# Drinking hot liquids in the heat? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 5, 2010, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drinking-hot-liquids-in-the-heat/545617 "2010-07-05T18:48:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![constanze](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f9ae1b/32.png) [@constanze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/constanze)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2010, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drinking-hot-liquids-in-the-heat/545617/21 "2010-08-13T16:14:41Z")
> [@crazyjoe](#): > > I’d like a cite for your body expending energy to bring a drink up to temp. If you’re already overheated (ie sweating) I don’t think your body is going to kick it into overdrive trying to warm liquids up. I can’t find a cite at the moment, but I’ve read it countless times from many different doctors in response to questions from concernd mothers about icecream. The mothers worried whether the cold ice-cream could damage their children’s stomachs or lead to cramps. The doctors answer that they have measured this, and (if you eat your ice cream at a normal pace, not swallowing huge gulps!), it starts out with 8 C, your mouth warms it to 12 C, the gullet to 15, and when it arrives (20 min. is the usual time from mouth to stomach for food!) in the stomach, it’s close to 20 C which is warm enough. But why are cold drinks a problem, then, you ask? First, dumping a load of ice cubes into a drink (maybe even with alcohol) can make it significantly colder than ice-cream. Secondly, a drink can be guzzled down far quicker than ice-cream, so it has less chance on warming up on the way. Once down and still cold, you can cause “freeze burn” damage to the walls of the stomach, because the body doesn’t expect cold down there. Your body isn’t kicking into overdrive to warm the liquids, there are two seperate things: the body heats any cold food up to body temp., because that’s how it can deal. Additionally, the internal sensors say “man, it’s getting cold, we don’t want to get hyperthermia, turn up the heat”, and the body starts heating up, ignoring external sensors. That’s because core temp is much more important than outer temp. This is similar to how a warm (not hot) shower cools you down better and longer than an ice-cold shower: an ice-cold shower tells the sensors “I’m getting cold, start heating up”, and after a short time you are hotter than before. A warm shower tells the sensors “Hmm, I’m warm, so keep things that way”. ---
**Author:** ![constanze](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f9ae1b/32.png) [@constanze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/constanze)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2010, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drinking-hot-liquids-in-the-heat/545617/22 "2010-08-13T16:15:50Z")
> [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](#): > > So, if I seal near-boiling water in a jug so that it can’t evaporate, will it still freeze faster. I think not. Who said that? Evaporation is the key! If you cut that out, the benefit of more movement is lost. ---
**Author:** ![constanze](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f9ae1b/32.png) [@constanze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/constanze)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2010, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drinking-hot-liquids-in-the-heat/545617/23 "2010-08-13T16:20:27Z")
> [@crazyjoe](#): > > Apparently you didn’t read that article very carefully. 195 degree water freezes faster than water only around 140 - 175 degrees, but it didn’t mention water at a normal, out of tap temperature (say 40 - 60 degrees). Because the statement wasn’t about what temp. water freezes best, it was that the statement “Hot water freezes faster than cold” is false. This statement is true. Yes, the differences between the two tested temps. varies, but that is a detail. The basic point is true. > [@](#): > > No one’s tap at home is set up to dispense boiling water (unless you have one of those instant coffee maker thingies like they have at hotels), so it would be pretty dumb to waste time and energy heating water to 195 degrees - 212 degrees just to put it in the freezer. Again, not the issue. The statement “Hot water freezes faster than cold” is true. Whether this is a good course to follow at home is a very different matter. At home, the first question is not speed of freezing, but “How much water evaporates, because it will cause ice on the freezer walls, and then I have to de-ice the damn thing”, so cold water is a better method. But that’s a very different question. > [@](#): > > You also neglected to mention that you don’t end up with the same mass of frozen water in the ice cube trays…the boiling water lopst up to 16% of its mass to evaproation. Why do I have to specify how much gets lost when I say that the reason it freezes faster is due to evaporation? What else happens when water evaporates, besides there being less than before? ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2010, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drinking-hot-liquids-in-the-heat/545617/24 "2010-08-13T16:26:02Z")
> [@constanze](#): > > Who said that? Looks like you just did: > [@](#): > > . . .[It] was that the statement “Hot water freezes faster than cold” is false. This statement is true. . . . The basic point is true. I fail to see the special case of near-boiling evaporation in your rebuttal. ---
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2010, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drinking-hot-liquids-in-the-heat/545617/25 "2010-08-13T16:34:46Z")
> [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](#): > > I also had a 3rd grade teacher who said that fanning yourself when it’s hot makes you hotter because “it evaporates your sweat, which is there to cool you down.” Fanning yourself (or doing anything else that requires muscle activity) will generate heat, so fanning yourself is probably a net of zero at best. But that teacher apparently never made it to seventh grade. ---
**Author:** ![constanze](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f9ae1b/32.png) [@constanze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/constanze)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2010, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drinking-hot-liquids-in-the-heat/545617/26 "2010-08-13T16:37:23Z")
> [@CookingWithGas](#): > > Fanning yourself (or doing anything else that requires muscle activity) will generate heat, so fanning yourself is probably a net of zero at best. [No, it just depends on a lot of variables](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2171/is-fanning-yourself-energy-efficient). > [@](#): > > Combining and simplifying the two equations above, and including a factor for the percent of the body affected by the fanning process, we come up with: > > Q = Va0.6\*[0.65\*(95F − Ta) + 2.4\*(42mmHg − pa)]_(% area of the body affected/100)_(0.0042 kcal/min / Btu/hour) > > …where Q is expressed in kcal/min. > > To solve this equation we need the ambient temperature, relative humidity, air velocity, and the body area affected. > > (snip) > Now let’s assume that a young woman is sitting in 85F heat and 40% relative humidity, fanning herself continuously at 6.82 mph with one arm, producing 1 kcal/min of additional heat. Let’s say she’s wearing a strapless summer dress and is able to fan half of her face, neck, upper arms, and chest. This gives us a net cooling rate of 2.85 kcal/min. Since this is more than our heat production of 1.0 kcal/min, fanning makes the woman cooler. > > But changes in assumptions can greatly affect the results. For example, a worst-case assumption (low air speed, only the head and neck cooled, 90 F and 50% relative humidity) yields a net cooling rate of only 0.377 kcal/min, which means that fanning would produce more heat than it removes. ---
**Author:** ![crazyjoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f14d63/32.png) [@crazyjoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crazyjoe)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2010, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drinking-hot-liquids-in-the-heat/545617/27 "2010-08-13T18:11:14Z")
> [@constanze](#): > > > [@crazyjoe](#): > > > > Apparently you didn’t read that article very carefully. 195 degree water freezes faster than water only around 140 - 175 degrees, but it didn’t mention water at a normal, out of tap temperature (say 40 - 60 degrees). > > Because the statement wasn’t about what temp. water freezes best, it was that the statement “Hot water freezes faster than cold” is false. This statement is true. Yes, the differences between the two tested temps. varies, but that is a detail. The basic point is true. No, the basic detail is NOT true. The statement “Boiling water freezes faster than water that would scald human skin” is true. But there is no evidence proving that boiling water freezes faster than “cold” water in your cite at all. ---
**Author:** ![purplehorseshoe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/purplehorseshoe/32/2996_2.png) [@purplehorseshoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehorseshoe)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2010, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drinking-hot-liquids-in-the-heat/545617/28 "2010-08-13T20:48:36Z")
> [@constanze](#): > > > [@crazyjoe](#): > > > > I’d like a cite for your body expending energy to bring a drink up to temp. If you’re already overheated (ie sweating) I don’t think your body is going to kick it into overdrive trying to warm liquids up. > > I can’t find a cite at the moment, but I’ve read it countless times from many different doctors in response to questions from concernd mothers about icecream. The mothers worried whether the cold ice-cream could damage their children’s stomachs or lead to cramps. The doctors answer that they have measured this, and (if you eat your ice cream at a normal pace, not swallowing huge gulps!), it starts out with 8 C, your mouth warms it to 12 C, the gullet to 15, and when it arrives ( **20 min. is the usual time from mouth to stomach for food**!) in the stomach, it’s close to 20 C which is warm enough. > > But why are cold drinks a problem, then, you ask? First, dumping a load of ice cubes into a drink (maybe even with alcohol) can make it significantly colder than ice-cream. Secondly, a drink can be guzzled down far quicker than ice-cream, so it has less chance on warming up on the way. Once down and still cold, **you can cause “freeze burn” damage to the walls of the stomach** , because the body doesn’t expect cold down there. > > Your body isn’t kicking into overdrive to warm the liquids, there are two seperate things: > the body heats any cold food up to body temp., because that’s how it can deal. > Additionally, the internal sensors say “man, it’s getting cold, we don’t want to get hyperthermia, turn up the heat”, and the body starts heating up, ignoring external sensors. That’s because core temp is much more important than outer temp. > > This is similar to how a warm (not hot) shower cools you down better and longer than an ice-cold shower: an ice-cold shower tells the sensors “I’m getting cold, start heating up”, and after a short time you are hotter than before. A warm shower tells the sensors “Hmm, I’m warm, so keep things that way”. (bolding mine) Oh, my god. Twenty minutes to swallow one bite of food? Ferreals? I have a co-worked who is obsessive about icewater. She won’t drink water that isn’t full to the gills with ice, and she drinks a LOT of water. Girl is _hydrated_, I’ll tell you that. Anyway, if ice water could actually damage your stomach lining, she’d be in the hospital by now. I wanna see cites for both statements I bolded. ---
**Author:** ![SeaDragonTattoo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df705f/32.png) [@SeaDragonTattoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SeaDragonTattoo)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2010, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drinking-hot-liquids-in-the-heat/545617/29 "2010-08-13T21:24:05Z")
Thanks for pointing those out, **Purplehorseshoe**! I have a hard time believing that my entire dinner, that I eat in 10 minutes during my ER shift, remains entirely in my esophagus. While it does take 20 minutes for the “I’m Full” signal to get to the brain from the stomach… And unless I’ve got dry ice in my drink, not so sure about the second bolded statement either. All those people getting brain freeze from their Slurpees should be needing to get to the hospital, pronto. ---
**Author:** ![constanze](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f9ae1b/32.png) [@constanze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/constanze)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2010, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drinking-hot-liquids-in-the-heat/545617/30 "2010-08-14T18:37:39Z")
The 20 min. time is from any standard text on medicine or biology of food digestion in the human body that I’ve ever read. The “ice cold things can damage the stomach” was a study done recently by scientists, but I don’t have the cite itself (most laymen’s articles don’t have cites. It’s “a study done by scientist/ by doctors/ at Harvard” , but not Journal name, year and page nr.). Maybe one of our Doctor Dopers - Quadgop or Karl Gauss or others - can come by and confirm this. ---
**Author:** ![crazyjoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f14d63/32.png) [@crazyjoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crazyjoe)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2010, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drinking-hot-liquids-in-the-heat/545617/31 "2010-08-14T18:55:50Z")
Dude, now you’re just spouting off. Several quick google searches have turned up times from 2 - 8 seconds, but nothing even approaching 20 minutes in the esophagus. This is GQ, so bring a cite or just stop. Here’s one cite from me: > **[Your Digestive System (for Kids) - Nemours KidsHealth](https://kidshealth.org/en/kids/digestive-system.html)** > > The digestive system breaks down the food you eat. Learn how in this article for kids. ---
**Author:** ![bouv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bc8723/32.png) [@bouv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bouv)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2010, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drinking-hot-liquids-in-the-heat/545617/32 "2010-08-15T04:15:46Z")
> [@constanze](#): > > The 20 min. time is from any standard text on medicine or biology of food digestion in the human body that I’ve ever read. You must be reading the worst fucking textbooks on earth. The only thing I can think of is that you and/or the textbooks are confusing the time it takes from mouth to stomach and the time it takes from mouth to small intestine. If that were the case, I’d be inclined to agree with you. You can easily test this yourself. Go get a large glass of ice water and drink a very large gulp. You can feel it working it’s way down most of your esophagus when you swallow, then getting “hung up” at the esophageal sphincter for a few seconds, then feel it empty into your stomach when it finally opens. It takes less than 10 seconds (for most of us around 4-5) for anyone with a healthy digestive system. ---
**Author:** ![constanze](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f9ae1b/32.png) [@constanze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/constanze)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2010, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drinking-hot-liquids-in-the-heat/545617/33 "2010-08-16T00:56:32Z")
Before I spend hours hunting cites, just one question: what kind of cites would you accept to convince you? Anecdotes like **purplehorseshoe’s** coworker not having stomach problems? I guess based on **bouv’s** casual dismissal that any books at all are out? If I look at medical journals, do you need the whole text (because usual the articles are only for pay), or would the abstract be enough? Are European scientists believable for you, or do I have to look for studies by American scientists, done on Americans? Since apparently your digestion works different. ---
**Author:** ![bouv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bc8723/32.png) [@bouv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bouv)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2010, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drinking-hot-liquids-in-the-heat/545617/34 "2010-08-16T04:08:38Z")
> [@constanze](#): > > Before I spend hours hunting cites, just one question: what kind of cites would you accept to convince you? One like this: I have right now in front me “Human Physiology: The Mechanisms of Body Function” by Vander, Sherman, and Luciano. Published by McGraw Hill, Copyright 2004, ISBN # 0-07-243793-6. Page 581, second paragraph, fifth sentence: > [@](#): > > One esophageal peristaltic wave takes about nine seconds to reach the stomach. Your move, Kasparov. ---
**Author:** ![Quercus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/7ab992/32.png) [@Quercus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quercus)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2010, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drinking-hot-liquids-in-the-heat/545617/35 "2010-08-16T13:08:03Z")
> [@purplehorseshoe](#): > > > [@constanze](#): > > > > I can’t find a cite at the moment, but I’ve read it countless times from many different doctors in response to questions from concernd mothers about icecream. The mothers worried whether the cold ice-cream could damage their children’s stomachs or lead to cramps. The doctors answer that they have measured this, and (if you eat your ice cream at a normal pace, not swallowing huge gulps!), it starts out with 8 C, your mouth warms it to 12 C, the gullet to 15, and when it arrives ( **20 min. is the usual time from mouth to stomach for food**!) in the stomach, it’s close to 20 C which is warm enough. > > > > But why are cold drinks a problem, then, you ask? First, dumping a load of ice cubes into a drink (maybe even with alcohol) can make it significantly colder than ice-cream. Secondly, a drink can be guzzled down far quicker than ice-cream, so it has less chance on warming up on the way. Once down and still cold, **you can cause “freeze burn” damage to the walls of the stomach** , because the body doesn’t expect cold down there. > > > > Your body isn’t kicking into overdrive to warm the liquids, there are two seperate things: > > the body heats any cold food up to body temp., because that’s how it can deal. > > Additionally, the internal sensors say “man, it’s getting cold, we don’t want to get hyperthermia, turn up the heat”, and the body starts heating up, ignoring external sensors. That’s because core temp is much more important than outer temp. > > > > This is similar to how a warm (not hot) shower cools you down better and longer than an ice-cold shower: an ice-cold shower tells the sensors “I’m getting cold, start heating up”, and after a short time you are hotter than before. A warm shower tells the sensors “Hmm, I’m warm, so keep things that way”. > > (bolding mine) > I wanna see cites for both statements I bolded. For that matter, I’m a bit dubious about the last two paragraphs, and would love to see cites. My dim recollection is that the primary core-temperature sensor in humans is in the brain, and of course basically tracks blood temperature. Cooling the skin or stomach isn’t going to directly affect that (And the core-temp monitor is not the same thing as the skin temperature sensations). [And of course, your body doesn’t heat up foods ‘because that’s how it can deal’; cold foods in contact with a warmer body are going to heat up no matter what the body does. That’s just how temperature works. At the same time, the body will cool off, though as there’s a lot more body than food, the body won’t cool off very much.] Nitpicky minor correction: if your body’s core temp is too cold, that’s hypothermia. Too hot would be hyperthermia ---
**Author:** ![purplehorseshoe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/purplehorseshoe/32/2996_2.png) [@purplehorseshoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehorseshoe)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2010, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drinking-hot-liquids-in-the-heat/545617/36 "2010-08-16T16:39:45Z")
> [@bouv](#): > > > [@constanze](#): > > > > The 20 min. time is from any standard text on medicine or biology of food digestion in the human body that I’ve ever read. > > You must be reading the worst fucking textbooks on earth. > > The only thing I can think of is that you and/or the textbooks are confusing the time it takes from mouth to stomach and the time it takes from mouth to small intestine. If that were the case, I’d be inclined to agree with you. > > You can easily test this yourself. Go get a large glass of ice water and drink a very large gulp. You can feel it working it’s way down most of your esophagus when you swallow, then getting “hung up” at the esophageal sphincter for a few seconds, then feel it empty into your stomach when it finally opens. It takes less than 10 seconds (for most of us around 4-5) for anyone with a healthy digestive system. Oh, he’s not gonna do that. (She?) You see, such an experiment - while mundane to most of us - would wind up causing serious damage to the lining of \*\*Constanze’s \*\*stomach. :rolleyes: (Yeah, my first though was that the 20-min thing must be conflating it with the old saw about how it takes 20 minutes for your brain to realize you’re full.) ---
**Author:** ![constanze](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f9ae1b/32.png) [@constanze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/constanze)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2010, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drinking-hot-liquids-in-the-heat/545617/37 "2010-08-16T17:50:17Z")
> [@bouv](#): > > > [@constanze](#): > > > > Before I spend hours hunting cites, just one question: what kind of cites would you accept to convince you? > > One like this: > > I have right now in front me “Human Physiology: The Mechanisms of Body Function” by Vander, Sherman, and Luciano. Published by McGraw Hill, Copyright 2004, ISBN # 0-07-243793-6. > > Page 581, second paragraph, fifth sentence: > > > [@](#): > > > > One esophageal peristaltic wave takes about nine seconds to reach the stomach. First, this, like your first cite, this about the speed of the contraction, not how long the food takes. Second, my access to US textbooks is limited over here. Third, aside from the side question of how long swallowing takes, the research that very cold drinks damage the stomach was done several years ago, so I doubt they would be in US textbooks, but rather in journals. If you don’t accept journals, then I can save myself the time of looking for cites. > [@](#): > > Your move, Kasparov. I’m not your dude or Kasparov. Maybe you overlooked that this is GQ, not the Pit, so no name-calling. ---
**Author:** ![constanze](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f9ae1b/32.png) [@constanze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/constanze)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2010, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drinking-hot-liquids-in-the-heat/545617/38 "2010-08-16T17:56:14Z")
> [@Quercus](#): > > For that matter, I’m a bit dubious about the last two paragraphs, and would love to see cites. My dim recollection is that the primary core-temperature sensor in humans is in the brain, and of course basically tracks blood temperature. Cooling the skin or stomach isn’t going to directly affect that (And the core-temp monitor is not the same thing as the skin temperature sensations). Do you want a cite of where the sensor for core temp is in the human body, and what it tracks, or do you want a cite what behaviour affects it? Well, I don’t have access to US textbooks over here, so I can’t give you cites that you would accept. You could ask a doctor, but maybe that isn’t taught in the US. Or maybe you are not only culturally, but also physciologically different. > [@](#): > > [And of course, your body doesn’t heat up foods ‘because that’s how it can deal’; cold foods in contact with a warmer body are going to heat up no matter what the body does. That’s just how temperature works. I’m not a doctor, so I don’t know if the body heating up food is a side-effect on the body being warm, or if it’s a deliberate effort to bring the food to the temp. where the enzymes will work. However, it’s still a difference between eating an ice-cream that starts out at 8 C slowly so it has a chance to being warmed, or gulping down a glass of ice-cold drink, that is much colder to start with, and is swallowed quickly. ---
**Author:** ![constanze](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f9ae1b/32.png) [@constanze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/constanze)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2010, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drinking-hot-liquids-in-the-heat/545617/39 "2010-08-16T17:58:20Z")
> [@purplehorseshoe](#): > > You can easily test this yourself. Go get a large glass of ice water and drink a very large gulp. You can feel it working it’s way down most of your esophagus when you swallow, then getting “hung up” at the esophageal sphincter for a few seconds, then feel it empty into your stomach when it finally opens. It takes less than 10 seconds (for most of us around 4-5) for anyone with a healthy digestive system. > [@](#): > > Oh, he’s not gonna do that. (She?) You see, such an experiment - while mundane to most of us - would wind up causing serious damage to the lining of \*\*Constanze’s \*\*stomach. :rolleyes: So you don’t want any cites, you want ancedotes? I don’t have to try this myself, I know anecdotes of people who get stomach cramps when they drink ice cold stuff. Of course, they stop doing that. And maybe you could leave your snarky insults out of GQ and take them to the Pit. ---
**Author:** ![bouv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bc8723/32.png) [@bouv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bouv)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2010, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drinking-hot-liquids-in-the-heat/545617/40 "2010-08-16T18:06:55Z")
> [@constanze](#): > > First, this, like your first cite, this about the speed of the contraction, not how long the food takes. > > Second, my access to US textbooks is limited over here. > > Third, aside from the side question of how long swallowing takes, the research that very cold drinks damage the stomach was done several years ago, so I doubt they would be in US textbooks, but rather in journals. If you don’t accept journals, then I can save myself the time of looking for cites. Yes, it is about the speed of contraction, and in most cases, one peristaltic wave will move one bolus of swallowed food completely through the esophagus and into the stomach. You keep saying you all all these sources, but refuse to show or name any that prove that it takes 20 minutes for the esophagus to empty. It doesn’t have to be a US textbook, or even a textbook at all. Show me a website (like from a hospital/medical facility, university, or health organization,) or an online journal article, _something_ that proves your claim (that no one else, including any of the doctors that are member here are coming in and agreeing with you on.) As for you claim that cold foods damage the stomach, I have no stake in that. That’s not anything I have argued with you over, so I don’t care. But everything I have been taught and read about the digestive system (including a cursory google search just now) says it’s anywhere from 2-10 seconds from mouth to stomach, a far cry from 20 minutes. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drinking-hot-liquids-in-the-heat/545617.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drinking-hot-liquids-in-the-heat/545617.md?page=3)