Health x Wellness

Very Hot Drinks May Cause Cancer

By  |  0 Comments

The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) says beverages consumed at more than 65°C are probably linked to oesophageal cancer.

For coffee lovers however, you’ll be pleased to know that the Working Group has found no conclusive evidence for a carcinogenic effect of drinking coffee thus far, although the drink was once considered a possible cause of cancer back in the 90s. However, the IARC also presented other evidence that suggests drinking anything very hot — at 65°C or above (water, coffee, tea and a host of other beverages) probably does cause cancer of the oesophagus.

To find out the correlation between temperature of drink and its carcinogenic effects, the IARC investigated other beverages drunk around the world; one of  which was the South American herbal drink, mate – also known as chimarrão or cimarrón. Mate, was used in the research due to the fact that oesophageal cancer is more common in South America as compared to other parts of the world, but researchers have found little evidence to suggest that the drink is a cause of cancer. They however reviewed a number of case-controlled studies (more than 1,000 cases) dealing with the temperature of hot drinks, and in one study discovered a statistically significant increase in risk for drinking very hot mate, but not for drinking warm mate. Another study investigated the drinking of cold mate and found no increased risk. Experiments with rats and mice also found that very hot water (at 65°C) promoted the development of oesophageal tumours.

“These results suggest that drinking very hot beverages is one probable cause of esophageal cancer and that it is the temperature, rather than the drinks themselves, that appears to be responsible,” said IARC director Christopher Wild.

Drinking very hot beverages is now classified as probably carcinogenic in IARC’s group 2A category, alongside red meat, and we believe that the question on everyone’s minds right now is that, “Should I stop drinking hot beverages?” Looking at the “probably carcinogenic” label, it means that evidence is still pretty much limited, and the causal link between hot drinks and cancer has not been established – so you should be quite safe to continue.

 

Comments

comments

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *