As rewarding as drinking cold water can be, it could come with serious
health consequences.
Experts
have said drinking cold water regularly could have negative impact on the heart
and the digestive system.
Food and
healthy living expert say that cold water is at a temperature that contradicts
the overall temperature within the body system.
According
to Dr. Tosin Akinsanya, a consultant nutritionist, though the body cannot have
too much of water, it complains when it has too much of cold water.
He
explained that normal body temperature is between 34 and 37 oC while that of
cold water is usually between zero and two degrees Celsius and the sudden
change in temperature levels, which usually happens when we drink cold water,
shocks the body, leading to chronic diseases in those who drink it over time.
“The
body is made up of 70 per cent of warm water. Water is the most important fluid
in the body because it is the medium blood uses. It is the medium which
circulates nutrients around the body. If the 30 per cent we drink is against
the normal temperature of the body, we see how hard it is for the body to make
use of it. Cold water causes distress in the tissues and blood vessels.
“The body has to warm up the cold
water you drink every time to an acceptable temperature before it can take it
up for digestion, nutrient and blood circulation. That is why we advise people
not, take drugs with cold water. The drugs will not digest on time; it means
you won’t get the best of the drugs because the water did not dissolve on time,” he
said.
Akinsanya
emphasized the need to regularly take water at a normal temperature, saying the
brain is sensitive to temperature change which is why it freezes when one
drinks cold water at first, adding that such continuous seizure is not good for
it.
He said:
“The brain is one of the relatively important organs in the body, and it
needs to be working all the time. We should avoid anything that will make it
freeze.”
To know
the right temperature of water to drink, Akinsanya says:
“Put one finger in
your mouth and close it. The temperature of what you feel is the temperature of
water or food that you eat most times. That is what the body is used to and
that is what you should give it.”
Dr.
Vasant Lad, family health physician and author of Ten Habits To Drop Right
Now, warns that drinking cold water after a meal has adverse effects on the
digestive system.
According
to the healthy living expert, Dr. Lucia John, the heart labours more to restore
blood circulation when we drink cold water that is not compatible with the
body’s temperature.
“When
we drink cold water, juice, or any cold fluids, we create the basis for chronic
heart diseases. Cold water has a clotting effect on the blood and other fluids
in the body making it difficult for it to circulate.
“A body that cannot circulate its blood is like an uninviting swimming
pool in which moss and bacteria grow. The blood may be thick, unable to flow
properly to the extremities of the body, the hands and feet begin to feel numb
and hurt, the toes begin to hurt, and the toenails lose their shine and may
begin to decay. The heart labours to pump the blood throughout the body, and
the lungs fight to keep up. The legs may swell and become dark, when blood
cannot efficiently pump back up to the heart.
“When the blood is free from toxins and flowing freely and properly, we
can then liken the blood to an inviting swimming pool, clear and clean. It
generates happiness and perfect health, energy and creativity. This individual
contributes maximum to the health and wellbeing of others in an innocent,
natural way,” he said.
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