Hydration and non-alcoholic beverages
- Keeping the body well hydrated is essential in ensuring optimum mental and physical functioning in humans.
- Consuming 2-2.5 litres of fluid each day comprising both drinks and food such as fruit and vegetables, will generally keep hydration levels normal in adults.
- Science shows that consuming different fluids – water, juices and both hot and cold beverages – encourages drinking by providing variety and choice in flavours and format.
- The basic ingredient of a non-alcoholic beverage is always water. Sometimes a sweetener and a flavour are added. Water represents about 90% of a sugar-containing carbonated drink (even more in low calorie versions).
- In its advice on nutrient profiles the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) stressed the special role that beverages play in the diet due to their hydration properties. This is a link to the one page summary, with the relevant paragraph highlighted below.
(The Regulation requires that the setting of nutrient profiles should take into account the dietary role and importance of food groups and their contribution of nutrients to the overall diet of the population (or specific population groups).Food groups with important dietary roles include vegetable oils, spreadable fats, dairy products, cereals and cereal products, fruits and vegetables and their products, meat and meat products, fish and fish products, and non-alcoholic beverages. The different dietary roles of such food groups are related to differences in their nutrient composition, as well as their (habitual) intake, and are recognised in food based dietary guidelines in Member States)
- A loss of fluid is essential to sustaining a normal body temperature, hence the focus should be on how to replace lost fluid effectively. The amount of fluid lost during the day can vary considerably from one person to the next, depending on body type, activity levels and climate.
- Dehydration can result in a decrease in general physical performance, excess fatigue, headaches and lack of concentration and coordination.
- Scientific studies have shown that losing more than 2% of body weight, 1.5kgs or 1.5 litres for an average 75kg person, through dehydration results in a decrease in physical and mental performance.
- Drinking too much fluid can cause the body to become over-hydrated, causing a breakdown in the body’s ability to function properly.
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