Eating snow cones or snow cream can be a winter delight, if done safely
CONCORD, New Hampshire — Take two scoops of snow and call me tomorrow morning?
Dr. Sarah Crockett, who specializes in emergency and wilderness medicine, doesn’t explicitly tell her patients at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in New Hampshire to gulp down snow, but she often prescribes more time outside. If that time involves eating a handful of ice crystals straight or adding ingredients to make snow cones and other frozen treats, she’s all for it.
“To stop and just be present and want to catch a snowflake on your tongue, or pick up fresh, white, untouched snow that was collected during something as exciting as a snowstorm, I think there is room in our world to enjoy that,” Crockett said. “And while we have to make good choices, I think it’s the simple things that can bring joy. »
Getting outdoors to enjoy simple pleasures is unlikely to be a priority for residents of a 1,300-mile stretch of the United States, where a massive weekend storm brought deep snow and bitter cold. Freezing rain and ice brought down power lines and tree limbs, leaving hundreds of thousands of homes without power or heat across the South, while snow disrupted road and air transportation from Arkansas to New England.
As the storm moves away, residents in less affected areas may be tempted to whip up bowls of “snow cream” — snow mixed with milk, sugar and vanilla — after seeing techniques demonstrated on TikTok. Others may want to try “sugar on snow,” a taffy-like confection made by pouring hot maple syrup onto a plate of snow.
Despite its pristine appearance, snow is not always clean enough to eat. Crockett and other experts shared tips for digging safely while digging.
Whether rain or snow, precipitation cleans the atmosphere, picking up pollutants as it falls, said Steven Fassnacht, a professor of snow hydrology at Colorado State University. But snowflakes pick up more impurities because they fall more slowly and have more exposed surfaces than raindrops, he explained.
That means snow that falls near coal-fired power plants or factories that emit particles into the air contains more contaminants, said Fassnacht, who was in Shinjo, Japan, to study the salt content of snow last week. He says he wouldn’t have hesitated to try it because there were no big industrial complexes upwind.
“Snow can be eaten, but you want to think about the trajectory. Where does this snow come from?” he said.
Timing is another consideration, according to Crockett. The first wave of snow contains the most particles, she said, so waiting until a storm is well underway before putting out a bowl to catch the falling snow is a precaution to take.
Soil contamination is an additional factor, experts say. Avoiding yellow snow, which may be contaminated by urine or tree bark, is a common misconception, but it’s also a good idea to stay away from any snow pushed by plows and filled with road salt, de-icing chemicals and debris.
What if we ate snow to survive? Crockett, who oversees the wilderness medicine program at Dartmouth College’s Geisel School of Medicine, says that’s a bad idea.
The energy required to melt snow in your mouth when you eat it essentially counteracts the benefits of hydration, and also lowers your body’s core temperature and increases the risk of hypothermia. Although outdoor enthusiasts who plan to spend days in the mountains often melt and boil snow to purify it and drink it, it should not be considered an immediate source of hydration, she said.
“If you find yourself disoriented on a local hike, I would say your number one priority is to try to get help any way you can, not ‘Can I eat enough snow?’ “, Crockett said.
Fassnacht, who has studied snow for more than 30 years, said he first tried “snow cream” last year when some students made it for him. He described it as a fun experience that got him thinking about flavors and textures, not contaminants.
“It’s a fancy thing,” he said. “It got me thinking about the characteristics of this freshly fallen snow and how does that change the taste sensation?”
Crockett also loves finding inspiration and wonder in nature. She worries that overprotective parenting has contributed to anxiety among some young people and that excessive warnings about drinking snow may make it worse.
“We need to find the right balance between avoiding danger and not being so protective that we encourage this ‘Everything will hurt me’ mentality, especially for children,” she said.
Crockett has four children, including a daughter who she described as an “avid snow eater.” As the recent winter storm began, she was asked why she loved eating snow so much and was told, “It makes me feel connected to the Earth.” »
“That’s actually something that’s really important to me, that we all have that connection to nature,” Crockett said.
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AP National Writer Allen G. Breed contributed from Wake Forest, North Carolina.
