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I heard from various sources since I was growing up that during hot weather one should drink warm or hot drinks and during cold weather one should rather drink cold drinks, but a quick google found no satisfying expert(ish) answer.

Edit:

To clarify, if its hot outside (in temperature and also humidity), then should I drink a bottle of cold water like 10-12°C or e.g. a warm tea?

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oh I actually wanted to post this question on medicine, but multiple tabs open... how can I move it? – Sebastian Godelet Jun 16 '11 at 10:24
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You can delete and repost it, moving is for mods only I think. – cularis Jun 16 '11 at 10:59
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Since it's a widespread claim (at least in my area), I believe it fits Skeptics.SE too. – user288 Jun 16 '11 at 12:24
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Actually it does fit nicely to other water related questions, a fantastic substance, isn't it? – Sebastian Godelet Jun 16 '11 at 12:25
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Homeostasis requires your body to try to control your body temperature and keep it at an optimum temperature, therefore liquids will be brought to body temperature. If the resulting temperature after the diffusion of the liquid temperature and your body is outside the control bounds, it must work to correct this. If cold, warm/hot tea can reduce the work, while is you're hot, it must dissipate the extra heat. If the body is hot, cool drinks can reduce the need to sweat, but over cooling of the core must be corrected by it right away. The same principal applies to other body functions, as homeo – user7460 Jun 8 '12 at 3:42

1 Answer

up vote 10 down vote accepted

Your body has to bring the cold water up to its own temperature, thereby burning calories. Therefore the answer to your question has certain conditions: if you value calories over being cooled down, then yes, you should drink warm water, but if you value being cooled down over calories, then you should drink cold water.

Even if you want to be cooled down, however, you should still avoid very cold drinks if you're exercising, as they can give you a stomach ache and even make you vomit. (YMMV.)

If you simply want to know if your body burns calories warming up the water, the answer is yes. [emphasis mine]

http://health.howstuffworks.com/wellness/diet-fitness/weight-loss/question447.htm

Also, avoid very cold drinks, because they can cause stomach cramps.

http://www.bt.cdc.gov/disasters/extremeheat/heattips.asp

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Can you please find the CDC recommendation? – Sklivvz♦ Jun 6 '12 at 17:47

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