Drinking cold fluids when feeling hot - harmful?

I found the reference: The Science of Sports Training by Tom Kurz pg 113

Unfortunately, the citation given is:
Sleamaker, R. 1989 Serious Training for Serious Athletes. Champaign, IL. Leisure Press

This is where I picked it up and I was disappointed it wasn’t a journal or textbook Kurz was referencing.

But Kurz does know a thing or two. This is him 20 years ago:

:slight_smile:

:astonished: Ouch. :astonished:

Do either of you two know why cooler water is considered easier to absorb? Was there any reasoning behind it?

Because, if anything, I would think the opposite. Warmer water would be closer to your body temperature and it would not take as long to warm it up. Unless the body would more readily absorb cooler water to cool the body off… that’s the only thing I could think of as to their reasoning.

[quote=“dedsall78”]Do either of you two know why cooler water is considered easier to absorb? Was there any reasoning behind it?

Because, if anything, I would think the opposite. Warmer water would be closer to your body temperature and it would not take as long to warm it up. Unless the body would more readily absorb cooler water to cool the body off… that’s the only thing I could think of as to their reasoning.[/quote]

lifehacker.com/5335722/think-vol … king-water

[quote]
According to the paper and an American College of Sports Medicine study, “The biggest factor (concerning absorption rates) is sufficient fluid volume in the stomach” and “a big factor in ingesting enough fluid is palatability.” All of which is to say that the temperature of water doesn’t really matter apart from choosing a temperature that makes it easy for you to drink it, since what matters most for hydration is how much water you can get in your stomach (duh).

As for temperature, the article points to a 2006 study finding that cold water is unlikely to have any significant effect on calorie burning. However, if you still insist on knowing the right temperature level, the first study recommends fluids to be kept between 59 to 72 degrees Fahrenheit, but, again, only for the palatability factor.[/quote]

andersenchiro.com/understand … ement.html

[quote]Digestive Physiology
The digestive physiology for fluid, carbohydrate, and electrolyte replacement can be divided into two phases, gastric emptying and intestinal absorption. Gastric emptying is not a linear process. There are fast and slow phases as well as marked individual variability in the speed of gastric emptying.34 Gastric volume has the greatest influence on gastric emptying. Increased volumes up to at least 600 ml will increase gastric emptying.35 Other factors that influence gastric emptying include the carbohydrate and mineral contents of a solution, as well as its temperature. Cooler, flavored beverages stimulate fluid intake.36,37 Exercise at high intensity can also affect gastric emptying. Exercise below 70 V02 max will not delay gastric emptying.38
[/quote]

Looks like it is better do drink cold drinks if you really want your body to absorb the water quicker.

I think it is more important in hot climate (or while exercising) to pay attention to replacing the electrolytes lost by sweating than care much about temperature.
Drinking plain water is not sufficient for replacement of minerals.
The sports drinks are formulated to better serve this purpose.

Thanks for the info there. Informative.

[quote=“pb”]
The sports drinks are formulated to better serve this purpose.[/quote]

I would not advise drinking sports drinks as most of them use high fructose corn syrup. There is a debate these days as to if your body can even digest it properly as it is an engineered, non-natural sugar. Not too long ago, I read an article from the New York Times where the doctor interviewed even felt that high fructose corn syrup may be a leading cause of obesity.

It’s better to drink fruit juice.

[quote=“dedsall78”]I would not advise drinking sports drinks as most of them use high fructose corn syrup. There is a debate these days as to if your body can even digest it properly as it is an engineered, non-natural sugar. Not too long ago, I read an article from the New York Times where the doctor interviewed even felt that high fructose corn syrup may be a leading cause of obesity.

It’s better to drink fruit juice.[/quote]

I’ve gotten good results drinking 100% orange or grape juice after a really long, hard workout. If I go too hard, it picks me back up quick. Great recovery drink.

bump

My take on this is similar to Icon’s in that extremes are rarely good and also, if you’ve had good results from something over a period of time, chances are it isn’t hurting you. :slight_smile:

I really get tired of TW friends telling us that what we do is wrong. One shouldn’t have oranges if one has a cold, I shouldn’t drink cold water - ever, Sir shouldn’t read his flashcards on the bus, we shouldn’t eat watermelon for breakfast in TW (elsewhere is OK, I assume!) and I will certainly be malnourished being a vegetarian… ad infinitum. Whatever we do, we’re wrong and they know better and, frankly, I wonder how they think we Westerners manage to stay alive without following every letter of their advice (which I usually find without credible basis and so ignore as politely as I can). I also get a bit sick of being treated like a kid who needs help and correction all the time… :bluemad: I’ve learnt to be very sketchy about how I’m feeling, what I’m doing, what I’m eating and so on. :no-no: “I’m tellin’ you nothin’!”

OK, rant over! :laughing:

[quote=“Chris”]

It’s not enough to say “You do it your way; I’ll do it my way; let’s leave it at that.” [/quote]

Not only is it okay, in a lot of similar situations it’s imperative.

That makes sense in the middle of the desert, maybe, but at 36 degrees with 85% humidity? I can’t see where the sweat would evaporate to; there’s no room for it in the air!

[/ :2cents: ]

For most foreigners, we feel so hot in the summers here that the sweat doesn’t cool our bodies down. We just continue to sweat and sweat, and lose more and more water in the process. In the summer, I switch to cold water and drink as much of it as I can. TCM is great and all but people are very different. I don’t follow its advice on this issue.

No.

[quote=“dedsall78”]
If you want to do a little test, go drink warm water all the time for a couple months. After doing this, go drink a nice glass of ice cold water and see how “good” you feel.[/quote]

I favored cold drinks throughout my life in the US, but switched to room temperature or warm drinks after my first few years in Taiwan, and seem to have developed a preference for them, even during the peak summer heat. I do find it a mild shock now to drink cold drinks, and drink more slowly if drinking an iced beverage. I make an exception for cocktails and beer.

I’m still skeptical about any healthful benefit to avoiding cold drinks, though.