It’s mostly water weight…

Increased liquidity, it turns out, isn’t just good for the economy. It’s good for school kids, too.

Pediatrics, the journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics, reported recently that slurping more water out of hallway fountains may have a healthy downstream effect on a child’s weight. A study involving 32 elementary schools in Germany showed that kids who were encouraged to gurgle down an extra glass or two of H₂O every day for a year reduced their risk of being overweight by 31 percent. http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/cgi/content/abstract/123/4/e661

Faculty passed out water bottles in classrooms, and additional water fountains were installed at some schools so students could fill up more easily‒ if they didn’t get stuck with one of those lazy bubblers where the water only gets a lip’s width from the spigot. Teachers added to the flow with lessons about the positive effects of drinking plain old water.

The undiluted result: more water, fewer unwanted pounds.

No word yet on a suspected attendant increase in the number of requests for bathroom passes.

© Miller Communications Inc.