Is it safe to drink hot water? How hot can it be?
Many mountain hikers recommend drinking hot fluids, because they provide a lot of energy. According to the discussion "Does eating snow help dehydration?", the actual calorie gain is minimal, however there are calories available practically immediately.
However, how hot can water/fluid be to be able to safely drink it (how many degrees)? Too hot water would burn your lips, but if the water is not hot enough to burn the lips, is it safe to swallow? Does the large amount of hot fluid in the stomach pose any threat to the body, or I can assume that anything I can swallow without getting burned is safe for me?
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Many mountain hikers recommend drinking hot fluids, because they provide a lot of energy.
Not really. The ideal core body temperature has traditionally been stated as 37.7°C. We reduce human to jar of 80kg of fluid content. Imagine what happens if you pour 0.2kg of 45°C fluid into the "human jar". It is pointless. The drank mass and the available temperature difference is futile.
However, as @Chris H mentioned: the fluid goes directly to the core and its temperature could be higher than the 45°C. This makes the energy from hot drinks slightly less insignificant.
So it does not provide energy because it is hot. The most proper reason why to drink hot drink is "placebo" effect. Because of that and obvious security reasons I would suggest the following rule:
Aim for the lowest temperature that makes you feel warm.
What is pretty consistent with great answer from Marcus Wigert.
To obtain energy from hot drinks, it is suggested (thanks to @Chris H for pointing that out) to put directly a source of energy into the hot drink. In my personal experience, I would recommend combinations of following:
- unflavoured whey protein concentrate
- cocoa powder
- butter
- coconut oil
- honey (in extreme situations when immediate energy is required)
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I think the answer is highly personal, as an avid coffee-drinker, hot is for me what scalding might be for someone else. But if I am to give some kind of benchmark, I would say 45°C is a pretty good temperature to aim for.
Not as hot as to scald your mouth, but hot enough to give you some warmth if drank in sufficient quantities. But if you want to carry "optimal"-heating potential, I suggest you try to keep your water boiling hot, and mix it with colder water when drinking. Since you don't have to carry around 4 litres of lukewarm water.
Hopefully this will shed some light on your question.
This post was sourced from https://outdoors.stackexchange.com/a/4443. It is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
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