I’ve never been to Asia, but I have a feeling that when they enjoy warm water they don’t guzzle it by the litre. Guzzling somehow seems an American thing to do. Maybe it goes hand in hand with their (Americans’) preference for cold water. There is something in the vomiting-due-to-cultural-conditioning theory, though.
I also agree with barbitu8, that cold water is absorbed faster and I don’t know where I heard it. However, it’s not a case of “the colder the better.” There is a certain optimum temperature for water absorption, but I don’t know what it is or why. Is there an absorption expert in the house?
Gordo, you’re right about sipping versus guzzling. It is not the temperature of water that is emetic. It’s the volume.
Think! If warm salty water causes vomiting, then how is it possible to take soup, broth, bouillon, or consommé? The warmth and salt are not what does it. You can sip warm salty liquid slowly and it will not cause vomiting. It’s the rapid increase in volume that does it.
When you chug a huge amount of liquid all at once, the stomach will react violently and expel it. The reason warmth and salt are used is that they make it easier to down a large amount of liquid rapidly. You can’t chug ice-cold liquid as fast, your throat would seize up.
Soup is used to break fasts and begin meals for exactly the opposite effect: the warm salty liquid helps to settle the stomach. It’s comfort food. As long as you sip it slowly.
May have started with a faulty premise, but it’s a very interesting thread nonetheless.
So if I walk into a Burger King in downtown Beijing and order a Whopper and a Coke, how exactly is the soft drink served? That is, assuming I don’t specify a preference. Ice? Lots? Not much? If none, what is the liquid’s general temperature?
Like I said, drinking large quantities of warm water makes you sick. Early humans didn’t have the luxury of drinking water in small amounts. A lot of people still don’t. I don’t drink water in huge amounts because of cultural conditioning, I do it because I don’t have the luxury of doing otherwise.