The ice cream is not refreshing

The feeling of freshness is only temporary. Hot tea is much better.

di |
ice cream stains
If you eat ice cream with the intention of cooling off, you're wrong and wasting it. Contrary to popular belief, ice cream isn't refreshing because the sensation of coolness you experience is only temporary.

When you eat it, the cold of the ice cream stimulates the cold receptors in your mouth and throat, creating an immediate sensation of relief. But this sensation doesn't last long because the ice cream quickly warms to body temperature; the tissues in your mouth and throat quickly return to their normal temperature; the body maintains its internal temperature around normal values ​​through thermoregulation. On a very hot day, therefore, an ice cream can make you... feel better for a few minutes, but does not replace lhydration and the other mechanisms that really help dissipate heat.

Dutch physiologist Hein Daanen described this paradox: if a 50-kilogram person ate a kilogram (a lot, really!) of crushed ice, their average body temperature would drop from 38 to 35,65 degrees Celsius. Not much. For cooling down, from this perspective, water and fruits containing a lot of it, such as watermelon, melon, and peaches, are much more effective. Even a cup of hot tea is more refreshing than ice cream. 

Also ice cream often sugars and fats, which require energy to digest and can give a feeling of heaviness and are broken down generating heat, rather than freshness! The metabolism of sugars and fats contained in ice cream produces energy, and a part of this energy is inevitably dispersed in the form of heat (so-called thermogenesis).
Bottom line: enjoy your gelato how, where, and when you want. But do it for the pleasure it provides, not for the sake of cooling off.

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