ELI5, how can eating something cold like ice cream could lead to a sore throat?
In: Biology
Here is my attempt…
Sore throats are usually caused by an infection from the flu or cold, but sore throat can also be caused by too much talking/singing, a burn from hot food, dry mouth, sleeping with the mouth open.
Could it be caused by ice cream, possibly if the throat is injured by the coldness of the ice cream going down the throat freezing tissues and causing micro tears.
Some old wives tales mention ice cream or cold temperatures causing people to get sick and or a sore throat. Doesn’t happen like that. If you are referring to a sore throat accompanied by a sickness then it wasn’t caused by the ice cream or cold temperatures. If there is no sickness, It was probably caused by damage to the throat as listed above, possibly by the cold ice cream.
People associate coldness with sickness, only happens because people are huddled inside and someone was sick (flu/cold) and got other people sick from coughing or sneezing on or near them. If people were to wear mask (three layer mask, gators don’t work) this flu season, it would cut the number of flu/colds this season along with reducing COVID spread. My two cents, I’m not a doctor and I don’t play one on tv. So there’s that.
I agree with the other answer, but I also have a brief piece of input that may also be relevant. There’s also a chance that it’s not only because the ice cream is cold that this happens, but also because of the dairy. When I eat ice cream, it often causes me to cough frequently afterwards, and I’ve asked many people in the past if that also happens to them and they agreed. I researched more about this before out of curiosity and although I lack a more scientific explanation, I concluded based on my research that it happens primarily due to the dairy content in the ice cream. Milk and dairy foods are a relatively thick liquid, and since ice cream makes it even thicker, the throat can mistake it as excess mucus, leading to coughing. Although this wouldnt exactly explain a “sore” throat, I would assume that a combination of the cold temperature of the ice cream and the thick dairy content would lead to coughing and some throat discomfort.
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