Come summers and our thirst for cold water begins. Cold water has helped many of us tackle the summer heat by instantly giving us a cooling sensation. It has not only quenched our thirst but also cooled our sweating hot bodies down. Those sigh of sheer happiness when you finish drinking cold water after fighting the insufferable heat of the peak summers. Bliss!
I think it is safe to assume that most of us love drinking cold water in the summers and wouldn’t trade it with any other beverage of any other temperature. But when we come across the ‘internet facts (read fads) or popular myths’ like drinking cold water harms your body and affects your health adversely, we can’t guiltlessly enjoy our icy cold water. We are always shutting that voice of reason which reiterates the read fact and we end up feeling bad instead of blissful after our drink.
We are going to explain how drinking water at any temperature does not have any sort of adverse or harmful impact on your health.
So, we have come across many articles on the internet about when you have cold water after a meal, it solidifies the ingested fat which in turn does not get broken down and gets collected in the body as stored fat, thereby making you fat. Well I think it is safe to say that this line of research is based on nothing and has had no concrete results. It is an absolutely confirmed fact that drinking cold water does no such thing.
Water has no fat or carbohydrate in it; hence it cannot possibly make you fat, though depending on its source, it might contain some minerals & vitamins. While consuming hot water on an empty stomach after waking up in the morning is believed to boost metabolism and we would suggest that you follow this rule in order to lose weight more efficiently, drinking cold water can also help you burn a few extra calories.
When you drink cold water, your body has to work a little extra to bring the temperature of the water to normal and in this process it ends up burning calories to produce that energy. Although the number of calories burnt is not that much.
E.g. to warm 500ml of ice cold water your body burns only 17 Calories. But if you calculate the number of times you end up burning 17 calories into the number of days, we are sure you will reach a more appreciable number.
Another fact is that drinking cold water after exercising can help you get dehydrated faster and helps bring the elevated body temperature to normal. Some studies even show that our stomach absorbs cold water faster than warm water, allowing us to indulge in our physical activity for a longer time without worrying about dehydration.
While we suggest you drink 9-12 glasses of water every day to keep your body free of toxins and other harmful compounds which gets flushed out through water when you urinate, we would also encourage you to take more reasonable decisions when it comes to fads like ‘Does drinking cold water make you fat or unhealthy?
A few different ways of including more water in your daily diet:
- Green tea: This beverage not only ensures increased water intake but also an increased metabolism
- Lemon water: This beverage along with rehydrating you boosts your immunity every time you take a sip.
- Turmeric ginger-honey tea: This one is especially effective in cooling your body down for longer periods owing to the cooling properties of turmeric and ginger. They also try to minimize the adverse effects of scorching heat.
- Buttermilk: It boosts your calcium levels and instantly cools your body down.
- Coconut water: This beverage is loaded with a lot of minerals and vitamins and has ability to regulate your blood pressure.You can enjoy these drinks everyday either hot or cold to increase your daily water uptake and reap the benefits of a toxin free, well hydrated healthy body. Happy Drinking!