Is Drinking Cold Water Bad For You?

Ayurveda and traditional Chinese medicine both believe that hot food needs to be eaten with hot or warm water, and never cold water. Many studies have been done to try to understand why this belief has remained for so long, and is still being followed by a majority of south-east Asian cultures. If you take a trip to Kerala, there are high chances that you will be served a glass of piping hot ‘jeera vellam’ or jeera water along with a meal. Let us see why some of our medicinal systems are so opposed to consuming cold water in any form.

Does Cold Water Affect Metabolism?

A lot of us prefer to drink something soothingly cool during the summers or after a challenging workout. Cold water may negatively impact certain individuals with slower metabolism, as the body needs to work harder to ‘warm’ the water up to core temperature. Consumption of chilly water has also been linked to lower immunity in a few cases. If you are hypertensive, then drinking cold water may cause the muscles in your blood vessels to contract, and hence reduce blood flow to different parts of the body.

Health Benefits of Drinking Cold Water

Some studies claim that the body spends extra calories on heating the water up to warmer temperatures, and hence this is a good thing. But, in the grand scheme of things, the usage of an additional 8 calories to heat a glass of water may not seem like a lot. Another study in Israel showed that in obese or overweight children, an additional loss of about 1 kg was reported at the end of the year. Many of us feel fresher and more engaged, after downing a cold glass of water. Drinking cool water after a killer work-out begins a positive feedback mechanism, meaning you drink more water throughout the day. The exercise helps with weight loss and subsequent maintenance.

How Cold Water Affects Your Health

Cold water can affect you in the following ways:

• Achalasia – food does not pass through the oesophagus and end up in the stomach as needed
• Migraines – A study done in Sweden reported that more women would get migraines, as compared to men.
• Increase in thickness of mucus, as observed in a study by the American College of Chest Physicians
• Sensitive teeth
• Digestion of food is impacted – movement of food within the digestive system is slower if you have cold water, and is maintained when you have warm or hot water.
• Heart rates decrease with consumption of cold water
• Increased risk of hypertension

Conclusion

If you like to drink a glass of chilled water, then go ahead. The verdict is super divided, and the health benefits clearly align with the objectives met after you hydrate well. If you are sure your hydration goals will be met with normal or chilled water, then it is better to go ahead, rather than avoiding hot water and suffering from dehydration and related consequences.