Hot tea (or drinks) to beat the heat in summer: myth or reality?

BarcelonaIf our body is 75% water, for everything to function properly we must always drink liquids to stay hydrated. Everyone knows this, and it's not a prophecy. Now, is it better to drink hot teas (or drinks in general) to beat the heat in summer?

The answer is no, and if we've seen it in movies or in some countries, it's because those people have a specific cultural tradition, and not because it's scientifically proven that the heat of the liquid hydrates. Despite this forceful statement, there is one certainty, which is that when we drink a very cold drink, the body must work harder to bring it up to body temperature, 36°C, and this fact, depending on our metabolism, can be negative.

And since we're talking about cultural traditions, we can travel as far as Brazil, and tropical countries in general, where they crack a coconut and drink the liquid when they're thirsty. That water you'll drink will become the best isotonic drink in the world, because it will help you recover your body's minerals and because it truly quenches your thirst.

Drinks that don't hydrate you, whether hot or cold, are soft drinks, because they contain large amounts of sugar, which has the opposite effect: it makes you thirstier. This is because sugar, especially white sugar, is just concentrated carbohydrates, without the water that the original sugar cane contained. So, apart from carbonated soft drinks, any drink with sugar in it will only make you thirsty for a moment.

So, in summer, the best advice we can follow is to drink warm liquids, at room temperature (30 or 35°C), so that the body doesn't have to strain itself. The most recommended liquid is water.