Coffee? ?’does? ?not? ?cause? ?cancer,? ?but? ?very? ?hot? ?drinks? ?can’

A new study has indicated that very hot drinks can lead to a higher risk of cancer, but that coffee does not.

An international working group of 23 scientists was convened by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), part of the World Health Organization, to evaluate the carcinogenicity of drinking coffee and mate, a caffeinated drink common in South America.

Coffee was previously classified as possibly carcinogenic to humans, but this new report has challenged that view after reviewing more than 1,000 studies in humans and animals. It was shown that coffee drinking had no carcinogenic effects for cancers of the pancreas, breast, and prostate, with reduced risks seen for cancers of the liver and uterine endometrium.

Cold mate also did not have carcinogenic effects in experiments on animals or in epidemiological studies; by contrast, drinking very hot beverages was classified as probably carcinogenic, based on limited evidence.

Studies from China, Iran, Turkey and South America, where tea or mate is traditionally drunk very hot, showed that the risk of oesophageal cancer increased with the temperature at which the beverage was drunk.

Dr Christopher Wild, director of the IARC Director, said: "These results suggest that drinking very hot beverages is one probable cause of oesophageal cancer and that it is the temperature, rather than the drinks themselves, that appears to be responsible."