While a glass of ice water can sound incredibly refreshing, it turns out that there are a number of reasons why drinking cold water can be harmful and warm water is far more beneficial.
What cold water does to your body
Cold water can interfere with a number of healthy bodily processes and actually be detrimental to your well-being in the following ways:
- Cold water robs you of nutrients: The body’s natural temperature is 37 degrees Celcius. When you drink something that is very cold, your body has to spend an exorbitant amount of energy to regulate your core temperature. This takes away from energy that is needed to digest food and absorb nutrients.
- It may cause a sore throat: Extremely cold water may cause respiratory mucosa to build up, resulting in increased chance of infection causing a sore throat.
- It can increase your risk of headache: According to a 2001 study, women who had experienced a migraine in the last year were twice as likely to trigger a headache by drinking cold water.
- Heads up, cold water may contain dirty ice: We recently reported that ice is often dirty, coated with bacteria and fungus. This often is true of your ice at home.
On the flipside, here are some of the amazing health benefits of drinking warm water: