Drinking bottles look like the new sneakers: a different version every year, and they determine status determining

That I just went for a walk without a backpack. And that I would leave my drinking bus at home. That we would not be away for more than a few hours. It seemed like a simple statement. Not so. My walking company threw me a worried look: whether I was sure? And that she did not take a step away from home without that water bottle. And then something about panic followed at times without a water bottle.

Look around and you see it. Everyone on the water. Bottles, drinking buses, drinking cups, camelbaks on the back of the first the best runner. Drinking water has been given a sacred status. An aura of purity. Drink and the water will travel through your body to the smallest pore, that seems like the thought. As if our entire inside is flushed with every sip, and that you can see to our cheeks. Wrinkle -free and blushing. Probably, because that is the promise that we impress ourselves. It is a sentiment on which advertisers also ride. « Give your body the purity it deserves, » they shout at Spa. And by Evian Together with the skin care brand of Pharrell Williams, they released a series of bottles under the name « This is the Fountain of Youth ».

The New York Times has one these days great story About how a yoga scholar lost her job after she had called a student because he had drunk a sip without her permission. The video of the scene went viral. The fact that the Akkefietje had adopted such ridiculous proportions was not so weird, the newspaper winks, because hey, how humiliating to « ban someone in this time of hydration obsession ».

Water as a magic drink

Hydration obsession. That’s the word. In times of self -care, manufacturability and extreme wellness, every drop is worth gold, it seems. Water has the allure of a magic drink that must be taken with a significant look. « The link between drinking water, vitality and healthy lifestyle has been laid for a longer time, » says Professor Marijn Speeckaert, kidney doctor at UZ Gent. « But in recent years the emphasis has been very hydrated. There are all health claims linked to it, rightly so, which you sometimes have to take with a pinch of salt. And it is also in the recommendations of dietitians and health promoters. »

But whether you should drink liters and liters for that? The rule is simple, the professor knows: “30 milliliters per kilogram of body weight per day. Anyone who weighs 80 kilos is therefore good with 2.4 liters. Soup or herbal tea, soft drinks or juices count. Only drinks that contain caffeine are not allowed for the full pot, because that can also be no harm. Normal diet will only be disrupted from fifteen liters. « 

Status and comfort in a mega bottle

Whoever says water also says marketing. At the start of the hydration years we were still hip with a bottle of Vittel, Spa or Contrex, but with the climate delivery another player came into play: the water bottle or drinking bus. More environmentally friendly than a disposable bottle. But also an accessory such as another, and therefore subject to the game of modes and the corresponding status. The Hydro Flask and De Dopper once peaked, last year everyone walked around with a gigantic Stanley and now the Bink seems to be on the rise, a kind of thermos -like bottle. Water bottles are something like sneakers or backpacks today. Statusing and part of your identity. Based on social media, something else plays. Concept ‘Emotional Support Waterbottle‘ Is one thing. The concept passes in thousands of films from people who explain why they are so attached to their water bottle. Sometimes influencers, okay, because manufacturers of water bottles also have marketers in the house. But much more often it is people who think it, who really find an emotional guidance in their bottle. Girls tell them in times anxiety A sense of safety, a boy talks about his ADHD who is neutralized by keeping his bottle close to him. The bottles are always large, seem to feel soft – based on the ecstatic stress – and have a teut. The link with the pacifier is quickly made. The need for constant hydration seems to have become a psychological need that goes beyond physiological: in a world where you have less control, it is a comfort that you can at least permanently lurk such a bottle. Matter of at least to keep that hydration under control.

Camel Syndrome, as researcher Inez de Beaufort called it in years ago Journal of Public Health. She is talking about a positive addiction, so not harmful, but also observed disproportionate panic reactions when there was no water available. And she still had a nice issue: how does that change camel syndrome Our manners? Now that it is gradually becoming bon tons to lurk in the cinema or the theater?