Key in a healthy diet

Water is widely considered as the preferred drink for hydration and helps to fight against overweight and obesity risk.

Nestlé Waters believes that the role of bottled water as one of the means to fight against overweight and obesity risk is fundamental and has been underestimated.

The increase in total calorie intake correlates to the rise in obesity rates.

The World Health Organisation has established an International Classification of adult underweight, overweight and obese according to BMI The Body Mass Index (BMI) is a simple index of weight-for-height that is commonly used to classify underweight, overweight and obesity in adults. It is defined as the weight in kilograms divided by the square of the height in metres (kg/m2). For example, an adult who weighs 70kg and whose height is 1.75m will have a BMI of 22.9. : normal range: 18.50-24.99, overweight =25.00, obese=30.00.

A recent study shows that between 1965 and 2002 almost 50% of the increase of calorie intake in the USA is attributable to the consumption of sugar-sweetene beverages.(1)

Indeed beverage choices have shifted over the last 30 years to include less water and more sugar-sweetened beverages. Between 1965 and 2002, average calorie intake from beverages almost doubled, rising from 236 to 458 calories per day (1).

Consequently, by 2002 beverages accounted for 21% of daily calorie intake.(1)

In 2005, Dr. Barry Popkin, Professor of global nutrition (University of North Carolina) studied the link between water consumption and weight loss. Based on his previous research, Popkin found that people with higher water consumption had healthier food and beverage habits (2). A second study from 2006 showed that individuals who drank water while dieting were more likely to lose weight than people who drank other beverages (3).

In addition to that, preliminary research among overweight women who are dieting as part of a healthy lifestyle, suggests that drinking water instead of caloric beverages results in weight loss (4).

Sources:
(1) Duffey and Popkin ( 2007), Obesity 15: 2739-2746.
(2) Popkin et al (2005), Obesity research 13: 2146-2152.
(3) Popkin et al (2006), American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 83: 529-542.
(4) Stookey et al. Obesity. 2008; 16: 2481-2488.