When we head to our neighborhood coffee shop in the summer, everyone around us seems to be getting iced coffees and frappaccinos and all the cold drinks, while we stick to our hot vanilla latte. While their drink options seem logical, turns out a hot beverage may actually cool our bodies down more. Check it out!
When I head to my neighborhood coffee shop in the summer, everyone around me seems to be getting iced coffees and frappaccinos and all the cold drinks, while I stick to my hot vanilla latte. While their drink options seem logical, turns out a hot beverage may actually cool our bodies down more.
One neuroscientist at the University of Cambridge explains that we have particular nerve receptors in our tongues that respond to heat. When we eat or drink something hot, these receptors tell our brains that it’s hot and in turn, our brain turns on our cooling mechanism – otherwise known as sweating.
So while ordering a hot beverage during the summer doesn’t exactly sound refreshing and, well, seems a bit counter intuitive, hot drinks actually turn on our body’s equivalent of an AC system. I order my hot latte because I just like it, but maybe this gives you something to consider tomorrow morning when you’re in line ordering coffee. What do you think?
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I heard this advice from some older, uneducated people in Africa in the 1980's! I think it's crap advice! Why do I think this? Well, common sense tells us that adding more heat to a fire will make it worse. Our internal body temperature is 98.6F (average) and adding a hot cup of coffee or tea raises that internal temperature. In addition it makes you sweat, which dehydrates you and causes a loss of minerals and electrolytes. Try it when you have a fever of 105F and see if you can fry your brain!! On the educated side we know that drinking an icy beverage will lower our internal body temperature. So I would rather have a Milkshake, Icee, or better yet a Sport drink to quench my thirst, rehydrate me and cool me off!
August 15, 2012 - 8:46amThis Comment