How hot you drink your chai may matter more than how much
The WHO's cancer agency lists drinks above 65°C as a probable cause of cancer of the food pipe. Most of us drink chai hotter than that.
Plenty of us like our chai straight off the boil, poured from the pan into a glass and sipped while it still stings. Some even say chai isn't worth drinking once it has cooled.
In 2016 the International Agency for Research on Cancer, part of the World Health Organization, reviewed the evidence on hot drinks. It found that tea and coffee themselves were not the problem. The temperature was. It classed drinking beverages above 65°C as "probably carcinogenic" for cancer of the oesophagus, the tube that carries food from the mouth to the stomach. Freshly made chai is usually well above that.
A later study that followed more than 50,000 people in Iran for about ten years found that those who drank 700 ml or more of tea a day at 60°C or hotter had roughly a 90% higher risk of oesophageal cancer than those who drank less, cooler tea. The likely reason is simple: repeated scalding damages the lining of the food pipe, and constant repair over many years gives cancer more chances to start.
India has a high burden of oesophageal cancer, particularly in the North-East, where very hot tea is part of daily life, often alongside tobacco and alcohol, which raise the risk much further.
You don't have to give it up - Let your chai stand for four or five minutes after pouring. It is still hot, just not scalding. - If it burns your lip, it is too hot for your food pipe. - Pour into a wider cup or a kulhad, which cools it faster. - Difficulty swallowing, food feeling stuck, or weight loss without trying needs a doctor's opinion, soon.
Where this comes from - IARC Monographs Volume 116. Drinking Coffee, Mate, and Very Hot Beverages, 2016. - Islami F et al. A prospective study of tea drinking temperature and risk of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma. International Journal of Cancer, 2019.
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