Will eating too much ice cream make you fat?

In summer, we all love to eat ice cream. Because ice cream is not only delicious, it can also cool you down. But many people know that eating ice cream frequently is not good for our health. Especially for female friends, if they eat ice cream frequently, they will not only gain weight, but also suffer from dysmenorrhea during menstruation. So everyone must eat ice cream in moderation.

1. What happens if you eat too much ice cream?

1. Damage to the stomach and intestines

The temperature of ice cream is generally around 0℃, while the normal human body temperature is 37℃. Such a huge temperature difference is a great stimulation to the human stomach and intestines. It will cause the gastrointestinal blood vessels to contract and reduce the secretion of digestive juices. If you eat too much ice cream in a day and the cold stimulation is frequent, it will cause gastrointestinal diseases.

Most children who eat too much ice cream often suffer from vomiting and diarrhea, which can also damage their teeth. Cold drinks are generally 20℃ to 30℃ lower than the temperature inside the stomach. When the gastric mucosa is stimulated by excessive cold, the mucosal blood vessels contract strongly and the gastric endocrine system is disrupted. The secretion of gastric acid and gastric enzymes decreases sharply, which greatly reduces the stomach's digestion, sterilization and immune abilities. If the food eaten at this time is not strictly disinfected, it may cause vomiting and diarrhea.

2. Headache

Eating a lot of ice cream can also cause "ice cream headache". The scientific name of "ice cream headache" is "sphenopalatine ganglion neuralgia". When you eat cold food, your palate will cool down quickly. There is a nerve center at the back of your palate. At this time, the nerve group in the nerve center will send signals to the brain to change body temperature. But when the temperature drops too quickly, these nerve groups become overstimulated and send erroneous signals to the brain, indicating that the temperature has dropped too much, which in turn causes a rapid constriction of blood vessels in the brain.

After a short time, the temperature of the palate returns to normal, the nerve group sends signals again indicating that everything is normal, and the blood vessels in the brain will expand rapidly. This process only lasts a few seconds, but the consequence of the rapid contraction and expansion of blood vessels is that you will feel severe pain in your head, usually in your temples, forehead, and sometimes on your face.

What happens if you eat too much ice cream?

If you want to relieve a headache quickly, the usual method is to press your tongue against the roof of your mouth, which can speed up the process of returning your palate to normal temperature. Another way is to eat ice cream slowly, so that the nerve center on the upper palate has enough time to adapt to the temperature change, and the blood vessels will not contract and expand so drastically. The longest "ice cream headache" recorded lasted for 5 minutes. Furthermore, although most people experience this condition at some point, only about one-third of us experience it regularly.

3. Gaining weight

The sugar contained in ice cream is refined sugar, so it is not advisable to eat too much. Nutrition experts recommend that it is best for people to consume about 30 grams of sugar a day. If a child eats several cartons of ice cream a day, plus the sugar contained in milk, soda or other foods, the amount of sugar consumed per day will be far more than 30 grams. The fat and sugar in ice cream can easily lead to excessive calories in the body, thus causing obesity.

2. Things to note when eating ice cream in summer:

1. Don’t eat too much at one time

When we eat ice cream, we can't eat too much at one time, otherwise there will be adverse reactions. Children will experience abdominal pain at this time, middle-aged and elderly people are prone to angina pectoris, normal people may develop gastroenteritis, laryngeal spasm and nutritional deficiencies, and their teeth are very likely to be damaged.

2. Don’t eat too fast

If you eat too fast, it can easily stimulate the contraction of visceral blood vessels and cause local anemia, weaken the digestive function and bactericidal ability of the gastrointestinal tract, and promote the occurrence of gastroenteritis, cholecystitis and even hepatitis. Some people will suffer from headaches due to sudden adverse stimulation of the trigeminal nerve. Therefore, people with gastrointestinal diseases or cholecystitis should not eat too fast to avoid stimulating visceral blood vessels, causing local anemia, weakening the digestive function and bactericidal ability of the gastrointestinal tract, and leading to gastroenteritis, cholecystitis and even hepatitis.

3. Don’t eat before or after meals

When you are fasting, it is easier to absorb sugar, so eating high-calorie, high-sugar foods at this time is quite "dangerous". Eating on an empty stomach will also affect appetite. Due to the low temperature of ice cream, it will cause gastrointestinal vasoconstriction, thereby affecting its digestion and absorption capacity and affecting the absorption of various nutrients. So, try to have ice cream after meals. Because you have just eaten, the stomach center will be stimulated. You will not eat too much ice cream at this time. Just a little bit will make you satisfied.

4. Melted ice cream cannot be put back into the refrigerator

Do not freeze melted ice cream before eating it, as the recrystallization process will destroy the original quality and nutritional components of the ice cream.

5. Choose low-calorie foods

When choosing types of ice cream, pay attention to the ingredients on the packaging and give priority to those with lower calorie content. In addition, you can also choose in the order of shaved ice, popsicles, and solid ice cream. The calories, sugar, and lipids they contain increase in sequence.

Tip: Not everyone is suitable for eating ice cream. For example, people with liver disease, diabetes, gastritis, colitis, hyperlipidemia or those who are allergic to milk should not eat ice cream.