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Do hot drinks really cool you down?

by Sean Paajanen
for About.com

Question: Do hot drinks really cool you down?
Answer: The logic behind this claim, is that the hot tea makes you sweat and that helps cool you off. Makes perfect sense, doesn't it? Funny how no one ever suggests that turning up the heat in your house would actually make you cooler.

But many people can't help think that it still makes sense in some way. Well, I'm going to explain to everyone why it doesn't work. Since I am not a physicist in any sense, the scientific details have been simplified. In a nutshell:

The problem in the logic lies with the laws of thermodynamics. The amount of heat lost by sweating and evaporation will never exceed the amount of heat gained by the hot drink you've consumed.

The overall answer, is that hot tea will make you sweat more, and increase your cooling. But the amount of extra cooling won't be enough to offset the heating-up from the tea.

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