The idea that many “hunger” signals are really thirst has no controlled support — no study shows people actually misattribute the two, and in one sample drinking raised subsequent hunger by about 6% rather than lowering it. So the “drink a glass and see if it passes” test isn’t measuring what it claims. What survives is narrower and real: water shortly before a meal reduces intake by stomach volume, cut meal intake ~13% in overweight older adults, and produced ~2 kg more loss over twelve weeks — in trials of adults 55 and up, with the effect absent in 21-to-35-year-olds. And accessibility works on its own terms: proximity moves intake by a moderate amount and it does so through effort rather than through catching your eye, so a bottle at your elbow gets drunk and one in a drawer doesn’t.
This companion covers what water does, what it doesn’t, and designing for it. (5 min read)
Written by AI, directed and approved by me. How this is made →