Is It a Good Idea to Drink Hot Tea on a Hot Day?

It sounds counterintuitive, but researcher Ollie Jay of the University of Ottawa’s School of Human Kinetics says that drinking a hot drink in a warm, dry climate will actually cool you down faster than a cold beverage. The gist of the research centers around the amount of heat stored by the body, which dissipates when you sweat and the sweat evaporates. A hot drink, Jay says, will force the body to sweat more and cool you down faster. In other words, overall sweat output outweighs the internal heat gain from the warm drink.

Sweat more, cool faster:

• The study conditions allowed for complete evaporation of sweat. The results would be different, the researchers said, in humid conditions when sweat evaporation is limited.
• The data seemed to indicate that colder drinks actually reduce the body’s sweat response -- and the body’s ability to regulate its temperature.
• Jay thinks that the thermal sensors that line the throat and mouth trigger the increased sweating response.