Cold water is as healthy as water at any other temperature, and for almost everyone the choice is about taste rather than health. The claims made for it and against it, that it burns calories, slows digestion or hardens fat in the stomach, all shrink once you look at what was actually measured.
One finding does hold up, and it is not the one people argue about: cool water gets people drinking more than iced water does.
Here is each claim against the numbers.
Does cold water burn extra calories? What the evidence shows
The famous figure is a 30% rise in metabolic rate. It comes from a single study published in 2003, the water in it was 22 °C, which is room temperature, and nobody has re-tested it in the past ten years. A 2025 review by a group still working on water and weight reports that their own trial data do not support the idea.
The one recent experiment to put cold water beside room-temperature water found no difference. Ten men were cooled until they shivered and then given water at 7, 22, 37 or 52 °C: metabolic rate reached 269 W on the 7 °C water and 270 W on the 22 °C water. The physics agrees, since warming a 250 ml glass from fridge temperature to body temperature takes about 8 kilocalories.
Verdict: cold water burns no more than room-temperature water in any way you would notice.
Does cold water slow your digestion?
Only for the first few minutes. When twelve young men drank 400 ml of a drink at 4 °C or 60 °C, the hot one left the stomach faster in the first half hour, but the overall difference was not significant. A study of 20 adults aged 65 and over found the same, with warmer drinks ahead only at the five and ten minute marks.
The story about cold water hardening fat fails too. A 2017 experiment showed that fat resists digestion when its own melting point sits above body temperature, whatever you drank with it. A fact check published in February 2026 put it in one line: fat digestion happens because of bile and enzymes, not heat.
Verdict: a difference in the first minutes, and nothing over a whole meal.
Does a cold drink help in the heat?
Before exercise, yes. A 2023 review of 47 studies found that ice or cold water taken before exercising in the heat helped people last longer before exhaustion.
During exercise the result is more surprising. A 2024 study that measured the heat actually leaving the body found that ice slurry cut the heat stored in younger men from 216 kJ to 69 kJ, while their core temperature did not move. The reason is that people sweat less after a cold drink, so the body gives most of the cooling back.
What a cold drink reliably changes is how the heat feels. The NHS heatwave advice includes regular cold drinks as a way to cope with hot weather, not as a health effect of the water.
Verdict: it helps before exercise and makes heat easier to bear, and your body balances out most of the rest.
Which temperature makes people drink the most?
Cool, not iced. A 2012 review of 14 exercise trials found people preferred water below 22 °C and drank about 50% more of it than warmer water. The review is old and nobody has re-run those trials, but a small 2025 study of simulated motor racing at 40 °C found the same, with 872 ml drunk at about 5 °C against 585 ml at room temperature.
Too cold works against you. In a 2023 trial, people cycling in 35 °C heat drank 1,075 grams of an 11 °C drink and only 527 grams of a near-freezing slurry. The International Olympic Committee's 2023 consensus statement names 10 to 15 °C as the range reported to increase how much people drink.
Verdict: cool water gets about half again as much into you as warm, and near-freezing throws that gain away.
Who should be careful with cold water?
Four groups. People with achalasia, a rare swallowing disorder, often find cold makes swallowing worse, as 27 of 44 patients in one study did. Among 930 patients at a periodontal clinic, cold was the most named trigger for sensitive teeth, at 64.8%. About half of adults, 51.3% in a study of 618, get the brief cold-stimulus headache, brought on by cold passing over the palate and usually over within 30 seconds. And a small group gets atrial fibrillation after cold drinks: in a 2025 survey of 101 such people, avoiding cold drinks reduced or stopped the episodes for 86.4% of them.
Verdict: a short and specific list, and if you are not on it the temperature is yours to choose.
Which cold water claims do not hold up?
The cancer claim has no research behind it. Harvard's Cancer FactFinder records that no epidemiological study has linked cold water to cancer risk. The temperature that does carry a cancer classification is the hot one: the International Agency for Research on Cancer classifies drinks above 65 °C as probably carcinogenic, on limited evidence for one type of oesophageal cancer.
The idea that cold drinks give you a cold never had a drinking study behind it either. The experiment usually quoted chilled people's feet.
Verdict: the alarming claims have no mechanism and no research behind them.
Where does Sküma® fit in?
The MY™ Station serves purified water at room temperature or instantly hot rather than chilled, and nothing above makes that a compromise. What it changes is what is in the water: three-stage reverse osmosis filtration takes the tap water down to the water itself, and MY™ Bases put back a mineral profile you choose. If you like it cool, a glass jug of Station water in the fridge does the job.
In short: the Station decides what is in your glass, and the temperature stays yours.
What to remember
Cold water hydrates exactly as well as warm water. It does not burn meaningful calories or slow digestion, and the alarming claims about it have no research behind them. Cool water helps you drink more, and a cold drink before exercise in the heat helps you last longer.
Unless you are in one of the four groups above, drink it at whatever temperature makes you drink more of it.
FAQ: Cold water and your body
Is cold water bad for you?
No. Outside the four groups above, cold water has no measured harm.
Does drinking cold water burn calories?
Barely. Warming a 250 ml glass to body temperature takes about 8 kilocalories, and the one recent experiment comparing cold with room-temperature water found no difference.
Does cold water slow digestion?
Only in the first few minutes. Over a whole meal, recent trials found no significant difference.
Is cold or room-temperature water better for hydration?
Neither. The same volume hydrates you the same way, though people drink more when the water is cool.
Why does cold water give me a headache?
That is the cold-stimulus headache, caused by cold passing over the palate. About half of adults get it, and it usually lasts under 30 seconds.
Sources: Davy et al., Physiology & Behavior (2025); Morris, Filingeri, Halaki & Jay, Journal of Physiology (2017); Fujihira et al., Journal of Physiological Anthropology (2022); Fujihira et al., Temperature (2024); Guo, Bellissimo & Rousseau, Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry (2017); PolitiFact (2026); Heydenreich et al., Frontiers in Physiology (2023); Richards et al., American Journal of Industrial Medicine (2024); Jay & Morris, Sports Medicine (2018); NHS, Heatwave: how to cope in hot weather (2026); Burdon, Johnson, Chapman & O'Connor, International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism (2012); Bird et al., Frontiers in Sports and Active Living (2025); Ng & Wingo, Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research (2023); Racinais et al., British Journal of Sports Medicine (2023); Cesarini et al., Frontiers in Nutrition (2026); Martínez-Alcaide et al., Journal of Clinical and Experimental Dentistry (2025); Kraya et al., Cephalalgia (2020); DiLena et al., Journal of Cardiovascular Electrophysiology (2025); Cancer FactFinder, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health (2026); IARC Monographs volume 116 (2018).
Note: this article is for information purposes and does not replace medical advice. Any specific question about a condition affected by cold drinks should be directed to a healthcare professional.
