Published May 25, 2013 in Food Product Design
Given Memorial Day heralds the beginning of the season for frosty treats, this seems timely: File it under “Science is Fun," or maybe just “For Science Geeks Only," but a neuroscientist has explained the phenomena experienced after gulping down ice cold foods and beverages commonly referred to as “brain freeze."Most of us get it--that sudden pain in your brain when you slurp your Slurpee or gobble your gelato on a hot summer day. Technically, it’s called sphenopalatine ganglioneuralgia . “Brain freeze is really a type of headache that is rapid in onset, but rapidly resolved as well," explains Dwayne Godwin, Ph.D., a neuroscientist at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center. “Our mouths are highly vascularized, including the tongue–that’s why we take our temperatures there. But drinking a cold beverage fast doesn’t give the mouth time to absorb the cold very well."
Quickly consuming something cold rapidly changes the temperature of the back of your throat. That’s the location of the internal carotoid artery, which feeds blood to the brain, and the anterior cerebral artery, which is where brain tissue starts. And while the brain itself doesn’t feel pain, the meninges, or outer covering of the brain can. So the rapid drop in temperature causes the two arteries to dilate and contract, and the brain interprets it as pain. “One thing the brain doesn’t like is for things to change, and brain freeze is a mechanism to prevent you from doing that," Godwin said.
To prevent brain freeze, Godwin suggests placing your tongue on the roof of your mouth to keep your throat warm or drinking a tepid beverage to moderate the temperature in your mouth. Or, you can stop drinking the icy cold beverage or eating the ice cream. But what’s the fun in that?
-Lynn A. Kuntz
The book is available on Amazon and Kindle for $4.99 USD. Visit amazon/Kindle to order now:
http://www.amazon.ca/Social-Media-Marketing-Agri-Foods-ebook/dp/B00C42OB3E/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1364756966&sr=1-1
Written by Bruce MacDonald, a 30 year veteran of the Agri-food industry, in "Social Media Marketing in Agri-Foods: Endless Profit and Painless Gain", Bruce applies his background and expertise in Agri-foods and social media to the latest trends, tools and methodologies needed to craft a successful on-line campaign. While the book focuses on the Agri-food market specifically, I believe that many of the points Bruce makes are equally applicable to most other industries.
Cold Facts: The Science of Brain Freezes
Posted in Blog, Beverages, Dairy, Ice Cream, Frozen / Refrigerated Foods, Frozen Foods
Quickly consuming something cold rapidly changes the temperature of the back of your throat. That’s the location of the internal carotoid artery, which feeds blood to the brain, and the anterior cerebral artery, which is where brain tissue starts. And while the brain itself doesn’t feel pain, the meninges, or outer covering of the brain can. So the rapid drop in temperature causes the two arteries to dilate and contract, and the brain interprets it as pain. “One thing the brain doesn’t like is for things to change, and brain freeze is a mechanism to prevent you from doing that," Godwin said.
To prevent brain freeze, Godwin suggests placing your tongue on the roof of your mouth to keep your throat warm or drinking a tepid beverage to moderate the temperature in your mouth. Or, you can stop drinking the icy cold beverage or eating the ice cream. But what’s the fun in that?
-Lynn A. Kuntz
Check out my latest e-book entitled: "Social Media Marketing in Agri-Foods: Endless Profit and Painless Gain".
The book is available on Amazon and Kindle for $4.99 USD. Visit amazon/Kindle to order now:
http://www.amazon.ca/Social-Media-Marketing-Agri-Foods-ebook/dp/B00C42OB3E/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1364756966&sr=1-1
Written by Bruce MacDonald, a 30 year veteran of the Agri-food industry, in "Social Media Marketing in Agri-Foods: Endless Profit and Painless Gain", Bruce applies his background and expertise in Agri-foods and social media to the latest trends, tools and methodologies needed to craft a successful on-line campaign. While the book focuses on the Agri-food market specifically, I believe that many of the points Bruce makes are equally applicable to most other industries.
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