I Need A Thermometer For My Tea

At this point I'm smiling, although I shouldn't because this is far from being a joke. Maybe the title is a joke, of course I don't need a thermometer for my tea, we are not there yet but life starting to become complicated.

Every day you see a new study saying this and that is not healthy, don't do this and that because you are risking some illness and as we all know, sometimes (or most of the times) these information contradict each other. My experience is that people tent to believe what's the most suitable for them.

Today I came across and article published by CNN, according to which Drinking very hot tea almost doubles risk of cancer, new study says

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Cancer is a serious illness, we all want to avoid it if possible, however, some of us doesn't have a chance, unfortunately.

Researchers found that tea drinkers who liked their beverage to be warmer than 60 degrees Celsius (140 degrees Fahrenheit) and consumed more than 700 ml of tea per day -- about two large cups -- had a 90% higher risk of esophageal cancer, when compared to those who drank less tea and at cooler temperatures.
The study looked at more than 50,000 people in Golestan, a province in northeastern Iran.
"Many people enjoy drinking tea, coffee, or other hot beverages. However, according to our report, drinking very hot tea can increase the risk of esophageal cancer, and it is therefore advisable to wait until hot beverages cool down before drinking," said Dr. Farhad Islami, of the American Cancer Society and the study's lead author.
Previous research has found a link between hot tea drinking and esophageal cancer. This study, published Wednesday in the International Journal of Cancer, was the first to pinpoint a specific temperature, according to the authors.
Esophageal cancer is the eighth most common cancer in the world and is often fatal, killing approximately 400,000 people every year, according to the International Agency for Research on Cancer. It is usually caused by repeated injury to the esophagus due to smoke, alcohol, acid reflux and -- maybe -- hot liquids.
The esophagus is a long tube through which swallowed food and liquids travel to reach the stomach.
The American Cancer Society estimates that 13,750 new cases of esophageal cancer will be diagnosed in men and 3,900 new cases in women in the United States in 2019.
The team of researchers followed 50,045 people, aged between 40 and 75, for an average of 10 years. Between 2004 and 2017, the researchers detected 317 new cases of esophageal cancer. source

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I don't even know how hot 60 degrees Celsius means to begin with. I've never been forced to test my drink's temperature as i can taste it and decide if I can drink it or not. I know very hot liquid id not good and doesn't feel good as it burns.

The article says they believe any type or liquid consumed at that temperature can cause damage to your esophagus, so why is the title only mentioning tea? How many people are consuming hot soup on a daily bases? Why isn't soup mentioned in the article?

Stephen Evans, a professor of pharmacoepidemiology at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, said that it was the heat that was the issue rather than the type of beverage.
"In fact, it is probably anything hot: Microwaved jam has been known to cause esophageal injury. It is possible that the trauma leads to cell changes and hence to cancer," he told the Science Media Centre. Evans was not involved in the study.
In the United States and Europe, tea is rarely consumed at temperatures above 65 degrees Celsius (149 degrees Fahrenheit) -- but in places like Russia, Iran, Turkey and South America, it is common to drink tea that hot or even hotter.
"If you go to the Middle East or to Russia, they drink it out of a samovar that's constantly under heat," said Peter Goggi, president of the Tea Association of the USA told CNN last year. "It's very, very hot."

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After reading the article I though how life would be for me if I'd have to use a thermometer during drinking my morning tea in order to monitor my tea temperature. That would never happen, I can assure you.

Reading comments on twitter was really funny, most of those who commented had a similar reaction to mine.