Hey all,

I keep having the same "conversation" (that is morphing more and more into an argument) about drinking cold water. As an American, I have drunk ice cold water for my entire life and I am still miraculously alive. I have researched this online and obviously, drinking huge quantities of freezing water isn't good for you, but during the summer, I feel lightheaded and faint if it is really hot and I don't have something cold to drink if I'm thirsty. However, my husband and his family all freak out and start in on how bad it is for you to do. Then I come back with if cold water is so bad for you, then why do you guys still eat cold gelato? drink cold beer? Isn't it the same principle?

Killing is probably an exaggeraton, but drinking very cold water on a very hot day can give you a tummy ache--cramp to be specific. The difference between ice water and beer or gelato is that you are more likely to chug-a-lug the water, whereas you would take in the others more slowly, allowing the body to adjust to the shock of temperature difference.

If you're used to ice water and it does no harm, carry on and pay no attention. Italians have old wives' tales about certain things like not going outside with a wet head--not because you might catch cold but you'll get a rheumatism in the back of your neck. Another favourite is cool breezes and the damage they can do.

Mind you, they're not 100% wrong, but healthy people can withstand more than Italians give them credit for!

Even so, my grandfather got very sick when, in his forties, drank quickly a large glass of icy water. Not that he died or needed hospitalization, but the cold liquid caused him to faint and later to throw up several times. He stayed sick for about 24 hours. Essentially he was so extremely hot that the sudden amount of cold water in his stomach caused him first a blood pressure imbalance that cauesd him to faint, and later caused him cramps that beside being painful took him to throw up and not be able to hold anything in his stomach except for very hot tea with a dash of lemon for several hours.
Sure, he was hit not only by icy-cold water but also by bad luck, even so, a cold drink refreshes you the most if you drink it sipping, allowing the cold liquid to cool down the blood in the vessels that line your mouth. This does not only time to your body to adjust, but also cools down the blood, which spreads the coolnes throughout the body. It's like injecting a cold liquid in an overheated engine: if done slowly and gradually the engine cools down, if done too suddenly, the engine may break.

The only thing that ever happened to me when chugging really cold liquid is what we Americans call "brain freeze" - your head momentarily feels numb. Teens usually do this on purpose by chugging a really cold slurpee (blended ice and soda/juice drink). You can do it by chugging ice water too. Never heard of anyone becoming sick or dying from this though.

I got that "ice cream headache" from drinking water one time. I was riding my bike in the Alabama summer heat and my water bottle ran out, so I stopped by an old farmhouse and asked for a drink. The kids went out to the well and pulled up a bucketful which I drank a bottle of real fast. How that water stayed so cold only 30 feet down from that terrible heat I don't know, but I was seeing stars for a couple of minutes.

Yea, I hate brain freeze so I only drink room-temp water now, but it may be because in addition to this I have really sensitive front teeth. If anything really cold touches them I feel instant pain from those teeth. I'd rather not have either feeling, so I've made the switch.

I don't know if this is an all-over Italian thing though. My Italian husband from Northern Tuscany regularly drinks ice water. I just asked him and he said he'd never heard of it.

I have to say I am with Italy on this one! All my life I have been plagued by cramps from drinking anything too cold on a hot day or going from the heat to somewhere over-air-conditioned. It can be really nasty if it happens when out and about! I know now to avoid really cold fluids unless I really need to lose weight quickly! Ice lollies can have the same effect too! The buildings are the tricky ones! The worst are usually MacD's!

Ice water is usually nothing to worry about.... some people can be sensitive to it, but the chance of this is greatly increased if on italian soil. Nothing life threatening of course, but if you happen to get a bit of wind on your neck at the same time as drinking ice water, head directly to the hospital.

) I can understand that one might not feel too great after chugging a huge amount of ice water...although in high school when I played soccer and ran track, I always used to drink lots of ice water that I would bring from home...I wonder if it is one of those things that if you grew up doing it, you have no problems, but if you start when you are already an adult, it causes less than pleasant side effects? I had never heard of any of this before coming to Italy. I ask people from the USA about it and they look at me like I am insane.

"Don't drink iced water straight from the fridge!!!"

Yes, like most of you, this was one of the 'old wives tale' that I, along with perhaps half the western world 'poo poo'd' for many, many years. I had always done it, so it COULD'T be true, could it?

That was until that moment, at 2am on a very hot night in Milano, I went to our fridge and poured myself a loooong drink of iced water and drank it straight down. Oh - was it refreshing! Well it was for 5 minutes and then 'IT' hit me like a sledge hammer. Right in the gut. I'm not kidding, I was screaming with pain, It was as if someone had grabbed a fistful of my stomach and was twisting it tighter and tighter. My husband phoned pronto soccorso and they told him it was 'congestione' and to make me sick as quickly as possible. He made me drink a glassful of warm, very salty water. Yes I was sick,and the cold drink , along with my supper and whatever, was expelled. The pain gradually abated, but I was an utter wreck!

Some years later a visitor from the UK did exactly the same thing in our place in Milan - so she got the salty water treatment, but was hardly sick at all. The pain kept coming and going. That next morning they were due to fly home and she was taken ill with the same pains at the airport, taken to the first aid post and the doctor would not allow her to fly. He said the congestione was too bad and had to clear before she could fly. That wasn't until very late that evening.

The Italian dictionary says of congestion:
Congestione
'blocco della digestione causato dal freddo, dall’ingestione di bevande ghiacciate'

Block of the digestive system caused by cold, from drinking iced drinks'.

Believe me - it's true...sometimes, but I will never risk it again. The pain was just too much!

I noticed Carole that both incidents took place on Italian soil!!

quote:

Originally posted by Justin B:
I noticed Carole that both incidents took place on Italian soil!!

You think that it was ever that hot in the UK back then, to need an iced drink from the fridge?

Perhaps that's why they both happened in Italy

I have heard news stories about people dying from drinking a big glass, very quickly, of super cold water on hot days (when obviously the person drinking the water was really hot).
BUT, Italians tend to take these "dangers" to the max and make it an absurd rule. For example, do not bathe after eating for at least 2 hours. Sure, it may not be best for digestion, but the Italians say you will DIE (die!!!)... no, you will not die. You MAY not feel great, or you may feel FINE, or if you swim you may get a cramp and drown, but I am talking about a simple shower. So, point made about how in Italy possible dangers get stretched into broad rules that have no backing in the medical field or reality in any sense.
I think their fears are kind of cute.

The fact that a person can experience a "brain freeze" when skulling a cold drink is enough to suggest our system has experienced a kind of mini shock (signalled to the brain). This is enough to play it safe and not skull a long cold drink. (particularly in extremes of temperature or after a big meal).

old wives tale of not, it has affected many people so there is truth to it.

Jenna each and every culture has the same kind of enflated fears. To us Italians they are most commonly associated with food, digestion and low temperatures, but to most of the English-speaking people they are related, for instance, to sunlight exposition. Tese fears or at least differences in sensibility also extend to the medical profession: ObGins in the US and in the UK (and maybe in Australia) fret a lot about listeria-related dangers, to Italian ObGins the main risk of this kind is not listeria as well as toxoplasmosis.

To be honest many UK "fears" are similar to Italian ones - when to swim after eating, take your coat off inside or you won't feel the benefit, you get a chill from a draught, etc. etc. It just sounds like we put up with it in the UK rather than seek medical advice. Having said that, if I had a euro for every time my husband has 'flu I'd be very rich!! Oh, and the same symptoms in me are a sign I am not exercising enough or eating correctly, and yes, he is British!

I think this has been said before but I don't think the "fear" of overexposure to sun can be compared with the "fear" of drinking cold water.

The effects of over-exposure to the sun are medically documented/proven and are associated with skin cancer. Cold water has no such scientific link that I know of.

I find the "fears" throughout most cultures to be similar. I too know many of my relatives who talk about catching a cold if you go to bed with wet hair, cramping up and dying if you swim after you eat, etc. I am talking about my Jamaican relatives.