Why do Russians Hate Ice?

[Captain Hammer 113]

I am not at all making fun of your wife. Nice attempt at dodge. I cannot say I am surprised.

LOL relax Gary, it was a joke.

[james&olya 1,121]

You are not a mechanical engineer.

Heat cannot be destroyed or burned. It can only be transferred from one place to another. Body heat is transferred to the water but remains in the body and balances the water temperature to that of the body and the heat transfer stops.

Ice can lower body temperature when applied to the outside of the body and the heat migrates OUT of the body. Transferring energy around inside the body has no affect on body weight, it cannot. Your body does not "burn" anything, it merely transfers calories from one part of the body to another.

It would be like putting the condenser of a window air conditioner into another room of the same house.

It depends on ambient temperatures! If the temperature outside the body is low enough to cause the body to be using energy to maintain euthermia (normal temperature), then drinking that ice cold drink does, in fact, cause the body to expend calories to compensate for the cooling. The opposite would apply when it is very hot out, when the body is stressed by being too warm already, the ice cold drink would not cause the body to burn any calories at all.

[웃 910]

I am. Google hits are not a basis for science.

Actually you can find the correct answer by running a google hit contest. I used to do it once in a while when studying Spanish (you put in quotation marks the phrase in question...The incorrect one would get <1000 hits and the correct way of saying it would have millions of hits). I can't think of any examples off the top of my head so I will do the "moot point" (correct) vs. "mute point" (incorrect).

Apparently saying that someone has a "mute point" is a rather common phrase that people say...I never heard it in my life until Danno said it the other day.

But here are the results:

And you can see just how common it is for people to think it is "mute point" when most people know it is "moot point"!

In fact, it is so common that I actually found you in one of the conversations (you obviously didn't say "mute point" but the person that responded to you did):

And there are three full pages (of "hits") on VJ alone where people are saying "mute point"....

[Brad and Vika 129]

My wife insists that drinking cold drinks with ice will give me a sore throat and a cold. Funny thing is I am always using ice and she is the one who is always sick.

Damn American germs.

This was the original story I got too. Vika now says that she cannot imagine drinking most drinks without ice. She also likes air conditioning and fans now.

We still laugh about my asking for ice in drinks while we are in Kherson or Odessa. The waitress makes a big production of bringing a whole bucket of ice with tongs, then "plop", adds one cube . When I indicate I would like more, I get the you-must-be-crazy look.

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

It depends on ambient temperatures! If the temperature outside the body is low enough to cause the body to be using energy to maintain euthermia (normal temperature), then drinking that ice cold drink does, in fact, cause the body to expend calories to compensate for the cooling. The opposite would apply when it is very hot out, when the body is stressed by being too warm already, the ice cold drink would not cause the body to burn any calories at all.

Sorry no. Where does the heat (calories) go? It stays within the body. Unless the heat is moved to the exterior of the bocy you have not "expended" anything.

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

Actually you can find the correct answer by running a google hit contest. I used to do it once in a while when studying Spanish (you put in quotation marks the phrase in question...The incorrect one would get <1000 hits and the correct way of saying it would have millions of hits). I can't think of any examples off the top of my head so I will do the "moot point" (correct) vs. "mute point" (incorrect).

Apparently saying that someone has a "mute point" is a rather common phrase that people say...I never heard it in my life until Danno said it the other day.

But here are the results:

And you can see just how common it is for people to think it is "mute point" when most people know it is "moot point"!

In fact, it is so common that I actually found you in one of the conversations (you obviously didn't say "mute point" but the person that responded to you did):

And there are three full pages (of "hits") on VJ alone where people are saying "mute point"....

And what?

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

LOL relax Gary, it was a joke.

So YOU were making fun of your wife?

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

It depends on ambient temperatures! If the temperature outside the body is low enough to cause the body to be using energy to maintain euthermia (normal temperature), then drinking that ice cold drink does, in fact, cause the body to expend calories to compensate for the cooling. The opposite would apply when it is very hot out, when the body is stressed by being too warm already, the ice cold drink would not cause the body to burn any calories at all.

If this were true then the universal treatment for heat exhaustion would be to give the patient large quantities of ice water internally. Ice bags applied externally are the universal treatment. Cold water taken internally when a person is over heated will likely result in vomiting, which is not an entirely bad thing, if they can keep it down long enough to absorb heat. If a person drinks cold water, waits a few minutes for the water to warm and then vomits it all out, YES you have transferred heat to the atwer and removed it from the body. Causing an overheated and likely dehydrated person to vomit is not a good idea though. Better to infuse water intravenously. There is no need to chill the water being infused intravenously.

If the person perspires and removes heat by the cooling process of evaporation, then YES the water was used as a medium to move the heat from the body to the exterior, much as it is used to move heat outside in a building. If the cooling tower runs dry, no heat transfer. Your skin is the cooling tower. So if a person is dehydrated, no cooling can take place (or less, anyway) but the temperature of the water taken in makes no difference.

On the other hand drinking warm liquid CAN raise the body temperature, because again, the liquid is being used as a medium to transfer heat from another source (the burner on the stove) to your body.

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

This was the original story I got too. Vika now says that she cannot imagine drinking most drinks without ice. She also likes air conditioning and fans now.

We still laugh about my asking for ice in drinks while we are in Kherson or Odessa. The waitress makes a big production of bringing a whole bucket of ice with tongs, then "plop", adds one cube . When I indicate I would like more, I get the you-must-be-crazy look.

I have a friend from Quebec whose native language is French. He speaks English well but with an accent. He also does not use ice. So we are sitting at an outdoor cafe in Burlington. He orders a "coke deeyet without glahs" Mixing French and English he mistakenly used the French word for ice, "glace" (pronounced "glahs") The waitress duly brings him a diet coke in the can. He then said "Oh, could you please bring me a glass?"

She brought him a glass...full of ice!

He said "I surrender" and dumped the ice on the ground.

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

In fact, it is so common that I actually found you in one of the conversations (you obviously didn't say "mute point" but the person that responded to you did):

And there are three full pages (of "hits") on VJ alone where people are saying "mute point"....

Other people are often wrong when replying to my posts.

So when you are wrong about a subject, you go to the internet and find a lot of other people that are wrong about a different subject and then ...you are right? Glad to hear you support the theory of man-made global warming.

It may just be me but if I am wrong I will suaully say "I stand corrected" and let it go at that.

[james&olya 1,121]

Sorry no. Where does the heat (calories) go? It stays within the body. Unless the heat is moved to the exterior of the bocy you have not "expended" anything.

You are confusing heat and temperature! The body measures temperature, not the total heat content. You are right that there is no net decrease in heat (at least until you void the excess water which will then be at body temperature) by drinking an ice cold drink but the bodies temperature will decline and if you are at the point where the body is needing to expend energy to maintain euthermia you will most certainly burn calories! It is a ridiculous way to think you could lose weight though! What moron is going to drink significant amounts of ice cold water when he is already cold and shivering, just to lose weight?

[Brad and Vika 129]

I have a friend from Quebec whose native language is French. He speaks English well but with an accent. He also does not use ice. So we are sitting at an outdoor cafe in Burlington. He orders a "coke deeyet without glahs" Mixing French and English he mistakenly used the French word for ice, "glace" (pronounced "glahs") The waitress duly brings him a diet coke in the can. He then said "Oh, could you please bring me a glass?"

She brought him a glass...full of ice!

He said "I surrender" and dumped the ice on the ground.

I just spent five minutes telling, then explaining this to Vika By the third time I explained the play on words, even I wasn't laughing any more. Good grief!

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

I just spent five minutes telling, then explaining this to Vika By the third time I explained the play on words, even I wasn't laughing any more. Good grief!

I HATE when that happens!

Try telling her it happens when two languages have a similar word with different meanings. "Kak" is a good example.

Edited August 6, 2011 by Gary and Alla

[james&olya 1,121]

If this were true then the universal treatment for heat exhaustion would be to give the patient large quantities of ice water internally. Ice bags applied externally are the universal treatment. Cold water taken internally when a person is over heated will likely result in vomiting, which is not an entirely bad thing, if they can keep it down long enough to absorb heat. If a person drinks cold water, waits a few minutes for the water to warm and then vomits it all out, YES you have transferred heat to the atwer and removed it from the body. Causing an overheated and likely dehydrated person to vomit is not a good idea though. Better to infuse water intravenously. There is no need to chill the water being infused intravenously.

If the person perspires and removes heat by the cooling process of evaporation, then YES the water was used as a medium to move the heat from the body to the exterior, much as it is used to move heat outside in a building. If the cooling tower runs dry, no heat transfer. Your skin is the cooling tower. So if a person is dehydrated, no cooling can take place (or less, anyway) but the temperature of the water taken in makes no difference.

On the other hand drinking warm liquid CAN raise the body temperature, because again, the liquid is being used as a medium to transfer heat from another source (the burner on the stove) to your body.

There is a saying I've heard referring to the inadvisability of continuing to dig when you are in a hole you would like to get out of!

This is obviously not your area of expertise though you make a few good points. What I have said is true. And ice bags are not the universal treatment for hyperthermia. Excessively cooling the skin causes vasoconstriction to the point that little blood flows to the skin. It is more effective to use only slightly cool liquid applied through thin clothing.

I am not aware of treating hyperthermia by the use of cold water applied internally but the opposite is one of the best ways of treating hypothermia. Warm saline, 104 degrees f., is run into the abdominal cavity through large peritoneal catheters and then withdrawn.

Come on Gary, stop digging!

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

There is a saying I've heard referring to the inadvisability of continuing to dig when you are in a hole you would like to get out of!

This is obviously not your area of expertise though you make a few good points. What I have said is true. And ice bags are not the universal treatment for hyperthermia. Excessively cooling the skin causes vasoconstriction to the point that little blood flows to the skin. It is more effective to use only slightly cool liquid applied through thin clothing.

I am not aware of treating hyperthermia by the use of cold water applied internally but the opposite is one of the best ways of treating hypothermia. Warm saline, 104 degrees f., is run into the abdominal cavity through large peritoneal catheters and then withdrawn.

Come on Gary, stop digging!

Medicine is not my area of expertise. Heating, cooling and mechanical systems are.

I fail to see where we disagree though. Cold liquid applied internally does not reduce body tempoerature unless it were circulated back out as you suggest if done to warm the body. Warm liquid can raise body temperature because it deposits heat from another source.

If I am wrong about ice being used commonly, it is only because when I once passed out from heat exhaustion I woke up in the ambulance with cold packs around my body (over my clothes) and was given intravenous fluids at room temperature in the ER. It was my understanding that this is a common treatment for this condition.