[Budd]

Budd  asked the Naked Scientists:
   
Hi,

I really enjoy listening to your show on Radio  702's Redi Direko show.

I am battling to get my question through on the show  though, therefore may i pose my question via email please...  

When you feel too warm such as in  summer, I've heard a theory that drinking a hot drink such as tea actually cools you down because it makes you sweat more?

Some say this is the  case but I'm not convinced as I personally feel much hotter when  drinking a hot drink in summer, and secondly; why then do we drink a hot drink in winter to warm us up?

Thank you,   Budd

What do you think?

[Madidus_Scientia]

I think warm water is absorbed faster, so would hydrate you faster, but I don't see how it would make you actually cooler than drinking colder water

[fontwell]

This is a well known but totally wrong idea. I have heard it busted several times and I think the book Bad Medicine busted it too (or possibly not).

The suggested mechanism is that a hot drink makes you sweat and then you cool down. This is true, but you are full of hot drink so you have to cool down just to get back to where you were. In the mean time you are actually hotter than before. In the end you return to your previous temperature.

[sharkeyandgeorge]

a cold liquid ingested will increase in temperature till it reaches the same as your body this will draw some heat from your cells cooling you, a hot liquid will cool to the same temperature as your body by heating your cells increasing your core temperature.