You Might Be Better Off Drinking A Hot Drink To Cool Down - Here’s Why

In many desert countries, people turn to tea to cool down when the heat is on - but is it really a good way to chill out?

Most of us imagine that a nice big glass of fizzy pop clinking with ice cubes might be the best way to get our body temperature down - but hot drinks, paradoxically, might be better.

Mental Floss points to University of Ottawa research which found that hot drinks trigger a high sweat response (cooling the body down) without actually raising core body temperature that much.

‘If you drink a hot drink, it does result in a lower amount of heat stored inside your body, provided the additional sweat that’s produced when you drink the hot drink can evaporate,’ researcher Ollie Jay told Smithsonian.

So a hot drink will cool you down (as long as you’re not already sweating) - but it might not have the instant, delicious cooling effect of an iced drink.