Let hot things cool before you drink them; don't drink scalding tea, soup or coffee

Cost

Free, and it costs 2 or 3 extra minutes each time. The hard part is holding back when you're eager to drink.

What you get

In an area of northern Iran where esophageal cancer is common, 300 patients were compared with 571 people without the disease. All comparisons below are against people who drank warm tea. People who drank “hot” tea had about 2.07 times the odds of esophageal squamous cell cancer (odds ratio, 95% CI 1.28–3.35, the plausible range). Those who drank “very hot” tea had about 8.16 times (3.93–16.9). People who drank within 2 minutes of pouring had about 5.41 times the odds of those who waited 4 minutes or more (2.63–11.1)

Notes

The International Agency for Research on Cancer lists hot drinks above 65 ℃ as Group 2A, meaning probably carcinogenic. The same assessment concluded that coffee itself does not cause cancer. A study in China followed 456,000 (45.6万) people for a median of 9.2 years. People who drank very hot tea and also drank 15 g or more of alcohol a day had the highest risk of esophageal cancer. They had about 5 times the risk of people who rarely drank tea and drank less than 15 g of alcohol a day (HR 5.00, 3.64–6.88). For people who smoked and drank hot tea every day, the hazard ratio was 2.03 (1.55–2.67). The authors concluded that when hot tea is combined with excessive drinking or smoking, the risk of esophageal cancer is higher.

Evidence grade

A : Specific numbers from meta-analyses, large cohorts or randomized trials; for law and policy, the statute or official text.

Sources

1. Islami F, Pourshams A, Nasrollahzadeh D, et al. (2009). Tea drinking habits and oesophageal cancer in a high risk area in northern Iran: population based case-control study. BMJ, 338, b929. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.b929
2. Loomis D, Guyton KZ, Grosse Y, et al. (2016). Carcinogenicity of drinking coffee, mate, and very hot beverages. Lancet Oncology, 17(7), 877-878. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1470-2045(16)30239-X
3. Yu C, Tang H, Guo Y, et al. (2018). Hot tea consumption and its interactions with alcohol and tobacco use on the risk for esophageal cancer: a population-based cohort study. Annals of Internal Medicine, 168(7), 489-497. https://doi.org/10.7326/M17-2000

Translated from the Chinese original. Original book, section 2, tip 30. This section is about health and medicines. It is general information, not a substitute for a doctor’s diagnosis or prescription. Content may be out of date and rules differ by place. When you actually deal with an agency, a doctor or a court, follow what local officials, doctors and lawyers tell you. Disclaimer