When is hot tea too hot?

Some like it hot.

Warm is better.

In many e-Alerts I’ve discussed the benefits of drinking tea – especially green tea, which has been shown to help reduce risk of some cancers. But new research has found a unique cancer risk linked to tea temperature.

In Golestan Province in northern Iran, esophageal cancer rates are unusually high. So researchers recruited 300 esophageal cancer patients along with 571 healthy subjects and compared their tea-drinking habits.

Results showed that subjects who drank their tea at 70 degrees or higher were eight times more likely to develop esophageal cancer, compared to those who drank their tea at temperatures lower than 65 degrees.

Further research is needed to confirm this link. In the meantime, researchers offer this precautionary suggestion: Let your tea cool for four minutes before drinking.

Source:
“How Hot is Too Hot for Tea? Ivanhoe Newswire, 4/1/09, ivanhoe.com