Hot drinks can be too hot and are even linked to cancer

When you order a coffee, do you ask for it to be “extra hot”?

Whether you enjoy tea, coffee or something else, hot drinks are a comforting and often highly personal ritual. The exact temperature to brew tea or serve coffee for the best flavour is hotly debated.

But there may be something else you’re not considering: your health.

Yes, hot drinks can be too hot – and are even linked to cancer. So, let’s take a look at the evidence.

What’s the link?

There is no evidence for a link between hot drinks and throat cancer and the evidence for a link between hot drinks and stomach cancer is unclear. But there is a link between hot drinks and cancers of the “food pipe” or oesophagus.

In 2016, the International Agency for Research on Cancer classified drinking very hot beverages, meaning above 65 degrees celsius, as “probably carcinogenic to humans” – this is the same risk category as emissions from indoor wood smoke or eating a lot of red meat.

The agency’s report found it was the temperature, not the drinks, that were responsible.

This is based mainly on evidence from South America, where studies found a link between drinking a lot of maté – a traditional herbal drink usually drunk at around 70 degrees celsius – and a higher risk of oesophageal cancer.

Similar studies in the Middle East, Africa and...

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