Everyone’s Resolution Is to Drink More Water in 2020

关于喝水，你需要知道的几个真相

 

Water is pretty boring, as far as beverages go. It doesn’t have a catchy jingle, a secret family recipe or even a taste, really. Yet people can’t seem to get enough of it.

 

水是一种没什么意思的饮品。没有关于水的广告口水歌，没有水的家传秘方，它甚至连味道都没有，真的。可是人们好像怎么喝水都不够。

 

“I get people in my office every day, every week, saying something like, ‘I’m concerned I’m not hydrated,’” said Lauren Antonucci, a nutritionist in New York City.

 

“每天、每周都有人来到我的办公室，说，‘我担心自己没有补充足够水分。’”纽约市营养学家劳伦·安托努奇（Lauren Antonucci）说。

 

Their concerns may be based on conventional wisdom. One well-known recommendation suggests drinking eight glasses of water a day; another warns that if you feel thirsty, you’re already dehydrated.

 

他们的担心可能是因为传统智慧。有个著名的建议是每天都要喝八杯水；还有一种建议警告说，如果你感到口渴，说明你已经脱水了。

 

But anxiety about water consumption could also stem from a different, more philosophical source: Hydration is now marketed as a cure for nearly all of life’s woes.

 

但是，对饮水的焦虑也可能源于另一个更有哲理的来源，现在，补充水分被推向市场，被当做一种几乎可以治愈生命中所有痛苦的疗法。

 

The Answer to Everything

解决一切问题的答案

 

Water, in recent years, has been imbued with the powers of a mysterious elixir. The latest “it” celebrity’s skin care secret? Oh, just water. Feeling sluggish? You probably need more water. Uninspired and utterly hopeless about your career and romantic prospects? Well, have you had any water today?

 

近年来，水被赋予一种灵丹妙药般的神秘魔力。最新的潮人护肤秘诀？哦，就是水。觉得疲惫吗？你可能需要更多的水。事业和恋爱毫无灵感和希望？嗯，你今天喝水了吗？

 

People hydrate as if their reputations depend on it. They dutifully carry water bottles with them wherever they go, draining and refilling them with gusto.

 

仿佛补水是一个关乎个人名誉的事。无论走到哪里，他们都忠实地随身携带水瓶，兴致勃勃地喝完水再灌满。

 

Some go so far as to track their consumption in a journal, or with a mobile app. (There’s one that uses a plant as a metaphor for the user’s well-being. Depending on the volume of water one has consumed, it may appear to be thriving or wilting.)

 

有些人甚至会用日志或者手机应用记录自己的饮水情况（有一种应用用植物来比喻用户的健康状况，根据用户的饮水量，这株植物可能会呈现出茂盛或枯萎的样子。）

 

Hydration is the mark of a well-adjusted, successful person. On Jan. 1, Twitter flooded with resolutions to drink more water, including from Twitter’s brand account.

 

补充水分是理智镇定的成功人士的标志。1月1日，Twitter上充斥着大量关于多喝水的新年决心，其中包括Twitter的品牌账户。

 

But will more conscious hydration really make for a more productive 2020?

 

但是，刻意多补充水分真的会让2020年更好吗？

 

“There’s no evidence that a little bit of dehydration really impacts anybody’s performance,” said Dr. Mitchell Rosner, a kidney specialist at the University of Virginia who studies overhydration in athletes, in a phone interview.

 

“没有证据表明一点点的脱水确实会影响任何人的状态,”弗吉尼亚大学（University of Virginia）肾脏专家米切尔·罗斯纳（Mitchell Rosner）博士在接受电话采访时说。罗斯纳研究运动员的饮水过量问题。

 

He said that most recommendations for hydration come from studies of athletes, who lose fluid rapidly during workouts or competitions, and are at a much higher risk for dehydration than the average person.

 

他说，大多数关于补充水分的建议都来自对运动员的研究，他们在锻炼或比赛中会迅速流失水分，比普通人脱水的风险要高得多。

 

For those of us who spend all day at a desk, Dr. Rosner said, it’s best to drink only when we feel thirsty.

 

罗斯纳说，对于我们这些整天坐在办公桌前的人来说，最好只在感到口渴的时候才喝水。

 

Overhydrating, he said, isn’t helping anyone. At best, Dr. Rosner said, “You pee it out.” At worst, it can cause the sodium and electrolyte levels in your body to drop to dangerously low levels. The condition, hyponatremia, can result in hospitalization and death. (This doesn’t happen often, but… good to know.)

 

他说，补水过多对任何人都没有好处。罗斯纳说，“能把水分尿出来”那最好，但在最坏的情况下会导致人体内的钠和电解质水平下降到危险的低水平。低钠血症会导致住院和死亡。（这种事不常发生，不过……知道了也没有坏处。）

 

If hydration is the goal, it’s also worth considering that water may not be the most hydrating beverage out there. A study published in 2015, of 72 male subjects, found that full-fat milk, skim milk and orange juice kept people more hydrated than still water did.

 

如果你的目标是补充水分，那么饮用水可能不是最能补水的饮品。2015年发表的一项针对72名男性受试者的研究发现，全脂牛奶、脱脂牛奶和橙汁比饮用水的补水效果更好。

 

So, could America be ready for a dairy revolution? Unlikely. That’s because water isn’t just a beverage preference that needs to be toppled. It’s a virtue.

 

那么，美国会发生一场乳品革命吗？不太可能。因为水不仅仅是一种有待颠覆的饮用偏好。它是一种美德的化身。

 

How Did We Get Here?

这种情况是怎么形成的？

 

In 2017, bottled water surpassed soft drinks as the top beverage in the United States by volume, with sales up 7 percent over the previous year, according to the Beverage Marketing Corporation, a beverage consulting firm. Since then, sales have continued to rise.

 

根据饮品咨询公司饮料营销公司（Beverage Marketing Corporation）的数据，2017年，瓶装水超过软饮料，成为美国销量最大的饮品，销量比前一年增长了7%。从那以后，销售额持续增长。

 

“It’s no accident that it’s No. 1,” said Michael Bellas, the chairman of the Beverage Marketing Corporation. “If you had to put together a perfect scenario and plan how to build a category this would have been it.”

 

“它成为第一绝非偶然，”饮料营销公司董事长迈克尔·贝拉斯（Michael Bellas）说。“这是建立完美场景，建立商品类别的好例子。”

 

In the 1970s, ad campaigns by Evian and Perrier introduced the concept of bottled water as a high-end refreshment beverage, Mr. Bellas said. Before that, bottled water was sold as a tap water replacement.

 

贝拉斯说，1970年代，依云（Evian）和巴黎水（Perrier）的广告宣传引入了瓶装水概念，把它作为一种高端的、令人恢复活力的饮品。在此之前，瓶装水只是作为自来水的替代品出售。

 

These new campaigns helped enable bottled water to compete with other grocery store beverages, like juice, coffee, soda and beer.

 

这些新的宣传令瓶装水得以同果汁、咖啡、苏打水和啤酒等杂货店出售的其他饮料竞争。

 

By the early aughts, Mr. Bellas said, people weren’t just drinking bottled water while sitting down for a meal. They were drinking it all day. While consumers may have begun to curb their intake of caffeinated or sugary beverages, they had no reason to put a limit on zero-calorie, thirst-quenching water. And they were carrying it around with them, on the go.

 

贝拉斯说，到了本世纪初，人们已经不只是吃饭时才喝瓶装水了。他们整天都喝。消费者可能会限制摄入咖啡因或含糖饮料，但他们没有理由限制零卡路里且解渴的水。他们去哪里都带着水。

 

“It changed the way beverages were consumed,” Mr. Bellas said. If people were drinking water everywhere, it could be sold anywhere. And it was. Bottled water’s indefinite shelf life and readily available product made its expansion seamless.

 

“这改变了饮品的消费方式，”贝拉斯说。如果人们走到哪里都喝水，水就可以在任何地方出售。事实也的确如此。瓶装水无限的保质期和方便生产的产品更使其不断发展。

 

As single-use plastic water bottles proliferated, an environmentally conscious response emerged: reusable water bottles. Nalgene, which began as a plastic laboratory pipette maker before outdoorsy scientists realized they were perfect for camping, became an accessory for college students in the early aughts.

 

随着一次性塑料水瓶的普及，可重复使用的水瓶这一环保意识也随之兴起。Nalgene最初只是一家普通的塑料实验室液体容器生产商，直到研究户外运动的科学家们发现，这种容器是露营的最佳选择，本世纪初，他们的产品成了大学生必不可少的物品。

 

They could pick a Nalgene color that reflected their personality and then plaster it with stickers for whatever they cared about: the college radio station, student government, the Dave Matthews Band.

 

露营的大学生可以选择一种最能反映自己个性的颜色的Nalgene水瓶，然后在上面贴上他们喜欢的东西的贴纸：大学电台、学生会、“戴夫·马修斯乐队”（Dave Matthews Band）。

 

The rise of Nalgene coincided with Mr. Bellas’s observation that carrying bottled water took on a symbolic meaning during the early aughts.

 

Nalgene水瓶的兴起与贝拉斯的观察相吻合，他发现，从本世纪初开始，携带瓶装水具有象征意义。

 

“It was cool to carry a water bottle around,” he said. “And it was healthy. It made a statement.” Reusable water bottles made the same statement with an environmental twist.

 

“随身携带一个水瓶很酷，”他说。“这是健康的。这就像一种宣言。可重复使用的水瓶也是这样的宣言，但加入了环保元素。”

 

In recent years, ever-growing environmental and health concerns have turned them into a gift-guide-worthy statement item. For the consumers with big budgets, there’s Yeti. For VSCO girls, there’s the Hydro Flask. Aesthetically discerning buyers may gravitate toward design-forward companies like Bkr or Hay.

 

近年来，日益增长的环保和健康问题令可携带水瓶变成了一种可以当做礼物的宣言。预算充足的消费者可以选择Yeti保温杯。对于喜欢用VSCO修照片的女孩来说，Hydro Flask品牌很不错。具有审美眼光的购买者则可能会倾向于Bkr或Hay这样的前卫设计公司的产品。

 

Any of them make for a gift that says, “I love you, and I want you to be hydrated.”

 

任何一款水瓶都可以作为礼物，向对方表示：“我爱你，我希望你多喝水。”

 

What About All Those Health Claims?

所有健康益处都是真的吗？

 

Water is a go-to remedy for a variety of ailments: exhaustion, headaches, digestive problems, inflammation, dry skin, acne.

 

水是治疗各种疾病的首选灵丹妙药：疲劳、头痛、消化不良、炎症、皮肤干燥、痤疮。

 

“It’s a popular idea among patients and a popular idea in consumer media that hydration equals healthy skin,” said Dr. Joshua Zeigler, a dermatologist at Mount Sinai in New York City.

 

“这是一个在病人中很流行的观点，也是消费媒体中很流行的观点，即补水可以带来健康皮肤，”纽约市西奈山医院（Mount Sinai）皮肤科医生乔舒亚·齐格勒（Joshua Zeigler）说。

 

But that’s not exactly how it works. “It’s a complete myth that eight glasses of water are necessary to maintain hydrated skin,” he said. Still, many consumers treat water like an anti-aging potion.

 

但事实并非如此。“每天要喝八杯水才能保证皮肤所必需的水分，这完全是无稽之谈，”他说。尽管如此，许多消费者仍将水视为抗衰老的神物。

 

We think of water as so good for us that the bottled water industry doesn’t need to spend much money on convincing us to buy it, compared with marketing budgets for other beverages.

 

我们认为水对我们很有好处，因此，其他饮料需要支出大笔营销预算，但瓶装水行业不需要花很多钱来说服我们购买饮用水。

 

Advertising expenditures in 2018 were $109 million for the bottled water industry, while the beer industry spent more than $1.5 billion, and the soft drink industry came close to $1 billion, according to data from Kantar Media.

 

Kantar Media公司的数据显示，2018年，瓶装水行业的广告支出为1.09亿美元，啤酒行业的广告支出超过15亿美元，软饮料行业的广告支出接近10亿美元。

 

The truth is that for the most part, consumers don’t care what brand of bottled water they buy; the best-selling brand of bottled water, according to the online statistics portal Statista, is “private label,” which is another term for “generic brand.” Consumers don’t even know who manufactured it, or where.

 

事实是，在很大程度上，消费者并不关心自己买的是什么牌子的瓶装水；根据在线统计门户网站Statista的数据，最畅销的瓶装水品牌是“私人品牌”，这是“无注册商标品牌”的另一种说法。“消费者甚至不知道它是谁生产的，在哪里生产的。”

 

Water appears immune to claims that its benefits are overblown – we need it to survive, after all. Its benefits have even become a meme. There are social media accounts dedicated to berating their followers for not drinking enough water.

 

无论怎么说水的益处被夸大了，似乎都不会影响它——我们毕竟确实需要水才能生存。它的好处甚至成为了一种米姆。有一些社交媒体账号专门用来斥责关注者没有补充足够的水。

 

But if you haven’t quite hit your quota today, don’t worry: Your 2020 isn’t already ruined. The tasty beverages you thought of as dehydrating, like coffee, tea and beer, are actually hydrating.

 

但是如果你今天还没有完成你的饮水配额，不要担心：你的2020年并没有毁掉。你认为咖啡、茶和啤酒这些有味道的饮料会让你脱水，但它们其实是补水的。

 

“Coffee is a hydrating beverage,” said Ms. Antonucci, the nutritionist. “If you’re drinking it, let go of the guilt. Enjoy it.”

 

“咖啡是一种补水饮料，”营养学家安托努奇说。“如果你喝了，就不要有负罪感。享受它。”

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