Our mission

We believe that drinking water is the healthiest way to hydrate.

Our Mission

Our mission is to raise public awareness of healthy hydration, and encourage sustainable healthy hydration habits, by sharing scientific research, educational materials and practical tools.
Nutritional advice typically focuses on food intake. Yet, the quantity and quality of the fluids we drink every day can have a significant impact on our well-being and long-term health. Therefore, one of our primary challenges is to communicate the fundamental need for healthcare policymakers and practitioners to proactively provide healthy hydration advice.

Need for action

In the context of the development of obesity worldwide and the development of kidney disease, there is a need to develop prevention approaches. Among other healthy lifestyle measures, drinking an adequate amount of water every day can significantly contribute to maintaining good heath. We believe there is a need to increase awareness on the scientific evidence supporting the need and the benefits of drinking enough water each day and to educate all stakeholders. This is precisely what the Hydration for Health initiative aims to achieve:

• People need to be made more aware of the current worldwide obesity ‘epidemic’ and its implications for future health
• Healthcare professionals should be encouraged to talk with colleagues and patients about the importance of encouraging water intake, particularly in children
• Guidelines, particularly those covering hydration and health, should be made available for healthcare professionals to discuss with patients
• Consumption of water in preference to other beverages should be highlighted as a simple step towards healthier hydration

1. Professor Max Lafontan is a principal investigator at the French National Institute for Health and Medical Research (Inserm).
Prof. Lafontan obtained a PhD and a Doctorat-es-Sciences thesis from University Paul Sabatier (Toulouse, France) in 1979. He was appointed as assistant-professor in 1970 and as associate-professor of Animal Physiology in 1979. In 1985, he moved to Inserm as principal investigator and from 1988-2002, headed the Inserm Unit 317 (Adrenergic Regulations and Metabolic Adaptations) and the Institute Louis Bugnard Research Centre from 1990-1997.
His original team contributed to the identification of human fat cell alpha2-adrenergic and neuropeptide Y receptors and to the definition of the molecular determinants of the interplay between beta- and alpha2-adrenergic receptor mediated-events in fat cells of various species. The pioneering observation of lysophosphatidic acid (LPA) production by fat cells has been at the origin of the identification of a new adipocyte secretion (i.e., autotaxin, a lysophospholipase involved in LPA production). The discovery of the original role of Atrial Natriuretic peptides (ANP) in the control of lipolysis and lipid mobilization in humans in 2000 has opened an unsuspected field of research which is still under intensive exploration.

Prof. Lafontan was a Council Member and President of the French Association for the Study of Obesity (AFERO) and Council Member of the European Association for the Study of 0besity (EASO). He was awarded the Friederich Wasserman Award of EASO in 2003 for his research activity in the field of adipose tissue metabolism and obesity.

2. David Haslam graduated from St. Thomas’ Hospital Medical School in 1985 with a MB BS. He is a full-time GP with a special interest in obesity and cardiometabolic disease, a Physician in obesity medicine at the Centre for Obesity Research at Luton & Dunstable Hospital, Professor in obesity sciences at Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen, and Chairman of the National Obesity Forum in the UK.

Prof. Haslam took charge of formulating guidelines for adult obesity management in primary care, and produced the first primary care guidelines for the management of childhood obesity with the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health.
A visiting lecturer at Chester University and visiting Fellow at the Postgraduate Medical School of Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire, Prof Haslam is also a trustee and former chair of the ‘Foundations’ charity and co-founder of European Obesity Day 2010, supported by the European Parliament.

Prof Haslam has published numerous articles in journals and papers and speaks regularly, at an international level, on obesity and obesity-related diseases.

His books include 'Your Questions Answered - Obesity', ‘Fat, Gluttony and Sloth, Obesity in Literature, Art and Medicine’ with Fiona Haslam, and ‘The Obesity Epidemic and its Management’ with Terry Maquire.

3. Hardinsyah is Professor of the Faculty of Human Ecology (FEMA) Bogor Agricultural University (IPB), President of the Indonesian Food and Nutrition Society (PERGIZI PANGAN), and President of the CSR Society of Indonesia (AP-CSR Indonesia). Having received his Bachelor and Master degrees from IPB, majoring in community nutrition, Professor Hardinsyah was awarded his PhD in Nutrition and Food from University of Queensland, Australia and was a visiting scholar at Cornell University in the United States. Previously he was the Dean of FEMA IPB, Director for the Collaboration of IPB, Executive Director of the Center for Food and Nutrition Policy Studies IPB, Head of Department of Community Nutrition and Family Resources IPB, and Vice President of the Indonesian Society of Nutrition.

His current research includes the epidemiology of dehydration, malnutrition, food insecurity and poverty. Professor Hardinsyah is actively involved in a number of national task forces on food, nutrition and community empowerment.

4. Professor Jean-Francois Duhamel is Chief of Paediatrics at the Medical University Hospital of Caen. He is a corresponding member of the National Academy of Medicine and competent with the AFSSA. He is the author of "Acute dehydration of newborns and infants" published in 2003 by John Libbey Eurotext.

5. Dr. Barquera is a medical surgeon from the Universidad Autonoma Metropolitana in Mexico City with graduate MS and PhD degrees from the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University in Boston MA. He has been a consultant for WHO, PAHO, IFPRI and the IAAE in the fields of nutrition, obesity and chronic diseases. He is co-author of diverse books and scientific papers such as the Third Report on the World Nutrition Situation of United Nations, the Mexican Nutrition Survey (1999), the Mexican Health Survey (2000) and the Mexican Health and Nutrition Survey (2006) reports. In 2003 he was a member of the team that received the Fred L. Soper award to the excellence in health literature for an article characterizing the obesity and nutrition transition situation in Mexico. Currently Dr. Barquera is president of the nutrition board of professors at the Mexican School of Public Health and Director of the Nutritional Epidemiology Division at the Nutrition and Health Research Center. He is member of the advisory board in chronic diseases and diet for the Ministry of health and has been recognized as National Investigator by the Mexican National Council of Science and Technology.

6. Lawrence E. Armstrong, Ph.D., FACSM, is a Professor at the University of Connecticut’s Human Performance Laboratory with joint appointments in the Nutritional Sciences Department and the Department of Physiology & Neurobiology. He presently teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in Exercise Metabolism, Thermal Physiology, Exercise Physiology, Scientific Presentations, and Physiological Responses to Stressful Environments.  His research interests include the effects of mild dehydration with water replacement on cognitive performance, water-salt balance during exercise in hot environments, human temperature regulation, physiological effects of caffeine, and dietary interventions (i.e., low salt diets, glucose-electrolyte solutions) as they apply to laborers, athletes and military personnel. He serves as an Editorial Review Board Member for the International Journal of Sport Nutrition & Exercise Metabolism, and the journal Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise.  He has authored/coauthored over 145 peer-reviewed scientific articles and published the book ‘Performing in Extreme Environments (2000)’; in 2003, he edited the book ‘Exertional Heat Illnesses’.  He formerly held the position of Research Physiologist, Research Institute of Environmental Medicine, Natick, MA.  Dr. Armstrong is a present member of the Danone Research Scientific Advisory Board; past member of the U.S. National Research Council, Institute of Medicine, Committee on Military Nutrition Research; past member of the Board of Trustees of the American College of Sports Medicine; and a Past-President of the ACSM New England Chapter.