You Won’t Believe What the European Union Has Ruled You Can’t Do With Water

If you want to understand the frustration that lead to the vote by the UK to exit the European Union, aka Brexit, don’t focus on nationalism or immigration or any of the hogwash that people like Christiane Ammanpour are spouting. Focus on the petty tyranny of the professional bureaucrats of the European Union. Not that long ago, the EU banned “abnormal curvature” in bananas, the “bendy banana” law. Now, even as the EU is devolving into a seething and effervescing puddle of #FAIL, the EU bureaucrats are still on the job, doing what they do best.

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.

This is science, right? I mean the very name dehydration is a clue:

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.

Reduced water content is actually not a “symptom of dehydration” it is the dictionary definition of dehydration and adding water, aka “hydration”, must, if logic retains any power whatsoever, be the opposite. But no, not in the EU:

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 is counterfactual gibberish. Most dehydration is not caused by a “clinical condition.” It is caused by a lack of water, usually caused by physical exertion or overheating. While bottled water may not be the only way to solve dehydration… I’ve found that been works, too… it is definitely effective and less expensive than other options.

This is not a gee whiz type of decision:

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.

This is why Britain left the EU. The petty and unrelenting tyranny of little men making little rules.nbsp;

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