OK, so then I can argue that my genes are adapted to colder environments, with such examples as body hair and a nice layer of insulating fat. Coupled with my lifelong exposure to cold drinks, I’ve become accustomed to such intake. Therefore I should not need to worry about continued exposure to cold liquids.
Keny wrote: “I talked with my Chinese medicine doctor. his explanation seems better: basically, humans weren’t designed to intake vast amounts of cold fluid. it brings a shock to the internal tissues that operate at whatever 38.x degs.”
BULLSHIT. Your Chinese medicine doctor is a quack quack. Human were designed to intake cold water, warm water, either way, IT DOES NOT MATTER. Why do you BELIEVE this focus pocus? It is PATENTLY untrue.
These Chinese med quacks are quacks, they know NOTHING. It is pure superstition and cultural tradition, this NO COLD WATER SHITE, pure BS.
Get over it. Drink whatever you want, whenever you want.
Now don’t quote me on this, but it’s true. Come on, stop believing silly nonsense. Think about it.
It is just an Asian medical perspective and i respect their POV, but there is no logic to it at all. It’s like the Japanese say they have different stomachs than Westernes, bullshit.
Don’t listen to these quacks. Do as your mammy and pappy did. Drink it cold. does not matter one iota!
PERIOD
GOSPEL TRUTH
Concur.
If a glass of cold water will spoil the kids, then they need to be spoilt.
(don’t even dare to think what the ice cream is doing.)
OK, suddenly everything finally came into focus tonight at dinner that this is indeed. as formosa says, complete and utter bullshit. My revelation came as I started to dig into a big bowl of strawberry ice. (Yes, I know it’s too fricking cold to be eating ice now, but it was a buffet dammit.) Taiwanese eat ice all the time. There’s ice stands on practically every corner. Shilin night market has a place so good there’s a line out the door. If cold water is bad for you, ice must be at least twice as bad. And yet they eat that up like crazy.
So, it’s bull that cold water is bad.
thank you thank you thank you
[He bows, stage left, spotlight, trap door opens, down he goes. Ouch!]
‘They’ being who precisely?
Are all these ice stand owners trained, experienced TCM practitioners?
Do their customers never do things that they know are a little bad for them sometimes, because they are very enjoyable at the time?
Did you ever hear a Taiwanese person say;
“Eating around one ice dessert per week will completely and utterly ruin your health for all time”?
This is true on most things I hear from the Taiwanese around me.
“Don’t eat/drink that!” “Why not?” “Because it is bad for you.” “Why?” “It just is.” “But… why!!!” “Five thousand years of Chinese medicine…” (And, the opposite is also true about what is “good” for you… like soup!)
In most cases, I think they have just been told these things since the day they were born. And, whether based in any truth or not, they believe them. However, they can’t explain them other than the “5,000-year-excuse.”
Recently when I was having some stomach problems, I kept getting contradictory “Chinese medicine” advice from all my coworkers about what to eat and not to eat, how to cure the problem, etc… Another reason to doubt the accuracy of some of their “ancient” medical advice.
[quote]I talked with my Chinese medicine doctor. his explanation seems better: basically, humans weren’t designed to intake vast amounts of cold fluid. it brings a shock to the internal tissues that operate at whatever 38.x degs… so some of you may wonder, what about freaking eskimos…
They live in a cold environment and the body (from external stimuli) understands that it is in a cold environment over a long period of time. So the body has adapted over a lifetime.[/quote]
Even if this is true… I would think that growing up in a culture where cold drinks are the norm would adapt your body to them and prevent your body from being shocked :shock: by cold drinks. As for the brain freeze phenomenon… moderation is the key. Stop trying to scarf down the ice cream (and such) and enjoy it!!! 
So now we’re supposed to do what our ancestors have evolved to do? Would that be hunting and gathering, while struggling to breed before our natural deaths at the age of thirty-five or so?
Sorry, but “Chinese medicine” is like talking about “Polish physics.” Either it’s good science or it’s not–it shouldn’t be like picking a religion. And while (who knows?) some ideas from China may turn out to be right, they’ve got no way to separate good traditions from bad traditions. (And please don’t say it works because it’s all a placebo.)
Personally, I think my body is most biologically adapted to coolish yogurt with fruit chunks.
Oh, God, I hear that all the time. Me: “Are there scientific studies that prove Chinese medicine works”? “It is 5,000 years old.” Actually, most anti-quack resources are skeptical about Chinese medicine as a whole.
Perhaps the don’t drink cold water nag came from the fact that most water here was not drinkable unless it was boiled. Good luck trying to find a study saying cold water is bad for you on Google. Typical Taiwanese nagging BS.
don’t shoot the messenger.
i guess my opinion on chinese medicine is that some of it works and some of it doesn’t at least from my personal experience (acupuncture, mo-xia, herbal medicine). so i am at least open-minded about it.
as for the ice thing: i dunno. i love eating cold stuff. maybe as said above, moderation is the key. as for the chinese doctor’s explanation, it’s a lot better than “i don’t know” or “2,000 years”. and perhaps there is a better explanation out there. and i think it’s good to question this kind of stuff. i believe there’s a lot of genuine medicine in this system, but probably that 2,000 years did more harm than not in muddling, adding crap, and mystifying what was probably a sensible, experience-derived and already developed medicine system of the neolithic ‘chinese’
[quote=“Kenny McCormick”]don’t shoot the messenger.
I guess my opinion on Chinese medicine is that some of it works and some of it doesn’t at least from my personal experience[/quote]
I agree.
Well, even western medicine/culture has its own “old wives tales.” Just, in this case, the Chinese “wives” are a bit older. 
See this link: http://women.msn.com/175272.armx
I still believe that drinking cold water (or eating ice desserts) is not good for you. I had ,ong been sceptical of this as ‘just a Taiwanese superstition’, but an English complementary health practitioner who gave me a lot of advice that helped a lot, also told me that drinking cold water is bad for you. She explained why, but I forgot the reasons. I am inclined to believe her, because the advice in other areas was all good. I still drink cold drinks though, because although it’s not good for you it’s not that bad.
Anyway, main point:
“Drinking cold water is bad for you” is not just a Taiwanese or TCM superstition.
Brian
There is a reason.
Cold water may have had bacteria or viruses in it, especially in hot, overcrowded and unsanitary living conditions. Since really cold water is a modern invention this might be an extrapolation of the idea.
In fact this is the exact reason that some propose tea became so popular in UK among ALL classes in the overcrowded cities. You need to boil the water and tea has antibacterial properties. Some studies have strong evidence to suggest that the habit of drinking boiled tea hugely cut down on water borne diseases and fatality rates. People never drank the dirty water in cities during the industrial revolution.
The same is also true of beer. From anecdotes I have heard I believe people in the middle ages largely avoided drinking water if they could. They mostly drank beer. Young and old alike and even for their lunch. The beer then would be a watered down version from all accounts.
So the idea of cold water being Yin may have come from the observation that boiled or hot water resulted in less illness. This is apart from the fact that cold water probably isn’t that great for your system compared to room temperature water (obviously your digestive system is not really evolved for really hot and cold water, maybe hot since man has had fire for 50-100,000 years, but cold water only if he lived in cold areas or on a mountain). Plus cold water does take calories to heat up to your body temperature.
Humans have evolved to cope with cooked food so it’s possible we have evolved a little to cope with hot water too. To get lukewarm water you usually boil it first and then let it cool. This may be why they prefer lukewarm water and soup.
There is only one problem I see with your bacteria hypothesis, HH. Maybe I’m missing something, so feel free to tell me (nicely) if I’m way off base.
The Chinese admonition is not, “You must drink hot (i.e., boiled) water.” It is just not to drink cold water. Room temperature or lukewarm water seems to be ok. Water (that has not been boiled) no matter what the temperature could have bacteria in it, as well. Also, what if you boil the water and then cool it with ice? I’ve been told not to drink cold/iced tea as well, for the same reasons. Usually, I hear it said not to drink any cold drinks.
I’m far more likely to believe the shock-to-your-system hypothesis. But, even that one leaves me cold (pun intended). I like cold drinks and haven’t noticed (despite Brian’s anecdotal evidence) or read or heard anything to suggest that they can be THAT bad for you.
This may sound strange, but when I am in Taiwan or the mainland, I try not to drink much cold stuff. Other than trying to avoid annoying comments from locals, I have actually noticed, especially in the winter, that I get fewer upper respiratory/throat infections if I don’t drink cold beverages. I think there is a good reason for it. When you are breathing cold air, you are more likely to get a lot of snotty gunk built up in your nasal cavity and throat. Add Taiwanese/Chinese industrial grade pollution to that, and it becomes worse(and a lot darker 
). If I drink warm beverages, it helps melt away the sludge in my throat. However, if I drink cold beverages, everything kind of coagulates and gets stuck. I can only get it out by hacking it into the bathroom sink, which my wife really hates. It just sticks there like smeared toothpaste. Maybe I should just do it in the toilet, but I always seem to hack it up best when I’m brushing my teeth (with warm water, of course!), and so I just spit it in the closest basin. Over here in Dongguan, it is sometimes so dark and thick that one might mistake it for wheel bearing grease. Therefore, I limit my intake of cold stuff.
People always say, when they are explaining why they follow certain medical myths, that “I am inclined to believe him” (or her) as reasons for their belief.
Inclination is the problem.
Drink cold water and observe the results. Tell us what bad things happened to you.
Proof enough?
after a quick googling, I found an article about this written by a nutritionist of Mackay Memorial Hospital: (please pardon my poor translation) www2.mmh.org.tw/nutrition/nutrroom/254ice.htm
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The average people always think that a glass of icy cold beverage is most thirst-/heat-quenching, but in fact, after swallowing it, the surfaces of mouth, gullet and stomach will become cold quickly, and so the walls of the micro-blood vessels of these organs constrict because of lowering temperature. As a result of this, amount of blood that passes through reduces, and then it not only lowers the capacity of absorbing water but also makes the water inside cells penetrate trough the interstice of tissues(?). Thus, the more icy cold water you drink, the thirstier you are.
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Cold drink affects the function of stomachs and bowels. After you quickly drink a glass of icy water or ice cream, the temperature of stomach will reduce sharply from 37 dg.C to under 20 C, so your stomach is just like a automobile engine that breaks down-constricting and stopping moving. When the stomach stops squirming, the digestive function stops too, until the stomach recovers to a warm state in about 30 minutes. Therefore, if you drink icy cold beverage during meals, the time for food being delivered to bowels will delay, which may generate flatulence and indigestion.
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Who had better avoid icy cold drinks?
a.) infants / toddlers
the function of their stomachs and bowels are not yet fully developed, so icy cold drinks easily lead to diarrhea, stomachache, sore throat and cough.
b.) People who just did heavy exercises
Body temperature rises after sporting, so if people suddenly drink icy cold drinks, the sharp constriction of blood vessels of stomach and bowels will lead to malfunction in those organs. In addition, blood circulation accelerates after heavy sporting and the throat will be blood-congested. If suddenly stimulated by ice, you may suffer from a sore throat or hoarse voice.
c.) aged people:
the function of stomach and bowels of old people have declined, and the endurance for icy cold food falls too. So, you guess
Right. Hospitals throughout the years have been full of people coming in with that “drank cold water” sickness. 
I have some land for sale in south Florida if you are intereste d…
I like cold drinks as much as the next guy, but I will concur with Jive Turkey about the ‘snot’ effect. Also, I’ve noticed that if I’ve got a slight cold and have a cold beverage, I’ll often start hacking immediately. Plus, my lady ALWAYS gets an intense stomachache if she’s on her period and drinks or eats anything cold.
it’s called hypochondria. the taiwanese are high level hypochondriacs. ask me GF! every little thing is a major medical problem. HYPO CON DRIA!
period.
once again: hot or cold, the serving temp of the liquid does not matter one I O TA!