When the weather is very hot, usually we will doing some cool off stuffs, such as drinking cold water or ice water. Yup, it will soon freshen up our body, and we will drinking more and more. In fact, there are lots of beverages and frizzy drinks that specially designed to be taken as chilled beverages. Well, when we should drink them? We should be more careful about this, considering the several dangers that lurk behind the pleasure of drinking cold water. Here is the 10 facts that you should know :
1. Makes a potbelly
During the warming process in stomach, ice water will be warmed by the bearing fats in the stomach. When drinking cold water is often done (even becoming a habit), you may need more fat pads. Fat pads obtained from the food we eat daily to be buried in the stomach. If it not balanced with sufficient exercise, the fat pads will be increase. As a result, our stomach will become bloated.
2. Indigestion problems
Drinking cold water right after meals can cause indigestion, because the cold temperatures change the consistency of the foods we’ve eaten, making them more difficult to digest. For example, fatty foods tend to solidify when mixed with cold water, making digestion more difficult. Longer digestion can result in acid reflux problems.
3. Give an extra work for the digestion process
Our stomachs are designed to digest foods at a similar temperature of our body. Eat foods that are too cold or hot means extra work for the digestion process. The same thing happens when we eat foods that are too spicy; they are harder to break down and can cause diarrhea in some people.
4. Causing dizziness
When our body’s metabolism is disturbed, the body can not immediately adapt when the temperature changes suddenly when we drank ice. As a result, the supply of oxygen to the organs of the body decreases, including the brain. The impact, we will feel dizzy.
5. Brain freeze
A sudden cooling in the body can cause impaired physiological functions. As a result, we would have a headache or migraine. The study of brain freeze conducted to see the effect when a person drinks cold water. A number of people asked to drink ice with a straw until the water hits their palate. The bloodstream that goes to the brain observed. It turned out that the bloodstream was increased. This is the trigger to dizziness or momentary brain freeze. Soon after that the brain freeze would gradually disappear.
In migraine and headaches sufferers, brain freeze likely to occur. There were studies of Harvard Medical School deduced that the brain is very sensitive to temperature, it needs a vasodilatation drugs to keep the warm blood flowing normally and make sure the brain stays in warm conditions.
6. Slowing heartbeats
Some studies reveal that drinking ice water can stimulate the vagus nerve. This nerve is very important to control the activity of the unconscious collapsed like a heartbeat. Performance of this nerve will be disrupted while drinking ice water, causing the heart beats slowly.
7. Loss of nutrients
Normally, the human body temperature is in the range of 36-37°C. When we consume water that is too cold it would force our body to use more energy in order to organize and make the body temperature back to normal, whereas that energy is greatly needed by the body to absorb nutrients and digest food into the body. So when we drink cold water, the energy would be depleted, so that the body cannot absorb nutrients optimally.
8. Triggering sore throat
Drinking ice water can also cause the mucus in the lining of the esophagus. This will certainly have an impact on the esophagus that will be prone to infection and inflammation.
9. Narrow intestine
Drinking cold water will cause narrowing of the intestinal wall; as a result, the destruction process and absorption of food in the intestine will be disturbed. The temperature of the ice can cause clotting particles of oily food we consumed. Moreover, the fats will piled up in the intestinal tract, causing narrowing of the intestine. Consequently, it will slow down the digestion and interfere with the digestive process will be widely disrupted.
10. Causing an excessive thirst
When we drink cold water, soon we will be thirsty again. The more we drink cold water, the more body imbalance would be happened. It is because the cold water will cause the body to lose fluids faster. Thirst is an indicator that our bodies are dehydrated which should soon be fulfilled, by replacing it with drinking water at ordinary room temperature. Especially after exercise or do heavy work, our bodies are dehydrated; it is advisable to comply with drink enough water so that the body fluids back to normal.
What’s the best way to drink water?
Despite of those dangers, experts agree that our bodies need a good quantity of water daily in order to function properly. A good suggestion for you is do not drink cold water after a meal, but you can drink water right before a meal -surely not a cold water too- because this will gives us a feeling of satiety and we would eat less. The doctors said that drink water at room temperature will be much better than drinking ice water. One thing to remember is that water has zero calories, so we can drink up to two liters a day. So, keep healthy!