Is it true that drinking cold and there is ice cream with colds?

The idea is widespread that cold products and drinks, especially dairy ones, worsen the course of colds. We decided to check if this is really so.

Judging by publications V InternetMany Users learned about such a ban, while still children, from their grandmothers and parents. Some representatives of these generations Continue Believe that cold drinks and food only provoke the disease and therefore are strictly prohibited for colds. Reaches cases, when the ice cream was warmed up in a microwave and only then allowed the children to eat it. It is interesting that this idea has settled not only in the Russian -speaking space - in English parent forums you can also Meet Such a statement.

The danger of drinking cold products for diseases of the throat and nose is primarily explained by their temperature. Many still believe that colds are called so because they are caused exclusively by cooling the body, that is, hypothermia. However, this is not so. A cold is ARVI (acute respiratory viral infection), and, as the name implies, Called The ingress of a pathogenic virus into the body, including one of the four "old" coronaviruses. Stear can be infected only from the carrier of the disease - with personal contact or through objects. A similar situation is with tonsillitis - acute tonsillitis. This is a disease of a bacterial nature, caused mainly by streptococci or staphylococci, and in more rare cases - mushrooms and other pathogens.

There are separate ones research, suggesting that inhalation of cold air causes the exhaustion of the mucous membranes, which, in turn, makes them more susceptible to the penetration of the virus. However, in the case of a cold and a sore throat without contact with a pathogen, the disease simply cannot occur - regardless of how many cold drinks a person will drink or how many portions of the ice cream will eat. Further use of the cold also cannot aggravate the situation, since the disease develops due to the propagation of pathogen in the body.

At the same time, colds and tonsillitis have similar symptoms - in particular, sore throat. Cold drinks and ice cream are just quite effective against it. In fact, their action can compare with the applied cold to the injured place - the temperature effect narrows the vessels and maybe a little decrease edema. Pediatrician Evgeny Komarovsky even Recommends Ice cream for frequent diseases: “If the child has frequent sore throats, chronic tonsillitis, the throat is constantly sore throat after cold, then the algorithm of actions is standard: today you go to the supermarket and buy kilos of white sealing. And you begin to eat this white fillir as a medicine. On a teaspoon three times a day. "

There is also another argument of opponents of ice cream - some believe that it, like other dairy products, increases mucus products during the common cold (the people are called snot). This belief is much older than our grandmothers, the mention of such a connection can Meet In Arab medical treatises of the XII century. The idea of ​​the connection of dairy products with a deterioration in the course of the disease is enough Distributed And today.

To verify this statement, scientists Spent experiment. With the help of special food technologies, they created soy milk, which tasted indistinguishable from the cow, and offered a group of 125 volunteers to drink a glass or cow's milk, or soybean. Among the subjects were those who believed in the connection of dairy products and the appearance of thicker mucus, and those who did not consider this version fair. Volunteers drank 300 ml of drink, and then described their feelings. 39% of the subjects complained about the “shell in the mouth, throat or language”, 31% noted “the need to swallow more often”, 42% said that “saliva has become more viscous, it became more difficult to swallow”. At the same time, there was no difference between those who drank cow's milk or soy. True, all volunteers were healthy at that time. 

Therefore, another experiment. 60 volunteers were infected by rhinovirus of the second type and offered to describe their symptoms, the nature of the discharge and the total weight of the mucus secreted per day within ten days. The subjects drank from zero to 11 glasses of milk per day. Those who believed the dependence of “more dairy products - more mucus” really noted that they had more pronounced symptoms, but the weight of the mucus they secreted did not differ from the weight of the mucus of those who did not believe in this pattern. Scientists summed up: "There was no statistically significant connection between the consumption of milk and dairy products and the volumes of mucus production in healthy adults, asymptomatic or symptomatic, with rhinovirus infection." Later studies also Confirm Lack of pattern: “People who believe in the theory of the connection of the volume of mucus with drunk milk report a larger number of respiratory symptoms after its use” - however, there is no evidence. Milk is also not able to worsen the course of asthmatic seizures.

That is, data that dairy products, including ice cream, worsen the course of colds, scientists have not yet discovered. It is suggested that the subjective sensations that volunteers experienced can be associated with the fact that milk is an emulsion, and when mixed with saliva Maybe Flokull's formation - small flakeless particles. It was they who could cause the “shell” in the mouth, which was complained by those who drank cow's milk and those who got soy.

Thus, cold drinks are by no means contraindicated during a cold, but, on the contrary, can reduce pain in the throat. It is also not worth abandoning ice cream - it also gives some relief and does not worsen the course of the disease.

Not true

What do our verdicts mean?

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