The European Federation of the Associations of Dietitians

• Empower EFAD members to access knowledge and resources about the health benefits of water, for them to develop skills to encourage healthy hydration habits throughout the lifespan.
• Raise the level of awareness and understanding to key stakeholders about the impact hydration can have on sustainable health.

In 2015 Danone Nutricia Research and EFAD joined efforts to create the Healthy Hydration Awareness Campaign (EuHHAC) which ambition is to increase awareness and knowledge on healthy hydration among dietitians and health professionals. Belogianni et al. 2019 ^[1], highlighted in a survey conducted among European dietitians that:

• 50% of them are not aware of the latest EFSA recommendations for adequate intake
• 27% think water is not included in their national guidelines
• 43% do not know how to advice their patients during practice on healthy hydration

This shows the need to develop a tailored approach for dietitians to know more about hydration science and its impact on health. A series of educational actions were undertaken among which webinars, interactive sessions, online courses, surveys, and tutorials in an attempt to embed hydration in long life learning. ^[1]

Together with EFAD we believe that dietitians have a crucial role to play in supporting people in creating sustainable hydration habits and helping them integrate water as a key component of healthy diets.

We co-created a tool to support dietitians during their consultations. In fact, we want to make sure hydration is part of dietetic practice. The tool created with our partner is for daily use by professionals so as to check patients’ hydration habits and increase awareness and knowledge on healthy hydration.

The online Hydration Resource Center (HRC) was developed to allow members of EFAD to access evidence-based resources on healthy hydration and find tools to use in their daily practice

Moreover, dietitians as active members of the hydration community are able to translate in practice the research developed by scientists and clinicians. As part of EuHHAC, a course on hydration for dietitians was developed through the Hydration for Health Academy. This course led by Pauline Douglas, RD, FBDA and senior lecturer from the University of Ulster (UK) and Annemieke VanGinkel-Res, President of EFAD (The Netherlands) focuses on concrete actions to integrate hydration in daily practice.

We also believe it is crucial to engage the new generations of dietitians and nutritionists on the importance of fluid intake in diet. As part of our common action, we want to give them access to a global community of experts and to the latest scientific content available. As such, we believe it is our joint responsibility to favor their participation to the Hydration for Health Scientific Conference and Academy.

Interested to learn more about hydration for dietitians course? Check this out!