Your morning drink could be raising your cancer risk without you realizing it

If you're one of the millions of people who starts everyday with a steaming cup of coffee each morning, you might want to think twice.

Around 3 billion cups of coffee are consumed across the world every single day, and most people would agree that the best way to enjoy a mug of Joe is when it's still hot.

But it turns out there's a major risk associated with drinking your coffee when its too hot, and any other hot beverage for that matter.

A new study of nearly a million people has found evidence suggesting that drinking extremely hot drinks can increase a person's risk of getting cancer in their esophagus.

In fact, the UK-based study published in the International Journal of Cancer found that drinking the likes of coffee or tea while it's still very hot, instead of just warm, is linked to a three-fold risk of esophageal cancer.

The esophagus is the tube that carries food and drink down your throat to your stomach (Getty Stock)

The particular cancer hot brew drinkers are at risk from is esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (SCC), which is also the most common form of esophageal cancer.

For the study, researchers looked at data from nearly 980,000 middle-aged adults in the UK who answered questions about their hot drink consumption habits.

They were asked whether they drink their brews while they are very hot, hot or warm. They also had the option of stating they do not drink hot drinks or prefer not to answer.

The questionnaire asked how many hot drinks they consumed each day, giving an option of fewer or more than six per day.

Within a follow up period of between 11 and 14 years, 2,348 incidents of esophageal cancer were recorded, and shockingly, researchers found that just under half of the participants reported consuming six or more hot drinks per day.

How hot your drinks are impacts your risk (Getty Stock)

Around 15 percent also said they preferred their drinks very hot.

According to the study, the risk of esophageal SCC was twice as high for those who like their drinks hot compared to those who like them warm. And for those who liked their drinks very hot, the risk was more than three times higher.

Meanwhile, consuming six or more hot drinks a day was associated with a 71 percent higher risk of esophageal SCC.

lead study author Keren Papier, a senior nutritional epidemiologist at Oxford Population Health, told CNN: “This is the largest study to date, and it does really add to the evidence that drinking very hot and hot beverages could increase the risk of this type of cancer."