Analysis
Want to stay hydrated but can’t stand the taste of plain water? Welcome to HydrationTok, where people mix brightly colored “water of the day” with sugar-free syrups and candy-flavored powders. Just don’t get drawn into the debate over whether it still counts as drinking water after they’re done mixing their beverage.
Adding sugar-free flavoring to water isn’t a new thing. Millennials and Gen X can all remember Crystal Light and the various flavored waters from our youth (which, unlike LaCroix and its seltzer brethren, were basically just clear diet sodas/soft drinks that tasted powerfully of whichever fruit they were imitating). What’s new about HydrationTok is the sheer hype and lifestyle element attached, and quite how much fun people are having with their “hydration stations” and mixing up new, brightly colored waters of the day.
Honestly, there is a little bit of a cult-like feel to it sometimes.
But at a time when everyone’s broke, overworked, and watching the world burn, it makes sense they’re enthusiastic about turning a necessity (drinking enough liquid to stay alive) into a relatively inexpensive source of joy.
But because some people can’t stand it when other people, especially women, are having fun, HydrationTok has inspired some absolutely unhinged responses from people who don’t partake.
The biggest (and often reasonable, when it’s not outright mean) one by far is that “ITS NOT WATER,” which, yes. It’s not. It contains water like every other drink, but it is in fact no longer plain water. Is it a little bit annoying that people call it water instead of just, say, a drink? Hydration of the day? Sugar-free beverage of the day? Sure. But calm down y’all, it’s not that deep. Obviously, these waters of the day aren’t as good for you as drinking plain water—we know all about the health risks of artificial sweeteners and dyes. But for people who aren’t going to drink water anyway, it’s a step up from being dehydrated or chugging Diet Coke.
Then there are the people who don’t realize it’s sugar-free and are mad about the sugar (that people who aren’t them would be drinking). Or who know it’s sugar-free and are mad about that, because it’s not healthy (for the people who aren’t them who are drinking it)!
And the people who are strangely, irrationally angry that people are choosing to not “just drink plain water.”
There are some legitimate issues with these drinks—they are not as healthy as drinking plain water and shouldn’t be portrayed as such. There are also some concerning overlaps with diet culture and consumerism, which do deserve criticism. The current flavored water craze started out with recovering bariatric surgery patients trying to meet their water goals, and now some users who haven’t undergone the surgery are tagging their “water recipes” #weightloss, which raises red flags for eating disorder specialists, concerned they’re trying to fill up on calorie-free fluids to silence hunger pangs. However, a lot of the criticism on social media seems to be using that as a flimsy pretext to lay into mostly femme-presenting people who are enjoying themselves.
Turning everything people do for fun into a moral crisis is also a bit of a thing at the moment—and it’s boring and unpleasant. A lot of people are just making themselves fun drinks to make it easier to stay hydrated—and for a little bit of serotonin. Just let people live.
