Drinking hot beverages - What is the typical temperature when fluids enter our stomach?
When we take a sip, just barely not burning our tongue, what is the maximum temperature we can tolerate and how fast does it cool down while passing through the esophagus and entering the stomach?
The reason I’m asking this: The other day I watched a documentary and it was about eating a vitamin C rich meal and combining it with drinking hot tea or coffee. Vitamin C is the most easily destroyed vitamin. It gets destroyed by heat above 70 degrees Celsius.
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If you make tea with boiling water, figure that by the time you drink it, it’s cooled down (but is still hot) to maybe 150 degrees F? Maybe 130F?
I searched the web, but it seems that no one carried out any real experiments with thermometers.
You’re right; it’s difficult to find studies that specify the temperatures at which burning is caused. I’ve spent a little time on this, and don’t have more to offer, but you may wish to look through the references in this paper for more information. It is clear that swallowing food or drink that is too hot will cause burns to the larynx and/or esophagus.
As to how quickly food cools, I haven’t been able to find this out either, but it is clear that food can and does enter the stomach at different temperatures; there are several studies on the effect of food temperature on stomach emptying rate. This study cites a few of them: “Since the temperature of the meal affects the emptying rate from the stomach (Bateman 1982; Troncon and Iazigi 1988; Mishima and others 2009), it is expected that the corresponding temperature of gastric contents varies during the digestion until reaching the human’s core temperature.”
Thanks @glacial ! I’ll take a look at the documents you provided links for.
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