Oh my God, we've been out here for fifteen minutes We need to be hydrating!
Everybody drink up. Actually, the risk of
dehydration is way overblown. (chuckling) Buh-buh-buh! You're gonna tell me
hydrating is bad? Yeah, right, take a lap. Oh, I'd never make it
all the way around. In America,
we've become obsessed with the dangers
of dehydration. People think that if they're
not constantly drinking water, they risk death. You're dehydrated. And you're dehydrated. And, oh, my God,
you're practically a mummy. But that fear
is totally baseless. Yeah, right, bub. Everyone knows you have to drink
eight glasses of water a day. Yeah, everybody knows that,
but it's not true. No study has ever shown
or even claimed that. It's just
something people say. Really? Now you tell me. (sarcastic chuckle)
Water prevents cramps. Oh, where'd
you hear that? From my coach. And I heard it
from my coach, and he heard it from
his coach, and so on. Well, you didn't
hear it from science, 'cause science says
that ain't true. Well, how much water
am I supposed to drink? Well, you can just drink
when you're thirsty. That's crazy,
you're a crazy person. Who are you? Oh, Patty, this is
Tamara Hew-Butler. She's a professor of exercise
science at Oakland University. Our bodies already possess an extremely sensitive
measure of dehydration. It's called thirst. As long as we drink
when we feel thirsty, we really
won't dehydrate. That's how humans have done it
for millions of years, and it's worked out fine. The fact is, truly dangerous
levels of dehydration are incredibly rare
and only occur in cases of extreme sickness
or isolation. As long as you have
free access to water and you drink
when you're thirsty, you'll be fine. Then why do I do this
to myself? Hmm, maybe because beverage
companies have spend decades drowning us
in ads like these. (announcer)
Hardworking hydration,
keep at it. Hydrate the hustle. G2 from Gatorade, the low-calorie,
off-field hydrator. Lucozade Sport hydrates
and fuels you better than water. 'Cause the more water you drink,
the better you feel. Drink more water! These companies have
consistently portrayed dehydration
as a serious threat for one, simple reason--
it gets us to drink more. The International
Bottled Water Association publishes
a hydration calculator that can recommend you drink
two liters of water a day. Dasani tells you
that hydration is healthy, so drink up,
preferably Dasani. Paid spokesman
Dustin Pedroia says he always hydrates
with Vita Coco because it prevents cramps,
even though it doesn't. And in "Runner's World"
magazine, Gatorade ran an ad
masquerading as an article titled "Hydration 101." It included tips like
"drink early and often," "don't wait
until you feel thirsty" and "always drinks
sports drinks." But that's all
real science, right? Ah, here's where
it gets sticky. That ad was
sponsored by the Gatorade Sports
Science Institute, which was founded
by Gatorade in 1985. Its scientific mission? To discover
exciting new reasons people should drink
their product. Our unbiased study found that people should
drink a lot of Gatorade. Terrific work,
alert the media! We also may have found
a cure for cancer. Was it Gatorade? Damn it! Get back to me
when it's Gatorade! Gatorade also sponsors
sports science research at universities
across America, and this can influence
their findings. ♪ Money, money... ♪ The American College of Sports
Medicine once recommended... When exercising, you should
drink as much as tolerable. ♪ Money, money... ♪ ♪ It's all about the money ♪ Other companies
soon followed suit. Evian's parent company
founded Hydration for Health, a group that... Important research,
everybody! Drink Evian! Science says so. Oh, I gotta tell
the Tots about this. (Adam)
And, after decades
of bad science and marketing, we now believe dehydration
is a dire threat. Gotta drink,
drink or I'll die! Well, it's not
like drinking too much liquid's
gonna kill anybody. Actually, that's
exactly what it can do. All of this scare mongering
over dehydration has created an entirely different problem:
overhydration. Phooey, you drink hard,
you pee hard. Not if you're exercising. Exercise stops you
from peeing by putting your body
in water conservation mode. And if you overhydrate then, all that extra fluid
has nowhere to go. Holy crow! It's called exercise
associated hyponatremia, and it can be deadly. In a study of
the 2002 Boston Marathon, nearly one-sixth
of the runners studied were found to have
hyponatremia. These runners drank so much
liquid during the race, that by the finish line,
they had actually gained weight. And she wins
by a belly! Okay, now, that's a joke, but this is a serious
problem in sports. At least 12 athletes have
died from overhydration. No, that's terrible. It's true.
Overhydration is dangerous. Most researchers,
including myself, think that it's the marketing
of the beverage industry that's responsibility
for this surge in fluid overload
hyponatremia. So, I've been putting
the kids in danger? No, Patty, death by hyponatremia
is extremely rare. Just give the kids
free access to water. Let 'em drink
when they're thirsty, and don't treat
these ads as science. I don't deserve
to wear this uniform.
(sobbing) Hey!
You made my Patty cry. Kids, let's practice
some tackling drills. I've got just the dummy. Ah, no wait! The truth about concussions is really interesting.
