Ben Jones, an offensive lineman with the Houston Texans, made headlines this week when he confessed to drinking a cup of his own urine to win a bet against his team-mates. “We were having a good time, and whatever makes the team better,” the fourth-year center recalled. “I was just enjoying it – and anytime I can get a laugh out of it, I’ll do it.” Naturally.

Jones, who is described by team-mate Charles James as “a pretty nasty guy”, is hardly the first sportsman to find value in recycling his bodily fluids. Yet many of the Alabama native’s predecessors have consumed urine not in search of the anarchic jollity of a sophomoric sight gag, but in fact a competitive edge.

The great Mexican champion Juan Manuel Márquez famously showcased the practice ahead of his 2009 fight with Floyd Mayweather Jr. “This is something I have been doing for the past six or seven fights, and it has given me good results,” Marquez, who has held world titles in four weight classes, said during an episode of HBO’s documentary series 24/7. “If you drink or inject yourself with vitamins, you release them every time you go to the bathroom. Why not put them back in your body orally?”

A ringing endorsement it was not – Marquez lost a hugely lopsided decision – but it hasn’t stopped others from giving it a shot. See the mixed martial artist Lyoto Machida, who told a Brazilian magazine that drinking urine was a longstanding family tradition: “My father does that for a long time and bring it to us. People think it’s a joke. I never said it in the United States because I don’t know how the fans will react. I drink my urine every morning like a natural medicine.”

MMA fighter Luke Cummo, who soared to fame after appearing in the second season of The Ultimate Fighter, is another proponent of pee drinking. Notorious on the show for idiosyncrasies such as insisting that his bed point north so that he could align his own energy, or chi, with that of the earth, Cummo also advocated the consumption of his own waste. He reasoned that urine “contains minerals, hormones and elements that bind moisture to protein”, and said that his practice of drinking it was all part of the body’s recycling process. He also insisted the alternative application of human urine is a more common practice than Americans think, a fact to which any regular on Craigslist’s Casual Encounters listings can attest.

Certainly, urophagia, the practice of drinking one’s own urine, also known as urine therapy, has deep roots in other cultures. In 1978, the Prime Minister of India, Morarji Desai, a longtime practitioner of urine therapy, spoke to Dan Rather on 60 Minutes about the practice. Desai stated that urine therapy was the perfect medical solution for the millions of Indians who cannot afford medical treatment. According to claims by members of the China Urine Therapy Association, more than 100,000 people in mainland China are current practitioners.

Urine therapy is not limited to merely drinking urine, however. Former MLB standout Moisés Alou, a six-time All-Star and career .303 hitter, revealed that he’d urinate on his hands to toughen them up. Alou, one of the few major leaguers who didn’t wear gloves while batting, was joined by former New York Yankees catcher Jorge Posada, who once quipped, “You don’t want to shake my hand during spring training.” Even erstwhile Cubs hurler Kerry Wood mentioned trying the technique to remedy blisters on his pitching hand, although he added that this was as a last resort. “Someone tells you something works,” Wood said, and we are given a brief glimpse into the life of a pro athlete, willing to try anything to gain that edge.

But what are the purported health benefits of urine, which is 95% water but also contains minerals, proteins, vitamins and antibodies? Yoshizo Machida, Lyoto’s father and Japan’s answer to a wrestling dad, contends that ingesting your own urine acts as a “natural medicine” that flushes out the system, aiding in digestion and preventing the build-up of harmful bacteria. Other urine-drinkers swear by its immune system boosting properties and skin-softening abilities.

Still, drinking your urine has no documented benefits. Skeptics say the 5% that isn’t water contains things the body is trying to get rid of. “Think about it like drinking ocean water,” says Jeff Giullian, a nephrologist at South Denver Nephrology Associates in Colorado. “It’s going to dehydrate you and do significantly more harm than good.”

Bear Grylls, the adventurer and host of TV show Man vs Wild, has been filmed several times drinking his own urine in order to avoid dehydration. “Can it save your life?” he asked rhetorically during a recent episode. “Yes, in some situations. Although you read about these people who do it for fun at home. I’m not like that. I’m weird, but I’m not that weird.”

Which more or less settles it. Even if the physiological benefits of Jones’s wee pint are dubious, its value as a comic set piece remains beyond dispute.

