Ice water & Ice Cubes vs. room temperature water

Some of you know that I am finishing my studies to become a Doctor of Traditional Chinese Medicine so here’s my take on this “cold-cold issue”.

There are a number of you that drink water with ice-cubes in your water bottle or even Chew ice-cubes in the hot yoga class (yes…you know who you are) and you wonder why you are not getting cooler as the class progresses while you continue to drink ice-cold water.

In Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), we believe that your stomach’s main functions are to aid in digestion and the production of food Qi. The stomach controls the “rotting and ripening” of food and drinks ingested. The stomach is responsible for sending transformed food downwards to the duodenum (small intestine) to prevent stagnation of food in the stomach causing belching and possibly vomiting

It is common knowledge that our body’s internal temperature can range from 36.6 - 37.3 °C and when you are in a hot yoga class, your body’s external temperature rises. Now think of your Stomach as a stove, when you ingest ice cold water or eat ice cubes which range anywhere from 1 - 10°C, how much harder would your stomach have to work to “warm up” the ice water or ice cubes so it can digest it? Ie. Now your “stove/stomach” has to turn up the heat to warm up that ice water/ice cubes therefore rising your body’s core temperature.

The next time you decide to drink cold water or eat ice-cubes in class, pay attention to your body as you will feel your skin actually start to get hotter. Now, is it worth it for that 5 seconds of euphoria in your mouth but get hotter later?

And don’t even get me starting on gulping your 1L water in less than 20secs. That’s a topic for another day ;-)

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