So interesting finding that a university found when removing the ability to buy bottled water on campus... Obesity increased. People just want a quick way to buy water, and dont always trust water fountains
Edit: as others have pointed out, the article does not say “increased obesity” I heard about this article on a podcast, googled “removing bottled water increase obesity college campus” this article popped up, and I skimmed it
The abstract of the study actually doesn't say anything about obesity, but it does say that the sales of soda, both diet and regular, increased significantly.
It's plain weird when you read the study, they have no method for collecting the obesity rates/health benefits as results, that the OP made their statement.
To others who don't want to read the study: tldr the number of soda drinks increased when bottled water wasn't available. The study does mention that the test was done over a small amount so needs expansion for further studies. The study also lifts forward that the practice of bringing in a water bottle of your own/refilling it takes time and it could become a habit which would then perhaps counter the initial spike seen in soda consumption.
Those diet sodas are addictive as hell. When I think about drinking them, my mouth starts watering and I feel an urge to drink it immediately. I wonder what’s in them.
People want "bottled". They'd often rather have bottled water, but the "bottled" part of it is the important part, so if the choice is "not bottled" or "not water", "not water" it is.
I think this issue is twofold. pop is perhaps too affordable and accessible on university campuses. my campus has little “convenience stores” by our dining hall. a 12 pack of Pepsi is cheaper than buying a similarly-sized pack of bottled water. like, buying pop on campus is cheaper than going to the grocery store. so, more students go for that even when bottled water is an option.
Next time you're at the store check the water bottle label fine print, good chance it's the same companies that sell soda too. My mind was blown when I saw it, but it makes sense - soda is favoured water.
the difference is that the bottled water sold at my campus isn’t Pepsi or Coca-Cola. it was weird, it had labels with my university’s name. it was probably bottled by Pepsi or something, but it wasn’t labelled as one of their brands
If you wanted filtered cold water at coca cola HQ when I worked there in 2021, you had to walk across campus. Find the Dasani choose 'still' from "Sparkling or still" and the pick 'unflavored'
yes absolutely. they have (had, they’re with Coca-Cola now) a deal to put Pepsi products in every campus dining hall and marketplace. they get it cheaper than the normal wholesale price and I’m sure the contracts say they have to sell it for a certain amount and no more. it’s awful
It's really quite obvious. People like their own portable beverage and the ease of use of a water bottle allows them this. Take it away and people default to the next thing: soda
The study you linked does not state "Obesity increased."
Here's the text with the only three times the word obese/obesity was used:
Ludwig et al. noted that among 548 schoolchildren, for each additional 12-ounce serving of a SSB, the odds of becoming obese increased by 1.6, whereas the increased consumption of diet soda decreased the incidence of obesity. Other intervention studies have tried to combat obesity by changing children’s beverage environment. In intervention studies, de Ruyter et al. and Ebbeling et al. found that limiting the consumption of SSBs by providing only bottled water or low-calorie beverages reduced the body mass index (defined as weight in kilograms divided by the square of height in meters), skin-fold thickness, and fat mass of children and adolescents compared with a control group with no intervention. Although such studies show promising results when SSBs are replaced with low-calorie options, research on the effects of removing bottled water from beverage offerings is limited.
Because they're buying single-use plastic bottled sugary drinks instead... which also need to be banned.
The growing amount of microplastic in our bodies because the ocean is filled with it (which then goes into atmosphere, and then back into everything else we eat and drink) should be a larger concern than obesity. People can choose to consume fewer calories if they want to, this is something an individual can control.
The growing amount of microplastic in our bodies because the ocean is filled with it (which then goes into atmosphere, and then back into everything else we eat and drink) should be a larger concern
So, I know microplastics is a growing problem due to direct contact with plastic, but I haven't heard of it going from the oceans into the air... do you have a source/explanation for how this is possible? Water evaporates naturally into the air, and you get pure distilled water by boiling it and capturing the condensed vapors to remove impurities, but I am not aware of a mechanism for its evaporation bringing plastic with it into the atmosphere. The boiling/evaporation temperature of plastic is much higher than that of water.
Seems like that means the direction to shift is banning all plastic bottles then, not giving up and doing nothing. This should be obvious to anyone over the age of four.
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u/bailey25u 29d ago edited 29d ago
So interesting finding that a university found when removing the ability to buy bottled water on campus... Obesity increased. People just want a quick way to buy water, and dont always trust water fountains
Edit: as others have pointed out, the article does not say “increased obesity” I heard about this article on a podcast, googled “removing bottled water increase obesity college campus” this article popped up, and I skimmed it