June 16, 2025, 9:12 am | Read time: 3 minutes
Eating ice cream should be a pleasure. However, sometimes it leads to unpleasant phenomena like “brain freeze” or coughing—even when you’re not sick or haven’t choked. An ENT doctor explains the causes and how to avoid them.
Have you ever had to cough after licking your ice cream a few times? Initially, coughing is a natural mechanism of the body. When we have a cold, the body uses it to expel mucus. If you choke, the foreign object finds its way out this way. But why does it sometimes happen specifically when eating ice cream?
Follow the FITBOOK channel on WhatsApp now!
Overview
What causes coughing when eating ice cream?
What is behind the annoying cough when you just want to enjoy your ice cream? Bernhard Junge-Hülsing, an ENT specialist in Starnberg, knows the answer: “Coughing is triggered by very strong stimuli–these can be foreign bodies, but also a temperature fluctuation.” The body reacts to the cold from the ice with a reflex arc, which is mediated via the swallowing nerves and vessels. In other words, the nerves report a stimulus, and the vessels react by constricting.
“And the body does something in response,” says Bernhard Junge-Hülsing. It reacts, for example, with coughing. Or: “What many also know is a constriction of the vessels in the head, which suddenly causes a severe headache.”
How to avoid coughing
By the way, you don’t need to worry if you have to cough while eating ice cream. On the contrary: According to Junge-Hülsing, this is a sign that you have good nerve supply and that the reflex arcs are working. It is merely an indication from the body that you are eating too hastily and quickly–something ice cream naturally tempts you to do on hot summer days.
Coughing–and also headaches–can be avoided by enjoying your ice cream more slowly. “Eat small pieces or lick the ice instead of biting off a large piece,” advises the ENT doctor according to dpa. This gives the body time to get used to the cold.
Also interesting: Milk ice cream, sorbet, on a stick–how many calories does each ice cream have?
The symptoms of the new coronavirus variant NB.1.8.1
Why You Sometimes Cough When Eating Ice Cream
Gilbert’s syndrome: Causes, Symptoms, and Characteristics
Does ice cream really cool the body?
Ice cream only feels like a cooling relief on the first spoonful. Eating ice cream lowers the core body temperature only slightly and temporarily. The ice cream mass quickly warms to body temperature, and the heat produced during digestion (thermogenesis) does the rest. In short: Ice cream provides a fresh kick, but the body itself is hardly impressed by it.
*with material from dpa