If you always drink cold water or very chilled beverages, this is for you

It's two 'o' clock in the afternoon, you're stuck in Lagos traffic, you're trying to force your legs to take you home after lectures or you have eaten very peppery/spicy food, the impulse is to find the nearest water vendor and purchase one or two sachets of cold water or any bottle of chilled icy beverage you can afford. At that point, nothing seems wrong with it right?

Now while that may be forgivable, frequent or regular consumption of cold drinks is actually harmful to your health. This is particularly in the area of food digestion. After consumption of fatty foods like say egwusi soup, digestion will take longer than if you take normal temperature water or warm water. This is because cold water constricts the blood vessels and tends to lower the inner body temperature. The body then prioritizes restoring normal body temperature(36.1°C-37.2°C) over digestion. Once digestion is affected, constipation will likely occur.

More so, consuming very cold water or beverages often and on can be detrimental to your dental health. Ever noticed that somewhat painful sensation in your gums or between your teeth the instant cold water enters your mouth?

Furthermore, even though there is limited evidence to prove this, It has been observed that flu symptoms are increased with cold water. Especially drinking it in a cold weather. You notice nasal blockage, sneezing etc. Cold water can also slow down your heart rate.

As mentioned earlier, cold water slows down the digestion of fat, hardening or solidifying it hence preventing the body from breaking down fat appropriately.

Summarily, even though cold water gives this awesome satisfaction after strenuous jobs or on a very hot day, it is not safe to take it often. Substitute between cold, normal and warm water from time to time. Warm water has it's own downsides too. The main one being that it can make you less thirsty. This can be very terrible on a very hot day or when your body is dehydrated and needs sufficient water. All in all, normal water is preferred. Take cold, but only when absolutely necessary. Our own part of the world is the tropics so it seems it's almost always necessary. Nevertheless, don't take it too often.

Whatever you do, always stay well hydrated. Thank you for reading.

Content created and supplied by: Adikonised (via Opera News )