If you were traveling through a desert and you happened upon an oasis where a fellow traveler had only a cup of hot tea to offer you, would accept it or say, "No way"?
The correct answer, even when you set aside good manners, is to accept. In that situation, it‘s critical to stay hydrated. Plus, hot tea on a hot day has the potential to significantly cool you down.
Regulating Body Temperature
It's more than a bit of traditional wisdom: under the right circumstances, a hot beverage on a hot day can be your most effective means of regulating body temperature.
When you sip the hot drink, it‘s warmer than your body and causes your temperature to rise. This increases perspiration to counteract the added heat.
The receptors in your mouth and throat that send signals to your brain when you drink something hot are the same ones that respond to chemicals in chili peppers. So, perhaps it‘s not surprising that drinking hot drinks to cool down is a popular practice in countries where spicy chilies are a staple of cuisine.
Sweating
Sweating can offset the relatively small amount of heat contained in a hot drink or a spicy dish. But to do so, the sweat must evaporate.
When the sweat evaporates, its energy as stored heat is removed from the body. But if you wipe the sweat away or it drops to the ground, it doesn‘t evaporate. So, the energy remains in the body, and you stay hot.
Proportion is key, here. The heat from a relatively small hot tea produces a disproportionate amount of sweat that cools the body more effectively than room-temperature water.
Thank you to Heather Bradshaw of Indiana University for reviewing this episode's script.
Sources And Further Reading:
- Bain AR, Lesperance NC, Jay O. "Body heat storage during physical activity is lower with hot fluid ingestion under conditions that permit full evaporation." Acta Physiol (Oxf). 2012 Oct;206(2):98-108. doi: 10.1111/j.1748-1716.2012.02452.x. Epub 2012 Jun 9.
- Palca, Joe. "Cool Down With A Hot Drink? It's Not As Crazy As You Think." NPR: The Salt. July 11, 2012. Accessed December 21, 2017.
- Stromberg, Joseph. "A Hot Drink on a Hot Day Can Cool You Down." Smithsonian Magazine. July 10, 2012. Accessed January 8, 2018.
