Surprising Risk in Your Coffee

For millions of Americans, coffee or tea is part of the morning routine. But new research suggests there may be one simple habit worth changing: how hot you drink it.

A large study involving nearly 1 million adults in the United Kingdom found that people who preferred their tea or coffee very hot had a substantially higher risk of developing one particular type of esophageal cancer.

The important point: Researchers are not saying you need to give up coffee or tea. The concern is the temperature.

The hotter the drink, the greater the concern

Researchers from the University of Oxford analyzed health information from 977,282 adults who were followed for more than a decade.

They found that people who described their drinks as "very hot" had about three times the risk of developing esophageal squamous cell carcinoma compared with people who preferred warm beverages.

The study also found that people drinking six or more hot beverages a day had a 71% higher risk of this type of cancer.

But there is an important distinction.

The researchers did not find the same association between hot beverages and esophageal adenocarcinoma, another type of esophageal cancer.

Why would temperature matter?

The esophagus is the tube that carries food and drinks from your mouth to your stomach.

Drinking extremely hot liquids can repeatedly expose the lining of the esophagus to heat.

Over time, that repeated irritation may contribute to inflammation and cellular damage.

In other words, the concern appears to be the heat—not the coffee or tea itself.

Previous research has pointed in the same direction. In 2016, the International Agency for Research on Cancer concluded that drinking very hot beverages probably causes esophageal cancer, while finding no conclusive evidence that coffee itself causes cancer.

What does this mean if you're over 50?

First, don't panic—and don't feel that you have to give up your morning coffee.

A simple change may be enough: let your drink cool for a few minutes before taking that first sip.

If your coffee is so hot that you have to blow on it, sip it extremely carefully, or feel the heat going down your throat, it's probably worth waiting.

This may be especially easy to do at home. Pour your coffee or tea, finish getting ready for the morning, and come back to it a few minutes later.

There are bigger risk factors to remember

The new findings shouldn't distract from the better-established risk factors for esophageal cancer.

Smoking and heavy alcohol consumption are major risk factors, and obesity is also associated with certain types of esophageal cancer.

So if you're over 50 and thinking about protecting your long-term health, cooling your coffee is one small step—but quitting smoking, limiting alcohol, maintaining a healthy weight and keeping up with recommended medical care are much more important.

The bottom line

You don't necessarily have to change what's in your cup.

You may simply want to change how hot it is.

The latest research suggests that regularly drinking very hot coffee or tea may increase the risk of one type of esophageal cancer. Letting your drink cool to a comfortable temperature is an easy habit that could help reduce unnecessary irritation to your esophagus.

So tomorrow morning, enjoy your coffee.

Just give it a few minutes before that first sip.