I just realized that Chinese people drink hot water to “save lives”!

Audit expert: Wang Guoyi

Postdoctoral fellow in Nutrition and Food Safety, China Agricultural University

I believe many friends have had this experience: when they have a cold, they are advised to "drink more hot water". When they are tired, they are also reminded to "drink more hot water". Over time, "drinking hot water" has even become a "panacea" - whether you are sick or not, drink more hot water.

Source | pixabay

Of course, drinking hot water alone is useless when you are sick. You still need to actively seek medical advice. In other words, the idea of ​​"drinking hot water" is deeply rooted in the Chinese people's minds. Why do Chinese people love to drink hot water so much? When did they start drinking hot water? Today, the editor will take you to learn in detail about the "past and present" of Chinese people drinking hot water~

The history of Chinese people drinking hot water

There is no exact record in the existing literature about when Chinese people started drinking hot water, but we can get some information from archaeological artifacts.

Archaeologists have analyzed the many ancient cooking utensils in the Palace Museum, such as the red pottery urn from the Longshan culture period, the Shiqi urn from the Western Zhou Dynasty, and the "Fuhao" green triple-linked urn from the Shang Dynasty in the National Museum of China. They all mainly steamed and boiled. In other words, our ancestors had already used utensils to steam and boil hot water and food.

Source | The Palace Museum

During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the "Analects of Confucius" compiled by Confucius and his disciples mentioned "seeing evil is like touching hot water"; the book "Mencius" also mentioned "drinking soup in winter", which shows that in that period, there was a habit of drinking hot drinks.

In 1883, during the Qing Dynasty, Yuan Zuzhi, the grandson of the poet Yuan Mei, traveled to many European countries and wrote about the cultural differences between Chinese people drinking hot water and Westerners drinking cold water: "In China, people avoid drinking cold water to prevent stomach upset, while in the West, people drink cold water to remove heat."

Therefore, the Chinese people have a long history of drinking hot water. So why is drinking hot water so highly recommended nowadays? In addition to the fact that coldness damages the spleen and stomach in traditional Chinese medicine, we also have to mention some "infectious disease hazards" that occurred in modern times.

Source | pixabay

The reason why Chinese people drink hot water

There were many cholera outbreaks in China from the early years of the Republic of China to the 1930s. At that time, in places like Pudong, Shanghai, there were too many bodies to bury, so some were directly piled on the road.

At that time, once an epidemic occurred, it showed an epidemic trend, so some people linked it to environmental hygiene. Therefore, under the guidance of the government and non-governmental organizations, the whole nation began to carry out environmental epidemic prevention.

By popularizing public health knowledge to the public, such as drinking boiled water and properly stacking garbage, the sanitary environment was improved and optimized. The measures for the prevention and control of infectious diseases during this period also initially raised people's awareness of "drinking hot water".

In addition, from the late Qing Dynasty to the Republic of China period, Western bacteriological theory was introduced to China. Chinese scientists believed that boiling water could effectively kill viruses in the water and help prevent the invasion of pathogens when drinking raw water. Therefore, the government also began to vigorously advocate that people drink hot water.

After the founding of the People's Republic of China, during the War to Resist U.S. Aggression and Aid Korea in 1952, China discovered that the U.S. military had dropped unidentified objects in Chinese territory. After inspection, it was found that these objects were a mixture of various flies, fleas, dead rats, etc., containing more than a dozen deadly germs and viruses. The U.S. military intended to attack the Chinese army through biological warfare.

Source | CCTV.com

Facing this special battle, the country began to mobilize a large number of people to respond, mainly to clean up and improve sanitary conditions, including cleaning, pest control, drinking hot water and garbage removal. This campaign is also known as the "Patriotic Health Campaign". Since this campaign, the concept of "drinking hot water" has been deeply integrated into the memory of the Chinese people.

Source | CCTV.com

It turns out that there is such a long story behind the Chinese people's love of drinking hot water. But is drinking hot water really useful?

Does hot water really help?

First of all, when we say drinking hot water, we don’t mean drinking boiling water. The World Health Organization has proposed that hot water above 65°C is a 2A carcinogen. If you drink "hot" water for a long time, it can easily cause esophageal cancer. Therefore, the hot water we drink refers to water that has been sterilized at high temperature. Boiled water must be left to a suitable temperature before drinking.

Secondly, drinking more hot water can also relieve some diseases, such as colds, fevers, stomachaches, etc. On the one hand, water can speed up the body's metabolism and help the bacteria in the body to be excreted as quickly as possible through the digestive tract; on the other hand, the body consumes more body fluids during illness because the immune system is fighting against bacteria. At this time, drinking more hot water can replenish water for the body. However, if you want to rely on hot water to cure diseases, the answer is definitely not.

Source | pixabay

When it comes to drinking hot water, many people have a view that hot water must be freshly boiled before drinking. Overnight hot water must not be drunk. It is said that it will accumulate a large amount of nitrite. Is this true?

China's drinking water hygiene standards stipulate that the nitrite content should not exceed 1 ml per liter. Studies have found that whether it is bottled water, purified water or tap water, the nitrite content is within the normal range after being left overnight for 3 days. So, overnight water is toxic? This is false! Overnight water can be heated and drunk.

Source | pixabay

But be careful, if you need to keep the water for drinking the next day, it is recommended to cover it to prevent dust and flying insects from falling in the air. Although boiling water can kill most bacteria, it should be difficult to drink it when you think of the many "dead bodies" in it.

In general, with relatively good sanitary conditions today, it is not a big deal to drink some raw water occasionally, but for the sake of health, you should try to drink boiled water as much as possible. Whether to drink it while it is hot or cool depends on personal preference and physical condition.