EU to Water Bottlers: H20 Won't Stop Dehydration

"Water prevents dehydration"? The EU is warning water companies not to make such outrageous claims. After a 3-year investigation into the effects of water, EU officials announced this week that bottled-water producers are forbidden from making the statement—and risk 2 years in prison if they do. A gathering of 21 scientists in Parma, Italy, earlier this year decided that dehydration can't be reversed by drinking water, the Telegraph reports.

Where to start with the reactions? “The euro is burning, the EU is falling apart and yet here they are ... trying to deny us the right to say what is patently true," says one British member of European parliament. Another compared it to the now-scrapped "bendy banana law," a 2008 EU ruling that banned bendy bananas; another outlawed curved cucumbers. But one British professor supports the ruling, saying dehydration is usually a clinical condition, and people can stay hydrated without drinking water. (More bottled water stories.)