Your back is wet and the sweat is almost dripping off your face. It will be hours before you’re back home to refresh yourself. You want something to cool yourself down. What should you drink or eat with such temperatures? Well, don’t eat a Magnum, Soft Serve ice cream or any kind of these ice creams. That is, if the goal is to cool down (I know sometimes they can be too good to skip). You might think: it’s cold, so I will cool down. But from these kind of ice creams you’ll get even warmer. On the contrary, hot things like a cup of tea can cool you down!

Why?

It’s not about the temperature of what you’re eating or drinking, but what’s in it. At the beginning, you will experience the refreshing feeling of the ice cream when the ice is going through your mouth, through your food pipe and into your stomach. But this feeling ends soon. The ice quickly warms in your stomach. More important: ice like Soft Serves contain a lot of nutrients. 100 Grams of Soft Serve ice cream can contain about 20 grams of sugar, 11 grams of fat and a couple grams of proteins from the milk that’s used for its preparation. Your body must work to break down all these nutrients. That is certainly not what you want in these boiling conditions! Especially fat costs relatively much energy to break down. And what happens when your body is using energy? Exactly, your body warms a little bit. So, if you want to cool down, better not eat that ice cream! Just like other food and drinks that are relatively rich in calories like a plate of spaghetti, a bag of crisps or some cheese with your ice-cold beer.

What to do?

Eat or drink something that will make you sweat, as strange as it sounds. Sweating cools down the body. So, get a cup of hot tea (and not a hot cup of cappuccino with a lot of milk and sugar). Your body reacts to the hot beverage by sweating, releasing the heat from your body. Spicy food has a similar effect. If you want to cool down, don’t heat up the barbeque and eat bacon, spareribs and potato salad. Instead, prepare a Thai dish with a lot of peppers. It might not feel like it in the beginning, but eventually it will cool down your body.

Still want an ice cream? Try a popsicle like the rocket ice lolly. You will get the short refreshing feeling but you won’t trouble your body with breaking down all the nutrients.

Credits rocket ice lolly image

Enjoy and have a great day!

@themoth