Do Ice Slushy Drinks Really Keep You Cooler in Hot Weather?

Newswise — People are always looking for new ways to keep cool during exercise and one recent trend is drinking ice slushies (mix of crushed ice and water.) In this study, nine men cycled for 75 minutes in the heat (93 F) while drinking either body temperature water or an ice slushy. The researchers compared the amount of heat loss inside the stomach, during the cycling, between the two drinks to the differences in evaporative heat loss from the skin because of altered sweating. The results showed that participants were not any cooler when they drank the ice slushies because their sweating decreased so much that the reduction in evaporation from the skin cancelled out the extra heat loss in the stomach. In fact, overall (internal plus external) heat loss was lower with an ice slushy drink. These and other recent findings suggest that people exercising in the heat should stick to drinking water (not ice) at whatever temperature they prefer.

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