DEAR DR. BLONZ: Please comment about the concept of the cold/ice water diet. It is a means of losing weight that takes advantage of the energy used to bring the cold water up to body temperature. I have seen this described as a passive, but smart, way of burning extra calories. As I recall, a calorie is the amount of heat it takes to raise one gram of water one degree Celsius. So if a person drank 8 ounces (about 227 grams) of cold water at 5 degrees C (41 degrees F), and the natural functions of the body raised the temperature of the water to 37 degrees C (98.6 degrees F), then wouldn’t the body burn 7,264 calories (227 x 32) in the process? Can this be true? -- C.I., Chicago

DEAR C.I.: Boy, wouldn’t that make things simple: the ultimate “chill” diet. Make ice cubes a regular part of your diet and watch stored calories melt away!

It is true that our body seeks to maintain its normal operating temperature of about 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit (37 degrees C). That is the temperature at which most chemical reactions are designed to take place. It’s also true that calories are expended heating up water, or any other cold food. The slap of reality here is that the number of calories burned by bringing cold items up to body temperature is not what you had projected. Your weight-loss hopes fall victim to the thousandfold big “C”/little “c” caloric confusion.

The calorie (note the lowercase “c”) is a unit of energy in the metric system, and it is defined as the amount of heat required to raise one gram of water one degree centigrade. But the calories that are used to describe the energy in foods (or the energy expended by physical activity) are actually kilocalories (kilocals for short), which are the equivalent of 1,000 small “c” calories. One Calorie = 1 kilocalorie = 1,000 calories.

Food/activity calories should have that capital “C” to start the word, but common parlance and usage have blended the two together. In the mind of the average individual, a calorie is a Calorie is a calorie. Even the Nutrition Facts label mixes it up, using the uppercase “C” in some places, but then saying that “Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,500 calorie diet” (which would be the equivalent of 2.5 Calories). No wonder the distinctions get lost. Scientists use the term kilocalorie to avoid confusion with uppercase and lowercase “c.”

Doing revised math with your water-heating exercise, the 8 ounces of water weighs 227 grams, and heating this up 32 degrees would use up approximately 7,264 calories (again, note the small “c”). This is the equivalent of 7.264 (big “C”) Calories, and that is less than a gram of fat. Sorry to take the heat out of your diet plans.

Send questions to: “On Nutrition,” Ed Blonz, c/o Andrews McMeel Syndication, 1130 Walnut St., Kansas City, MO, 64106. Send email inquiries to questions@blonz.com. Due to the volume of mail, personal replies cannot be provided.

DEAR DR. BLONZ: I want your help in settling a cholesterol discussion involving chicken. Does removing the skin from chicken before you eat it get rid of the cholesterol? Also, I grill chicken with the skin on to keep it from drying out, giving people the option of removing it before the meal. How does this compare with removing the skin before cooking? And to reduce cholesterol in other types of meat, does it help if I purchase leaner cuts? -- C.L., Phoenix

DEAR C.L.: There is a small amount of cholesterol in the skin and fat, but most is in the meat -- both light and dark. This holds true for beef, pork and lamb, as well. Buying leaner cuts does little to reduce the cholesterol in the meal.

While the various types of blood cholesterol continue to be monitored, concern about the cholesterol in our foods has shifted a bit. Research evidence points to the level of fat in the diet -- especially partially hydrogenated fat and saturated fat -- as having more of an effect on our blood cholesterol than the amount of actual cholesterol in the foods we eat.

Also key is the need to avoid the excessive intake of simple sugars. Those naturally present in fresh fruits are fine, but we need to avoid added sugars as much as possible. The combination of an active lifestyle with a balanced diet -- focused on fruits, vegetables, grains, nuts and seeds -- is the best move.

Personally, I use my grill for many types of foods. Regarding chicken, I favor keeping the skin on during grilling for flavor and to prevent dryness. Care, of course, must be taken to avoid flare-ups when grilling skin-side down. Once the chicken is cooked, the skin can be removed, if desired. And it should definitely be removed if the skin has been blackened. So, while you need to cook foods completely, avoid overcooking and keep in mind that food does continue to cook for several minutes after it has been removed from the grill.

DEAR DR. BLONZ: I have some orange trees, and I freeze the juice since there are too many oranges to eat while fresh. Does freezing take away any of the good nutrition of the orange? -- J.F., Chula Vista, California

DEAR J.F.: Fresh oranges, or their juice, are a wholesome food. The orange contains vitamin C, folic acid, vitamin B6 and potassium, in addition to a variety of phytochemicals designed to help it thrive in the sun. There is no problem with fresh-frozen orange juice; the goodness in the fresh juice will be waiting to jump into your glass after it defrosts.

Freezing is an interesting method of food preservation. Cold slows down reactions associated with spoilage. The bonus with freezing is that water forms crystals when frozen, making it unavailable to bacteria and other microorganisms that need water to thrive.

You want to be sure to keep any food well covered, with a minimum of dead space around it. When freezing, allow for expansion. Frozen water crystals take up about 9 percent more space than the same quantity of water as a liquid.

Send questions to: “On Nutrition,” Ed Blonz, c/o Andrews McMeel Syndication, 1130 Walnut St., Kansas City, MO, 64106. Send email inquiries to questions@blonz.com. Due to the volume of mail, personal replies cannot be provided.

DEAR DR. BLONZ: I have a question about calories in carbohydrates, protein and fat. After a meal, do we gain weight or fat immediately, or does this happen overnight? I’ve never seen a good answer to this question. -- P.E., Walnut Creek, California

DEAR P.E.: We weigh the most right after we eat and drink. Assuming you don’t chow down right before you nod off, or wake up in the middle of the night to raid the refrigerator, you actually lose weight as you sleep.

Calories are a measure of potential energy. They can come in the form of fat (9 calories per gram), carbohydrate and/or protein (4 calories per gram), and even alcohol (7 calories per gram). The calories in any particular food represent its potential energy to fuel work and other metabolic processes, much in the same way that money in its different forms can be thought of as financial “energy” that can be used to buy objects or pay for services.

Once consumed and absorbed, dietary energy becomes a part of the body’s general energy pool, a resource that goes wherever it’s needed. There are certain functions that carbohydrates can perform that fats cannot, and there are those unique to certain types of dietary fats and the amino acids found in protein. Focusing solely on energy, we can say that non-fat calories get turned into glucose, and a small amount gets stored in the liver and muscles as glycogen. The body needs to keep blood glucose within specific limits, so extra glucose quickly gets converted to fatty acids and packaged for transport to storage under the skin and in our hips, thighs, and all those other places. This can take place in a matter of hours after a meal.

The blood is the great highway that carries these energy substances in every direction. Blood is water-based, so there are upper limits to how much fat (lipid) can be tolerated. Much gets packaged into substances known as lipoproteins. For those in good health, as the blood fats/lipids rise, more will get pulled out of the blood and put into storage on your waistline (or wherever else you don’t want it). If you have ever had your blood drawn soon after a big meal, you may have noticed that the blood takes on a milky appearance. This type of blood is described as lipemic, reflecting all those lipids from the meal that are still in the blood.

In the hours after we eat, the net flow of energy compounds is from the digestive system to the blood, with the excess finding its way into storage as fat. The ongoing energy dynamic will always be based on demands at the moment. If, for example, you go out for a walk after a meal, fats/lipids originally destined for storage can get pulled out of the blood to fuel muscular work rather than completing their original journey.

What about gaining fat overnight? After you eat, all the fat from the meal is there, but additional fat can be formed from excess carbohydrates, protein and alcohol calories. If the fat synthesized while you snooze is greater than that needed to keep your body running, you can wake with more fat in your body than when you went to sleep.

Send questions to: “On Nutrition,” Ed Blonz, c/o Andrews McMeel Syndication, 1130 Walnut St., Kansas City, MO, 64106. Send email inquiries to questions@blonz.com. Due to the volume of mail, personal replies cannot be provided.