SHARES
After a high intensity cardiovascular exercise, where you can feel the pulse and the blood pumping profusely with a rush through your veins, the next thing that comes to your mind is how to cool off and calm your nerves. From deep within, your soul would naturally call for something cold.
Where you can’t get anything chilling around, the natural inclination is to call for ice cubes to get your warm drinks to below room temperature. In the process of sipping or gulping the drink, you even crush undissolved ice particles, and maybe you shrink from the intense cold sensation you feel on your teeth, but as the satisfaction gets to the crescendo, you savour it all. Little did you know that you are enjoying exposing your system to imminent break-down. You would ask how? Why? Calm down a bit and read on with an open mind.
Side Effects of Adding Ice to Your Drink:
Exposure to germs:
Did you know, the very form of an ice cube being kind of crystal clear makes you think it is the purest of element. But this can be far from reality; if only you had a see-through eye with microscopic views, you would be taken aback by the stark contrast between what a good number of ice cubes look like with ordinary eyes and what they look like under a microscope. You may find it difficult to come to terms with this, but here is the explanation.
Since an ice cube is water in solid state, it follows that ice cubes formed from frozen contaminated water would be unfit for consumption. And of course you shouldn’t have problems with admitting that water can be so easily contaminated; particularly as it concerns ice cubes, water can be contaminated by the ice cube tray of your freezer; over time as water forms into cubes in your freezer, some scree-like particle could fall back into tray as you pick some cubes out. The time lag between this and when you fill up the cube tray again with water is enough for molds to develop from the defrosted particles.
As time goes on, molds can build up in the tray without taking cognizance of it, meanwhile they harbour fungi in the millions yet you happily feel your mold clogged tray every now and then hoping that you are consuming fungi-free ice cubes. Just the same way it eludes you to wash your freezer’s tray cube is the same way it eludes operators of your favorite restaurants and chain stores where you order ice cubes frequently to instruct their cleaners to do a thorough washing of theirs too. In fact, in their case, the incidence of water contamination is higher as sanitary staff would have had contact with bacteria and fungi infested points like the toilet, floor and dirty utensils before filling the freezer’s cube tray with water. So now you do the math about the odds of you getting a germ free ice cube. Your best preventive option is to steer clear.
Inflammation of the Vocal Chords
Those addicted to putting ice cubes in their drinks but also keen on hygiene may think they can keep enjoying their chilled drink without restrain. Not intending to sound like a prophet of doom nor are we making sentimental judgments but based on empirically derived facts, there are more negative consequences of adding ice cubes to your drink. One of them is that the frost on ice cubes is harsh on the tender make-up of the vocal cord. So continuous consumption of ice in the form of ice cubes makes it get irritated to the point where sound production becomes inhibited by the inflamed cells of the vocal cord. Well, you certainly don’t want the fond ridicule of friends for having a cracked and croaky voice the next time you hit the gym, eh?
Indigestion:
Sometimes we do complain of indigestion but not sure what may be the reason. In fact it is said that you could develop stomach constipation if you keep consuming ice cubes. Again you want to ask, how? Here’s how – as cold substances travel through your alimentary canal, the frost cause the walls of the blood vessels to shrink; this hinders absorption of nutrient and impedes the release of digestive enzymes thereby stalling digestion and causing stomach cramps. The body at this time rather than creating energy loses energy to homeostasis( regulation of internal temperature)
Accumulation of body fats:
One reason you have been working out is to burn out body fats. If you have been strictly following your work-out schedule but nothing seems to be improving about your Body Mass Index (BMI), then perhaps, taking cold drinks and ice cubes has been the habit that has been negating your fitness effort. Just in case you can’t understand how it happens, just think, immediately washing down fatty foods you have just consumed with a glass of cold water or drink brings down the body’s temperature to a level where fats can accumulate and solidify on the walls of your stomach and other body parts where fats are stored, so if you have been working out in order to lose weight, each time you consume a cold drink after eating, you regain the weight you have just shed off.
So just before you berate your fitness instructor for being so ineffective, watch your consumption of cold beverages, if your BMI must get better, it’s a nay, nay to ice cube consumption.
References:
Did you know TCM doesn’t advocate the consumption of ice-cold drinks, these should be reason enough! Make an appointment with a TCM doctor near you using GetDoc!
by Hridya
A biochemist by education who could never put what she studied to good use, finally found GetDoc as a medium to do what she loved - bring information to people using a forum that is dedicated to all things medical. View all articles by Hridya.
