Why Ice Water Is Harmful To Your Body

By Healthy Ayurveda on June 16, 2015 No Comments / 1235 views

It is tempting to drink ice cold beverages in the summer heat, but check out the health hazards you present yourself with when you choose to drink cold beverages.

Why you should never drink ‪‎ice ‪water or other cold beverages:

1. When you drink cold beverages your ‪‎blood ‪vessels shrink, your digestion becomes restricted and hydration is hindered.

2. 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.

3. 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.

4. If you eat food while drinking cold beverages or immediately after, the water temperature solidifies fats from the foods you have just eaten and your body in turn finds it hard to digest the unwanted fats from your body.

Some people say that drinking ice water is beneficial because it burns more calories. From an Ayurvedic point of view, it is not good to make your digestive system work harder; you want to makes things as easy on it as you can. Think of your digestion as a fire in your stomach; you need to provide the proper fuel so that it can burn optimally. If you dampen the fire with ice cold beverages, it will burn out creating symptoms like sluggish digestion, lack of appetite etc.

There are many other ways to burn calories such as exercise, practice Yogic breathing (pranayama), avoid refined carbohydrates (ie white sugar and white bread), limit snacking, and include more low glycemic foods into your diet such as chickpeas, broccoli, karella (bitter melon), eggplant, fenugreek and cinnamon.