As we all know, it takes 1 calorie to heat 1 gram of water 1
degree centigrade.
Translated into meaningful terms, this means that if you eat a very cold
dessert this Christmas (generally consisting of water in large part), the
natural processes which raise the consumed dessert to body temperature
during the digestive cycle literally sucks the calories out of the only
available source: your body fat.
For example, a dessert served and eaten at near 0 degrees C (32.2 deg. F)
will in a short time be raised to the normal body temperature of 37 degrees
C (98.6 deg. F). For each gram of dessert eaten, that process takes
approximately 37 calories as stated above. The average dessert portion is 6
oz, or 168 grams. Therefore, by operation of thermodynamic law, 6,216
calories (1 cal/gm/deg. x 37 deg. x 168 gms) are extracted from body fat as
the dessert's temperature is normalized. Allowing for the 1,200 latent
calories in the dessert, the net calorie loss is approximately 5,000
calories.
Obviously, the more cold dessert you eat on Christmas Day, the better off
you are and the faster you will lose weight, if that is your goal.
This process works equally well when drinking very cold beer in frosted
glasses during the college bowl season.
Each ounce of beer contains 16 latent calories, but extracts 1,036 calories
(6,216 cal. per 6 oz. portion) in the temperature normalizing process. Thus,
the net calorie loss per ounce of beer is 1,020 calories. It doesn't take a
rocket scientist to calculate that 12,240 calories (12 oz. x 1,020 cal./oz.)
are extracted from the body in the process of drinking a can of beer.
Frozen desserts, e.g., ice cream, are even more beneficial, since it takes
83 cal./gm to melt them (i.e., raise them to 0 deg. C) and an additional 37
cal./gm to further raise them to body temperature. The results here are
really remarkable, and it beats running/jogging hands down.
Unfortunately, for those who eat pizza as an excuse to drink beer, pizza
(loaded with latent calories and served above body temperature) induces an
opposite effect. But, thankfully, as the astute reader should have already
reasoned, the obvious solution is to drink a lot of beer with pizza and
follow up immediately with large bowls of ice cream.
