On the surface of the esophagus is covered with a soft mucosa that can tolerate temperatures of about 50°C to 60°C. Studies have shown that exceeding 65°C can cause damage, erosion, and ulceration of the esophageal mucosa, and by about 80°C, necrosis and atypical hyperplasia of the esophageal mucosal epithelium can occur. If you eat hot food with high temperature once a day for 25 days, you will have atypical hyperplasia of esophageal mucosa epithelium, which is a precancerous lesion. Esophageal cancer may be triggered by drinking overheated beverages above 65°C. Epidemiological data show that people in areas with a high incidence of esophageal cancer in China generally love to eat hot noodles in soup and hot congee, for example, residents of Fujian and Guangdong Chaoshan love to drink work tea and eat raw rolled congee, and these factors may promote the high incidence of esophageal cancer.
So it is recommended that patients with esophageal cancer should stop “eating/drinking while it’s hot” and change their eating habits so that the temperature of hot tea, hot congee and hot soup is lowered and they can drink it when they feel neither cold nor hot (close to body temperature).