS).

The data in the report indicates that almost three-quarters (72.7 percent) of all Americans weigh more than is healthy for their individual body types. According to the NCHS, “The prevalence of obesity in America has doubled in the past two decades.” As the NCHS report further notes: “A high prevalence of overweight and obesity is of great public health concern because excess body fat leads to a higher risk for premature death, type 2 diabetes, hypertension, dyslipidemia, cardiovascular disease, stroke, gall bladder disease, respiratory dysfunction, gout, osteoarthritis and certain kinds of cancers.”

Water is part of the solution
The International Bottled Water Association (IBWA) believes that drinking water — be it bottled or tap — is an important part of a healthy diet. Good hydration — with plenty of calorie-free water — has an important role to play in solving the alarming and preventable obesity problem. Water is an excellent choice for consumers who wish to avoid or moderate calories, caffeine, sugar or the various ingredients found in other beverages. And many consumers have made the decision to drink bottled water to satisfy their hydration needs. Whether at home, the office or on the go, bottled water is a safe, healthy and convenient beverage choice.

A report by the White House Task Force on Childhood Obesity released on May 11, 2010, highlighted the importance of drinking water. One of the recommendations in that report is that when the U.S. Departments of Agriculture (USDA) and Health and Human Services (HHS) update their joint Dietary Guidelines later this year, the following message could be included: “Drink water instead of soda or juice with added sugar.” (Recommendation 2.1)

Figuring out how much water to drink
In order to help individuals determine their personal hydration goals, IBWA features a Hydration Calculator on its website. It is an interactive tool based on expert resources and the most current findings of the National Academy of Sciences, as reported in its February 2004 report, “Dietary Reference Intakes (DRI) for Water, Potassium, Sodium, Chloride and Sulfate.”

IBWA’s Hydration Calculator provides helpful suggestions about an individual’s total fluid intake derived from both beverages and food, and other information about water’s vital role in refreshment, health and hydration. To use the IBWA Hydration Calculator, visit www.bottledwater.org/ public/hydratio_main.htm.

Actions taken to improve bottled water’s environmental footprint
Despite bottled water’s benefits as a healthy, safe and convenient beverage, some people are concerned about its environmental impact, including a gap in how many empties are recycled and the depletion of groundwater resources. And some have raised questions about the safety of drinking beverages packaged in plastic. Provided below are the facts about these issues.

• IBWA and the bottled water industry are committed to working with government officials, civic leaders and others to promote comprehensive environmental conservation and stewardship policies. Bottled water companies are taking action to reduce their environmental footprint, including bottle light-weighting, use of recycled PET plastic (known as rPET) and the use of hybrid trucks.

• Bottled water provides consumers with a refreshing, healthy, safe product that keeps them hydrated, whether in a car, at home, on the job or at a ballgame. Therefore, any actions by government officials or activist groups that would discourage the consumption of water because it happens to be packaged in a container (as nearly all beverages are) are not in the public’s best interest.

• According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), plastic bottled water containers make-up only one-third of one percent (.33 percent) of all municipal waste in the U.S. Bottled water is one of thousands of consumer products packaged in plastic. Any efforts to reduce the environmental impact of packaging must therefore focus on all consumer products. Since bottled water is probably the healthiest packaged beverage a person can buy, it doesn’t make sense to single-out this product, especially when obesity, heart disease and diabetes are growing as national health issues.

• Bottled water containers are 100 percent recyclable and bottled water companies have reduced the weight and density of their plastic bottles by 32 percent over eight years. That’s the equivalent of removing one out of three bottles from the waste stream, since measurement of recycled material is calculated by weight. Plastic water bottles have the highest curbside recycling rate of any single product packaged in plastic: 30.9 percent. That’s still not good enough, but it is a substantial improvement over the 20 percent rate from several years ago. Many nationally known bottled water companies now also integrate strong recycling messages on their labels and in advertising.

• Some critics incorrectly claim that harmful substances can leach from the plastic used in bottled water and other food and beverage containers. However, these containers must meet or exceed all U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) requirements. And FDA has affirmatively determined that, when approved plastics are used as intended in food-contact applications, the nature and amount of substances that may migrate, if any, are safe and do not pose a health risk.

• Bottled water companies are good stewards of the environment and the nation’s groundwater resources. According to a study by the Drinking Water Research Foundation, based upon data from the U.S. Geological Survey, groundwater withdrawals for bottled water production represent only 0.02 percent (two one-hundredths of one percent) of the total groundwater withdrawals in the U.S. on an annual basis.

• While bottled water and tap water are regulated differently, federal law requires FDA’s bottled water regulations to be as protective of the public health as EPA’s standards for tap water. (See Section 410 of the Federal, Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act.)

Water, whether tap or bottled, allows consumers to stay hydrated. Along with a healthy diet and reasonable exercise, drinking water can help to bring the obesity epidemic to an eventual halt. The convenience of bottled water makes it easier to drink more water more often, which should be encouraged.