On a scorching summer day, you're probably more likely to grab an iced coffee than a steaming cup of joe. But a study has shown that drinking a hot beverage on a hot day actually can cool you down. How?
As you might imagine, consuming a hot drink does add heat to your body, but that heat actually increases the rate at which you sweat, which can help cool you off. The scientists who conducted the study believe that thermosensors lining the throat and mouth might be what triggers the sweating response.
Of course, the sweat has to evaporate in order for you to feel cooler, so if you are wearing heavy clothing or live in a very humid climate, drinking a hot beverage won't help much. But on a hot, dry day when you're wearing shorts and a t-shirt, hot coffee might actually cool you off more than a glass of ice-cold coffee.
Read more: A Hot Drink on a Hot Day Can Cool You Down at the Smithsonian
Have you noticed that hot drinks keep you cool when the weather is warm?
Related: Do You Eat Spicy Food In Hot Weather?
(Image: Flickr member Marco Arment licensed for use under Creative Commons)
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So it's not the hot drink cooling you down. It's the sweating. Leave it up to the Smithsonian to publish something like this.
Not sure I'm a fan of this article.
(1) A cold drink will cool you down better.
(2) The hot drink theory only works if you're wearing very little and in a non-humid enviornment.
(3) Why would you want to sweat MORE when you're already hot and gross feeling.
Some people just like hot drinks year round. As a regular coffee/espresso drinker, I'm one of those people.
My great grandmother swore by a hot bowl of soup for lunch on the hottest days. She lived to be 98, had no air conditioning, lived in her house until the end, walked up and down two flights of stairs until her last days, and I'm not sure I ever saw her sweat. :)
Humid-subtropical-southern-US laughs at this.
As does the heavy, pea-soup-thick humidity and triple-digit heat index of the Midwest.
I wonder if humidity nixes the benefits of spicy heat too?
So overheat your body to cool down?
when i was growing up (it was hot and humid) my grandma/ mommmy always told me to drink room temp water or drinks to cool down and not very cold. Also it was recommended to not drink something really cold after coming in from really hot environment...we were told to wait a few minutes, let the body adjust to the cooler emvironment and then drink soemthing.