If you like your hot coffee or hot tea…well…hot…doctors have issued a warning that the high temperatures maybe putting your health in danger. Not from the drink itself but the heat and it could increase your chances of developing oesophageal cancer.
With winter on the way, this time of year is when we all hanker for the comforting warmth of a hot drink of coffee, tea or cocoa, but if you’re one of those people who like to let your tea brew for a while and let it chill a little bit, you could be onto something.
If you prefer to brew your tea and let it chill for a bit, you might be onto something as research suggests hot drinks could increase your cancer risk. Doctors have advised that anything over 110 degrees F can burn the skin and anything above 160 degrees will scald immediately. A properly made cup of coffee needs to be brewed at temperatures ranging from 195-205 degrees F. Therefore, a cup of coffee is more than capable of seriously harming the delicate and sensitive lining of the oesophagus.
Furthermore, a recent study of 500,000 UK adults published in the journal Clinical Nutrition found that those people who regularly drank a hot drink had a 2.8 per cent increase in the risk of developing cancer.