Mac DeMarco Has Given Up Eating "Cold Foods"

Mac DeMarco is apparently on a big health kick. In a recent interview with the Associated Press, the musician revealed that he recently gave up smoking cigarettes, drinking alcohol and consuming anything with caffeine in it. But that’s not all: the Salad Days singer also has given up eating “cold foods,” per the advice of his acupuncturist.

“He says no cold foods, so there’s not going to be any more cold foods,” DeMarco said. “No cold water, only hot water. And steak.”

Why would anyone do such a thing? When the body digests cold food, it has to warm them up first to break them down, and some people — especially those well-versed in traditional Chinese medicine — believe that that process can slow digestion, causing bloating, puffiness and cramps.

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Of course, humans have been eating cold foods for quite some time now — certainly at least since mass production of domestic refrigerators began in 1918 — without issues, so take this one with a grain of salt. And surely there’s no harm in drinking cold water; people have been doing it to quench their thirst since the dawn of time. What, exactly, are we even talking about when we say “cold food”? Ice cream, sure, but are all fruits and raw vegetables also off the table? That seems ill-advised. And is room-temperature food also forbidden under this strict diet?

“I don’t like being beholden to things like that, you know?” DeMarco said, explaining why he decided to get sober and give up smoking and drinking coffee. “As humans, we got to have water, you got to have shelter, you got to have food. That’s enough things to be trapped by.”

Sure, but isn’t having to put a tea kettle on every time you want a glass of water just another way of being “trapped”?