Can a straw make people drink more water? These two groups of people should be cautious

As the weather gets hotter, straws have become the "best work companion" for many people. On the one hand, drinking a cool drink with a straw is simply the happiest time of the day. On the other hand, many people believe that drinking water with a straw can help people drink more water and meet the daily water intake required.

But what you may not know is that from a health perspective, it is not recommended to drink water with a straw for a long time.

Can straws really help people drink more water?

The difference between drinking water with a straw and using a cup is that it allows us to maintain a more continuous action of "drinking water".

Especially when paired with a large-capacity cup, the continuity of drinking water with a straw is obviously better than that of a water cup that needs to be refilled. Unlike a water cup, a straw cup does not require the repeated pouring of water, making it easier for people to drink a large glass of water without realizing it, thus giving people the illusion that using a straw can help us drink more water.

Moreover, for people who often feel thirsty, using a straw to swallow in small sips can indeed improve dry mouth to a certain extent, compared to drinking water in large gulps.

This is because dry mouth comes from the feeling of taste nerve endings. When we drink water slowly in small sips, it makes the mouth feel more moisturized, thus playing a role in quenching thirst. It is just like drinking water in small sips after strenuous exercise is more thirst-quenching than drinking water in large gulps. However, this is mainly related to the speed of our drinking rhythm, and has no direct connection with the straw.

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Long-term drinking with a straw

What are the possible health effects?

1

Can cause flatulence

Drinking water with a straw can easily cause air to be inhaled into the digestive tract, which can then cause indigestion symptoms such as bloating.

2

Deepen lip lines

Drinking with a straw tends to involve more facial and lip muscles, which can easily deepen lip and facial lines. If you really like to drink with a straw, you can put the straw at the corner of your mouth, which will involve fewer muscles and reduce the formation of lip lines.

3

Breeding of bacteria

Since the inside of the straw is difficult to clean, repeated use can easily lead to a large number of bacteria growing on the inner wall of the straw, affecting health. In particular, some cheap straw cups are made of inferior materials and can easily cause harm to the human body after long-term use.

4

Absorbing excess sugar

Due to the continuity of drinking water through a straw, it is easy for people to inhale more drinks without realizing it, which to a certain extent will interfere with our judgment of how much drink and sugar we have absorbed.

In addition to the impact on personal health, since most straws are made of plastic, which is a difficult-to-degrade material, the long-term use and disposal of a large number of plastic straws may lead to plastic pollution, which has a serious impact on the environment.

Especially in the ocean, plastic straws are listed as one of the common marine debris, which has a destructive impact on the marine ecosystem. Once they are accidentally eaten by marine organisms, when marine organisms enter the human food chain, these organisms that have absorbed marine debris are very likely to be served on human tables, which in turn endangers our health.

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These types of people

It is recommended to avoid drinking water with a straw

1

Elderly people over 65 years old and patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

Drinking water with a straw is no problem for normal people, but for people with difficulty swallowing, it can easily cause coughing and choking.

Generally speaking, people over 65 years old are prone to dysphagia. As the elderly's nerve reflex activity decreases, the swallowing muscles become uncoordinated, and when drinking water, it is very easy to choke on the respiratory tract. If you use a straw to drink water, it is often difficult to control the speed of water intake, causing coughing and choking.

Especially for patients with COPD, the decline in lung function will lead to worsening of their muscle strength, affecting the contraction strength and coordination ability of the swallowing muscles, so that food cannot enter the stomach through the esophagus, but instead goes into the trachea, and the chance of swallowing disorders is higher.

2

Children who are not fully developed

Long-term use of a straw to drink water may cause a protruding mouth. This is because when drinking water with a straw, it will change the movement pattern of the oral and facial muscles, causing the teeth to generate outward force, which can easily cause the teeth to move forward.

Especially for children aged 6 to 14 who are in the age of replacing teeth, long-term use of straws to drink water may affect the normal development of the oral and facial muscles.

It is also important to note that you should not drink hot water through a straw.

When we drink hot water directly from a cup, if the water temperature is too high, you may instinctively inhale after drinking a small amount of water, which can quickly lower the temperature of the water. However, if you use a straw to drink hot water, the situation is different.

Not only is it difficult to control the water flow through a straw, but it also concentrates the hot water in a smaller area, causing it to feel even hotter and, if you're not careful, could burn your throat.

Planning and production

Author: Zhong Yike, popular science creator

Reviewer: Tang Qin, Director and Researcher of the Science Popularization Department of the Chinese Medical Association

Planning丨Yang Yaping

Editor: Yang Yaping

Proofread by Xu Lailinlin