Why do Russians Hate Ice?

[P.A.T 1]

My 2y/o step-daughter drinks 1-2 liters of kefir daily (actually 'nightly' would be more accurate). But if Ryazhenka were available that is what Olga would prefer she drink!

Lifeway sells a 'Ryazhenka-like' kefir, I've been able to find it in a lot of the Eastern European ethnic stores in Chicago. Lifeway (the company) was actually started in 1986 by a Jewish immigrant from Russia.

http://www.lifeway.net/Products/TraditionalKefir/Ryazhenka.aspx

http://www.lifeway.net/Products/TraditionalKefir.aspx

[Amy_and_Victor 159]

Lifeway sells a 'Ryazhenka-like' kefir, I've been able to find it in a lot of the Eastern European ethnic stores in Chicago. Lifeway (the company) was actually started in 1986 by a Jewish immigrant from Russia.

http://www.lifeway.net/Products/TraditionalKefir/Ryazhenka.aspx

http://www.lifeway.net/Products/TraditionalKefir.aspx

I'll have to try and find that brand of kefir here in our stores, it would be so cool to have something similar to Ryazhenka, that stuff is so awesome, and Vitya loves it too - it'll be nice to get something like it here!

-Amy

[eekee 182]

I don't like lifeway kefir. :-/ it's not the same.

[slim 1,514]

Our local supermarket, Kroger, stocks several types of Kefir. Some of the stores keep it in the organic or healthy foods section.

[baron555 934]

Lifeway sells a 'Ryazhenka-like' kefir, I've been able to find it in a lot of the Eastern European ethnic stores in Chicago. Lifeway (the company) was actually started in 1986 by a Jewish immigrant from Russia.

http://www.lifeway.net/Products/TraditionalKefir/Ryazhenka.aspx

http://www.lifeway.net/Products/TraditionalKefir.aspx

My wife has tried the stuff, and says it's OK but not the same.

Where in Chicago are you? Send me a PM is you like.

[P.A.T 1]

My wife has tried the stuff, and says it's OK but not the same.

Where in Chicago are you? Send me a PM is you like.

Phil, I tried to PM you and got an error that you can't receive any new messages. I'm in Crest Hill.

[james&olya 1,121]

Lifeway sells a 'Ryazhenka-like' kefir, I've been able to find it in a lot of the Eastern European ethnic stores in Chicago. Lifeway (the company) was actually started in 1986 by a Jewish immigrant from Russia.

http://www.lifeway.net/Products/TraditionalKefir/Ryazhenka.aspx

http://www.lifeway.net/Products/TraditionalKefir.aspx

Thanks for the tip! We had actually already discovered that in the Chicago area last month. We also found an Amish made Ryazhenka in a shop near our motel in Buffalo Grove. The Lifeway brand of Kefir is in our local supermarkets but they can't seem to obtain the Ryazhenka, even though we brought an empty bottle with us to show them!

Interesting side note; we were there in Chicago taking my MIL back to catch her flight to Kazan and spent several days first seeing Chicago with her. She had been skeptical of the USA prior to coming here, I get the impression she has been reluctant to give up the old soviet union way of looking at things. She was so amazed at so much of what she saw, here and in Chicago. She changed her attitude 180 degrees and now she wants to come back!

[mendeleev 68]

Whole Foods, at least in our area, carries the Lifeway Kefir's (which aren't good and aren't like Russian kefir's) and other lines of Kefir that are really good.

It seems that these days one can get better Kefir there than in Akademgorodok, the suburb of Novosibirsk my wife is from. I'll be able to "see for myself" soon, as I'll go over for the first time in three years in a couple weeks, but it seems that the quality of foods in the groceries there have gone downhill steeply. Its a huge pity.

[mendeleev 68]

This has been a really interesting thread that I've come to late.

Gary, unfortunately, makes hash of elementary thermodynamics and unfortunately tries to cover up by claiming authority. (Well, I'm a Ph.D. physical chemist with more than passingly adequate training in thermodynamics. So there's my claim to authority, in case it matters. Probably shouldn't.)

Ice, in the belly, melts. As it melts, it first warms to zero degrees Celcius and then stays at zero degrees while the phase transition to liquid water occurs. A lot of heat transfer into the ice cube from its surrounds (the belly) is required to conduct this phase transformation. The heat, flowing from the surroundings into the ice cube, results in a decrease in the temperature of the surroundings. A lot of us who actually consume ice have experienced this. On a hot summer day, it can be rather nice. Outside on a cold winter day, not so nice. The physical chemistry is the same in both seasons, though. Once the former ice cube is melted, it is warmed by its surroundings to 37C, which is the temperature, more or less, that we humans keeps our bodies at when we're healthy.

Where does this heat come from? Either the body or the surroundings of the body or both. In the first event, though, the body. So, the body, or a portion of it, is cooled. That is, its temperature goes down, for a while at least.

If it goes down too much, the body may compensate, through normal metabolic pathways that involve chemical transformation of, for the most part, sugars in the body to CO2 and water. This is respiration but it is often called "burning calories". The word "burning" here is, strictly speaking chemically, an analogy to the combustion process we also often call burning. The analogy is a very good one. The oxidation process associated with sugar metabolism and the oxidation associated with burning sugar in a flame produces very similar final products, CO2 and water. (Flames are often less efficient combustion processes and make soot, carbon monoxide, and lots of other stuff. The body's combustion apparatus is very efficient, though. That's why I used the weasel words "very similar"). The body doesn't necessarily have to compensate, though, through metabolic pathways. If its really hot outside the body, then the ice cube within can save the body from having to sweat so much for a while and heat can be transferred into the body from the hot room. In that fashion, the ice can actually decrease the amount of calories the body burns.

Most of us know this intuitively. 'Tis a pity that someone with a little bit of knowledge, perhaps sufficient to confuse some, comes in with information that is between misleading and wrong and tries to compensate bolster hisclaims by an inappropriate assertion of expert authority.

You are not a mechanical engineer.

Heat cannot be destroyed or burned. It can only be transferred from one place to another. Body heat is transferred to the water but remains in the body and balances the water temperature to that of the body and the heat transfer stops.

Ice can lower body temperature when applied to the outside of the body and the heat migrates OUT of the body. Transferring energy around inside the body has no affect on body weight, it cannot. Your body does not "burn" anything, it merely transfers calories from one part of the body to another.

It would be like putting the condenser of a window air conditioner into another room of the same house.

[TBoneTX 43,160]

I'm a Ph.D. physical chemist with more than passingly adequate training in thermodynamics.

If you analyze the action of Alka-Seltzer or denture tablets in water, would that make you a fizzicle chemist? Ha. Seriously, interesting stuff.

Thought for the Day: "I only have ICE for you," said the jilted boyfriend to his illegal ex-girlfriend.

[Captain Hammer 113]

Thought for the Day: "I only have ICE for you," said the jilted boyfriend to his illegal ex-girlfriend.

*groan*

[james&olya 1,121]

This has been a really interesting thread that I've come to late.

Gary, unfortunately, makes hash of elementary thermodynamics and unfortunately tries to cover up by claiming authority. (Well, I'm a Ph.D. physical chemist with more than passingly adequate training in thermodynamics. So there's my claim to authority, in case it matters. Probably shouldn't.)

Ice, in the belly, melts. As it melts, it first warms to zero degrees Celcius and then stays at zero degrees while the phase transition to liquid water occurs. A lot of heat transfer into the ice cube from its surrounds (the belly) is required to conduct this phase transformation. The heat, flowing from the surroundings into the ice cube, results in a decrease in the temperature of the surroundings. A lot of us who actually consume ice have experienced this. On a hot summer day, it can be rather nice. Outside on a cold winter day, not so nice. The physical chemistry is the same in both seasons, though. Once the former ice cube is melted, it is warmed by its surroundings to 37C, which is the temperature, more or less, that we humans keeps our bodies at when we're healthy.

Where does this heat come from? Either the body or the surroundings of the body or both. In the first event, though, the body. So, the body, or a portion of it, is cooled. That is, its temperature goes down, for a while at least.

If it goes down too much, the body may compensate, through normal metabolic pathways that involve chemical transformation of, for the most part, sugars in the body to CO2 and water. This is respiration but it is often called "burning calories". The word "burning" here is, strictly speaking chemically, an analogy to the combustion process we also often call burning. The analogy is a very good one. The oxidation process associated with sugar metabolism and the oxidation associated with burning sugar in a flame produces very similar final products, CO2 and water. (Flames are often less efficient combustion processes and make soot, carbon monoxide, and lots of other stuff. The body's combustion apparatus is very efficient, though. That's why I used the weasel words "very similar"). The body doesn't necessarily have to compensate, though, through metabolic pathways. If its really hot outside the body, then the ice cube within can save the body from having to sweat so much for a while and heat can be transferred into the body from the hot room. In that fashion, the ice can actually decrease the amount of calories the body burns.

Most of us know this intuitively. 'Tis a pity that someone with a little bit of knowledge, perhaps sufficient to confuse some, comes in with information that is between misleading and wrong and tries to compensate bolster hisclaims by an inappropriate assertion of expert authority.

Great explanation. Gary has expertise in mechanical engineering but, unfortunately, a less extensive background in chemistry/biochemistry and physiology than was needed for this topic. But he has a lot of knowledge of the 'fiancee' visa process and for his help I have been most appreciative!