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Japanese popsicle experiment says eating one before going outside in summer helps keep you cool

Casey Baseel 5 days ago
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Maker of Garigari-kun explores whether one of Japan’s favorite frozen treats can work as a pre-cooling agent.

There’s an old adage that says the best time to fix your roof is when the sun is shining, a way of expressing that there are some things in life that are best dealt with before the potential problem actually occurs. Of course, it can be hard to talk yourself into doing much of anything when that sun is shining on you with merciless summer fire, which brings us to a new piece of wisdom, which is that the best time to cool off with a popsicle is before you start to feel hot.

That’s the conclusion suggested by the results of an experiment conducted by Akagi Nyugyo. As fine dining connoisseurs are no doubt already aware, Akagi Nyugyo is a Japanese confectioner based in Saitama Prefecture and the maker of Garigari-kun (pictured above), one of Japan’s favorite brands of popsicle for the past several decades.

Even among frozen treats, Garigari-kun has a reputation as being especially refreshing in hot weather, with fans young and old ducking into convenience stores to buy one when out and about on scorching summer days. Recently, though, Akagi Nyugyo wondered ifs its flagship product could be applied to pre-cooling, cooling the body down before entering a high-temperature environment in order to lessen heat-related discomfort and fatigue. Working with professor Kazunobu Okazaki from Osaka Metropolitan University’s Urban Health and Sports Research Center, Akagi Nyugyo set up an experiment in which 61 men and women, ranging in ages from 20 to 59, first ate a Garigari-kun.

▼ If, after finding out that you could have been eating popsicles for the sake of science, you now find yourself asking “Have I been living my life wrong?”, don’t worry, we feel the same way.

After finishing their Garigari-kun, the study participants entered an enclosed room heated to summertime temperatures and performed light exercise.

When their session was finished, the participants were asked how they had felt during while exercising, and 59 percent said that they had felt cooler than they ordinarily do during similar levels of physical activity without having eaten a popsicle just prior to it. And with walking being a form of light exercise, Akagi Nyugyo is taking this as evidence that pre-cooling with a Garigari-kun before leaving your home or hotel in the summer can help your body better cope with the heat waiting for you in the outside environment.

The results make sense to Okazaki, who says that frozen confectionaries can be even more effective than chilled liquids at cooling the body from the inside, since an extra amount of heat gets absorbed in the melting process. In addition, while theoretically any frozen treat should be able to provide that benefit, the effect is especially strong with Garigari-kun because of how it’s made.

Look closely at the corner that’s been bitten off in the photo above, and instead of being a uniform solid, Garigari-kun is actually a popsicle-style outer layer with shaved ice inside. The fineness of the ice particles let them more easily travel down to the digestive tract, Okazaki says, where they can impart the largest cooling effects.

With all this in mind, Akagi Nyugyo is now pitching Garigari-kun not just as a way to cool off after coming home from a day out in the sun, but also as something to eat just before you head out for the day or step out of the office for on-site meetings with clients.

The experiment was actually conducted back in April, but Akagi Nyugyo apparently chose to wait on releasing the results until the summer heat hit, giving us new leverage in our demands to our boss that he keep a supply of professional-use popsicles in the office freezer.

Source: Akagi Nyugyo via Sankei Shimbun via Hachima Kiko
Top image: Akagi Nyugyo
Insert images: Akagi Nyugyo (1, 2)
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