Providing the scientific evidence

Florence Constant, Nutrition Development Director, Nestlé Waters Nestlé Waters is actively involved in water and hydration research and collaboration around the world, focusing on the importance of water and hydration to good health. The company’s scientific programmes address health and nutrition aspects of water consumption, effects of minerals, and other water-related topics concerning packaging, environment and analysis. Nestlé Waters’ research programmes are the result of close collaboration of the Nutrition Development Director for Nestlé Waters, the Product Technology Centre on Water in Vittel (France), the Nestlé Research Centre in Lausanne (Switzerland), and independent scientists recognised for their expertise in the major areas of interest.

International conferences on water and health

To maintain close contact and facilitate fruitful collaborations between Nestlé Waters' own researchers and the external scientific community, the company organised 3 international conferences on hydration between 1998 and 2004 and sponsored a conference on Hydration and Health in April 2006. These included:

The choice of water as a beverage promotes a healthier diet and lifestyle: it reduces excess calories from sweetened soft drinks, considered to be one of the drivers of overweight and obesity

• “Hydration throughout life” in Vittel, France in 1998. It focused on physiological aspects of water such as thirst, controlling hydration and hydration for athletes and the elderly.
• The review of the effects on health of mild dehydration, in Dortmund, Germany in 2001.
• The importance of hydration for maintaining good health, and the evaluation of the hydric state and requirements of human beings, in Lausanne in 2004. This conference confirmed the importance of maintaining good hydration in order to sustain mental and physical performance. “Hydration and Health”, as part of the Experimental Biology was to investigate the relationship between dehydration and obesity, diabetes and chronic diseases. Professor Barry Popkin presented Nestlé’s findings on hydration and weight.

Pilar Rodriguez checks the alkaline balance (pH) of source water to ensure quality at the Herrera del Duque factory in Spain

Research on water and obesity

Daily calorie intake from beverages, by adults in the USA, 1965-2002. Source: K. Duffey and B.M. Popkin (2007). Shifts in patterns and consumption of beverages between 1965 and 2002, Chapel Hill, NC [D] Obesity is a serious and wide-spread public health problem, so new strategies are needed to help the general public avoid over-consumption of calories. Nestlé engaged Professor Barry Popkin to study the potential role of water as a healthy diet option for losing weight systematically. A first study applied innovative statistical analyses to the USA NHANES III (National Health and Nutritional Examination Survey III; 1988-1994) database to understand the link between water consumption and weight loss. The results showed that people with higher water consumption had healthier diets: they consumed less energy, fewer soft drinks and fewer sweet or salty snacks. However, the data also demonstrated that much more needed to be understood to clarify the direct and specific potential of water in healthy diets for all consumers. In a second research study from 1999-2001, data were evaluated from a study of 4755 people who followed different weight loss diets over a period of one year. The data showed that diets that were relatively higher in drinking water, as opposed to caloric beverages, were positively associated with weight loss. The conclusion from the research is that promoting the intake of drinking water may be an efficient alternative to lower the intake of caloric beverages and may help to avoid calorie over-consumption, the main cause of obesity.