Does drinking cold/very cold water make it harder to digest food/break down fat?
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The body doesn’t use energy to either heat cold stomach contents or cool warm stomach contents.
Heat IS energy, specifically the transfer of energy between two bodies or systems with a difference in temperature. Your body constantly produces thermal energy and is constantly trying to dissipate that thermal energy. Heat radiates outwards in all directions, and transfers by contact from a warm area to a cooler area.
When you consume something cold , it comes in contact with your warm stomach and heat transfers from your warm stomach to the cold food or drink. That food (and the thermal energy now stored within) is still INSIDE your body. Therefore , no energy is lost and no excess calories are burned to replace it.
If you consume something that is a higher temperature than your body, heat transfers that thermal energy to your body and your skin transfers it as heat to the air. The only time this would cause you to expend energy, is if the air in contact with your body was a higher temperature than the body. This would require the body to sweat in an attempt to maintain temperature equilibrium.
The only other effect on the body of cold food/drink is when you are hot or have exerted yourself it may cause pain/cramps. This is more likely when you have an empty or near empty stomach. Eating some previously hot solid foods cold (<45°) causes some people to experience indigestion.
Warm liquid doesn’t have an effect on digestion, but it can make you feel more full and eat less.
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