After a tiring day, I always opt to drink water with no ice and more often than not people think I am crazy because largely when one tends to have cold water. But, honestly I am not crazy I have a strong reason for doing what I do.
Let us take a minute and close our eyes and picture the following situation: It is spring and you are standing on a wooden dock that extends into a high mountain lake. While the temperature in the air is fairly warm, the top layer of the lake has only recently melted and you can tell by the color of the crystal clear blue water that it is anything but warm. You close your eyes and dive in to in the lake.
What does your body do? What happens to your skin? Are you relaxed and open, or tight and constricted?
I am not sure how many actually know this fact that warm water opens your pores and makes your skin feel looser, while cold water closes your pores and constricts your skin. Guess what? Drinking cold water does the same thing to your digestive tract!
What Happens When You Drink Cold Water
– When you drink cold beverages your blood vessels shrink, your digestion becomes restricted and hydration is hindered.
– Instead of working to digest the food and absorb the nutrients to create energy, your body is expending energy to regulate your temperature. This can lead to water loss.
– Drinking cold water after a meal creates excess mucus in your body, which can lead to a decrease in immune system function, making it easier to catch colds and illnesses.
– If you eat food while drinking cold beverages or immediately after, the water temperature solidifies fats from the foods we’ve just eaten and the body in turn finds it hard to digest the unwanted fats from our bodies.
Some people say that drinking ice cold water is beneficial because it burns more calories. I argue that we do not want to make our digestive system work harder; we want to make things as easy on it as we can. There are many other ways to burn calories. And one of the best ways to burn calories is exercising.
Benefits to Drinking Warm Water
Here are some benefits to drinking water that is room temperature or warmer
– Faster + increased hydration
– Natural digestive enzymes are stimulated and therefore your digestion is enhanced
– Food breaks down more easily
– Your bowels move better (warm water with lemon in the morning is great for this)
– It purifies your blood and increases your bodies natural detoxification processes via your skin, kidneys and lymphatic system
Once you get into the habit of drinking water at room temperature or warm, you will notice a dramatic improvement in your digestion and the way your body feels while eating and after the meal. Some people have also reported reduction in sugar cravings.
So, the next time you eat out ask your server to “Hold the Ice!”
Good food after a day’s hard work is always a pleasure and there is no substitute to good wholesome and nutritious food. But, more often than not, we are so engrossed in our work that we fail to think about our health which in turn means that we neglect good food.
