Stop stressing your digestion with all that ice
You’ve heard it before. Ice water is bad for you. It shocks your digestive system, which depends on heat – “digestive fire”– to properly process your food. Let me add to that maxim. Not only should you drink room temperature water, but it’s best to heat it up, as warm as you can manage.
Try hot water carafes
See the carafe in the photo? I have one like it on my desk and one next to my bed. I fill them up with hot water, pour the water into my cup and give it a couple minutes to cool before I drink it. If I need to down the water right away, I add a little room temperature aqua until it’s drinkable. The carafes are filled as needed. If you’re out and about all day, use one of those big, Stanley thermoses that are so popular – or any warm water bottle you like (avoid plastic if possible).
Ask your server for room temperature water
Be a pain in the butt and ask your servers in restaurants if you can get your water without ice. If it’s not possible, order a cup of herb tea (a lot of places have lemon ginger, which is good for digestion, but any will do). If you’re having wine or a mixed drink with dinner that’s inherently cold (like my fave alcoholic beverage is champagne that definitely benefits from a long time on ice) I order herb tea at the same time and have several sips of that first before the cold beverage. This strategy doesn’t work for water since we need too much of it.
Give it a try
When I first began studying Ayurveda, drinking warm water was one of the first tips I received. At the time, I drank a lot of iced tea. The warm (or at least room temp) water made a big difference in my gut and my general sense of wellbeing. Check it out for yourself and let me know in the comments how it works for you.