Sep 17, 2013 03:02 PM EDT
Michelle Obama New Health Mission: First Lady Wants Americans To Drink More Water

The first lady, Michelle Obama is on another mission, to get America to drink more water.

According to executive Director Sam Kass, the White House is working with cities, private companies and public taps to promote the message to "drink up." It's apart of the first lady's newest healthy-living initiative.

Participating companies include Brita, Poland Spring, Evian, Dasani, Voss and others, which will carry a "Drink Up" logo on their bottles, USA Today reported. Nestle said the initiative could increase the amount of waste produced by plastic bottles.

Cities like Chicago, Los Angeles County, Houston and Wisconsin have also joined the first lady's healthy plan.

"Every participating company is only focusing on drinking water," Kass said. 

Based on Disease Control and Prevention data, 43 percent of Americans drink fewer than four cups of water a day and about one in four kids don't drink water at all on a given day.

Hydration is important to an individual's health. It maintains body temperature at a normal level, promotes removal of waste from the body through urination and perspiration. Water lubricates joints and protects the body's tissues.

According to the DCP, drinking water instead of sugary drinks is a good way to decrease daily sugar consumption, which has been linked to obesity and Type 2 diabetes.

"[A positive campaign] to inspire people to drink more water is the most effective way to get people to get water that they need," Kass said. "We think people respond really well to positive messages ... Water is the simplest, most accessible choice that people can make if they're trying to make a healthy choice. Encouraging that is the most effective strategy."

A recent Harvard study suggested sugary drink consumption was linked to as many as 180,000 deaths around the world and 25,000 deaths in the U.S. in 2010 alone.

"There's not an epidemic of dehydration, there's an epidemic of obesity," Kass said.

The first lady has enlisted some help from a few celebrity friends such as Eva Longoria and her friends from ABC's "The View".

The Beverage Digest reported earlier this year that water is now the No. 1 drink in the country. The amount of soda consumed by Americans has dropped 17 percent from its peak in 1998, the Associated Press reported.

The National Institutes of Health notes on its website that "experts usually recommend drinking six to eight 8-ounce glasses of water daily.

"But there aren't actually any official guidelines for suggested intake. In fact, that advice to drink eight glasses of water a day is generally regarded as outdated, with mostly bottled water companies pushing the notion," a recent British Medical Journal article noted.

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