Jul 17, 2022·edited Jul 17, 2022Liked by Stuart Ritchie
Thank you for doing the work to put a smile on my face this morning.
I live in a high-temperature, high-humidity subtropical area and can report that being semi-nude and having a big fan are the most relevant variables in the studies (and the option millions of people adopt).
Good luck to you northerners. Remember that people die in heat waves, not from lack of ideas, but from lack of help from others. So drop by to have a cup of hot tea with grandma, and also make sure she has enough fans.
Today, Tuesday, I went in the newsagents where they had a fan blowing on the chocolates "to keep them cool". When I explained it wouldn't help a bit I knew they were going to say that a fan cooled us down. I said we sweat and the fan helps that to evaporate and cools us. Chocolates don't sweat. They still didn't believe me!
I went to the gym today with a few fans, no air con, and was comfortable. My chocolate biscuit melted!
OK I get it - the key to cooling off on a hot day is to drink plenty of cool fluids with a thermometer in your ass, inserted a minimum of 12 cm (perhaps you could get away with less - say 6 cm, but on that matter the research is silent)
Seems to me the obvious thing to test is to put the fluids on your skin instead of drinking them. Which would then mean you didn't need to sweat. If the main hypothesised process here is the hot drinks causing you to sweat more, surely putting the cold water (or some of it) on your skin instead would be a much more direct path to that outcome.
TY for putting this obvious nonsense where it belongs. My mother used to tell me that (60 years ago) and even then, as a teenager, I told her she was full of sh*t. Common-sense analysis defeats received wisdom every time.
I'm ashamed to say... I myself believed in this one, I think it's the first time that a misconception you have debunked is something I previously believed was true.
Nobody ever says to drink cold drinks in cold weather, which presumably should work for similar reasons: your body reacts to the cold and acts to minimise heat loss.
And if the mechanism is just increased sweating, pouring a mug of cold water over your head seems like it'd cool you down a lot better.
Maybe a damp cloth rubbed on exposed skin is an actually practical option, or a spray bottle with cold water.
Thank you for doing the work to put a smile on my face this morning.
I live in a high-temperature, high-humidity subtropical area and can report that being semi-nude and having a big fan are the most relevant variables in the studies (and the option millions of people adopt).
Good luck to you northerners. Remember that people die in heat waves, not from lack of ideas, but from lack of help from others. So drop by to have a cup of hot tea with grandma, and also make sure she has enough fans.
Sam is going to wake up to ~500 twitter notifications lol.
My uncle claims to have read something supporting the hot tea claim in the New Scientist several decades ago.
Only just seen the article!
Today, Tuesday, I went in the newsagents where they had a fan blowing on the chocolates "to keep them cool". When I explained it wouldn't help a bit I knew they were going to say that a fan cooled us down. I said we sweat and the fan helps that to evaporate and cools us. Chocolates don't sweat. They still didn't believe me!
I went to the gym today with a few fans, no air con, and was comfortable. My chocolate biscuit melted!
OK I get it - the key to cooling off on a hot day is to drink plenty of cool fluids with a thermometer in your ass, inserted a minimum of 12 cm (perhaps you could get away with less - say 6 cm, but on that matter the research is silent)
Question:
when you swallow a mouthful of drink, how long does it take to reach your stomach?
How long does a mouthful of cold water stay cold?
How long does a mouthful of hot tea stay hot?
The answer to the first question is 5-10 seconds.
The last two I don’t know, but I would expect that the cold drink wouldn’t take too long to become warm, the tea may stay warmer for longer.
Anything you read in The Express: assume the opposite is true.
Sahara desert inhabitants regularly drink hot tea. In a hot and dry environment, it can have a lot of sense.
Plus, survival pressure should confirm this behavior.
Winter kept us warm
Seems to me the obvious thing to test is to put the fluids on your skin instead of drinking them. Which would then mean you didn't need to sweat. If the main hypothesised process here is the hot drinks causing you to sweat more, surely putting the cold water (or some of it) on your skin instead would be a much more direct path to that outcome.
TY for putting this obvious nonsense where it belongs. My mother used to tell me that (60 years ago) and even then, as a teenager, I told her she was full of sh*t. Common-sense analysis defeats received wisdom every time.
I'm ashamed to say... I myself believed in this one, I think it's the first time that a misconception you have debunked is something I previously believed was true.
Nobody ever says to drink cold drinks in cold weather, which presumably should work for similar reasons: your body reacts to the cold and acts to minimise heat loss.
And if the mechanism is just increased sweating, pouring a mug of cold water over your head seems like it'd cool you down a lot better.
Maybe a damp cloth rubbed on exposed skin is an actually practical option, or a spray bottle with cold water.
Did they make those poor men dress like Winnie-the-Pooh?