It looks like California’s drought-ravaged crops aren’t alone in needing more water. According to the results of a new study from researchers at Harvard, more than half of the nation’s children and teens are dehydrated. And, shockingly, about 25 percent of kids don’t drink water daily.

That’s the key finding of the national study, which was published in the American Journal of Public Health late last week. The researchers initially set out to study the effect on adolescents of sugar-laden beverages such as soda and fruit juice. As they analyzed data on more than 4,100 participants ages 6 to 19 in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey from 2009 to 2012, they discovered that most kids are mildly dehydrated.

The researchers found that boys and black adolescents are the most likely to not drink water. Boys were 76 percent more likely than girls to be dehydrated, and black children were 34 percent more likely than their white, Hispanic, and Asian American peers to be inadequately hydrated.

So, Why Should You Care? “These findings are significant because they highlight a potential health issue […]