There is nothing nicer in the summer heat than drinking an ice cold lemonade, for example. However, it turns out that drinking cold drinks in the summer is not as effective in cooling the body as drinking hot ones.
Hot drinks are one of the most avoided in the heat, namely they could help you feel cool. This is according to the data of a 2012 study conducted by Canadian scientists from the University of Ottawa, cited by he althdigest.com.
Researchers conducted a study on cyclists in laboratory conditions within 75 minutes. While cycling, the cyclists drank glasses of water with different temperatures - from 1 degree to 50 degrees.
During the study, the scientists found that the body temperature of the cyclists decreased after consuming hotter liquids compared to cold ones. Why is this happening?
Intake of warm and hot liquids provokes a temporary rise in body temperature inside the body. This stimulates profuse sweating, which in turn contributes to cooling the body. Sweating is the body's natural cooling mechanism. In the heat, it is a way for the body to release itself from the heat and cope with the atmospheric conditions outside.
That is why there is nothing strange about drinking warm and hot drinks in summer. It all comes down to sweating and the thermal effect that hot liquids cause in the body. The more hot drinks you drink on summer days, the easier you will tolerate the heat.
The cyclists who took part in the study also rode their bikes with a fan on, which further stimulated the accelerated evaporation of sweat from their body. This resulted in an additional cooling effect.
Evaporation of sweat from the skin is more difficult in high humidity conditions. Therefore, the additional blowing with a fan contributes to the cooling effect that the researchers wanted to achieve. For this reason, they found that drinking hot liquids in the summer worked more in dry areas with low humidity. In those with high humidity, drinking cold liquids has a better effect on cooling the body.
