THE COOLEST DRINK

Hokitika Guardian, 1 September 1926, Page 3

THE COOLEST DRINK

(By a Physician in the ‘‘Daily Mail.’ )

Much of our discomfort in hot weather is due to the difficulty we experience in losing heat. In cold weather any excess (if heat is easily lost by radiation, hut in warm weather we rely more and more upon the cooling effect produced by the evaporation of perspiration. So necessary, indeed, is it for ns to lose heat by evaporation in hot weather that it becomes of the greatest importance to drink enough if we would avoid serious results' to our health. The increased thirst which we experience is Nature’s protective signal warning us of this necessity. Although our thirst increases in intensity with the loss of water from our tissues it occurs normally long before there is any serious upset of the percentage of water in the body. The intense thirst produced by actual loss of water in the tissues amounts to bodily and mental anguish. Indeed, no great reproduction of the amount of water in the body is possible during lite, and even after death from thirst there is surprisingly little diminution. But even if there is a plentiful supply of water in our tissues to favour the production of perspiration, the extent to which it is evaporated is profoundly modified by the degree of moisture in the air and the presence or absence of n breeze.

Hence it comes about that the most trying days arc not necessarily those on which the thermometer is highest, hut those muggy days or nights when high humidity checks evaporation and loss of heat. >;There are many people who undoubtedly do not drink half enough. Drinking a great deal of water is an excellent habit and it is difficult to take too much. Even at meal times, except in very special cases, water is harmless. The" old idea that the digestive juices are seriously diluted by water is unfounded. Pure water, however, is more or less unpalatable to many, and hence we fa- >•- your various other beverages, provided that they are the means of getting us to take sufficient fluid, they arc nearly, if not quite, as good. Even alcohol, taken in the’form of light beer or wine and “long” drinks generally, is not nearly so harmful as its opponents would have us believe, for it- sends the blood to tho skin and stimulates perspiration. In seeking cool drinks many turn to iced ones. It is ns well t-o remember that, if taken at all rapidly there is a

danger -that they will cause a chill. Further, if taken with meals they undoubtedly retard digestion. Teed drinks may he the best thirstquenchers for the moment, hut they are not the coolest in the long run. Hot tea not only provides us with fluid but also favours the production of perspiration and is on this account the coolest drink.