There are many reasons to enjoy drinking tea. However, you should let the hot tea cool down a little before you drink it. Why? A new study published in the International Journal of Cancer gives the answer.
"Many people enjoy drinking tea, coffee or other hot drinks. However, according to our report, drinking very hot tea can increase the risk of esophageal cancer (食道癌), so you'd better wait until hot drinks cool down before drinking," the lead writer of the study, Dr. Farhad Islami of the American Cancer Society, said.
For the study, Islami and his team followed more than 50, 000 people aged between 40 and 75 years old. They found 0.7 percent of those people had esophageal cancer.
The National Cancer Institute reported that about 17, 290 Americans had esophageal cancer in a year, and that only 19 percent of sick people survived. However, five years later, they died.
The scientists found that drinking 700 ml drinks (about three cups) every day or more at a higher temperature (60℃ or hotter) would have a 90 percent higher risk of esophageal cancer, compared with people drinking the same amount at a temperature below 60℃.
