AS an adult, I'm expected to drink tea.

Maybe even coffee.

Personally the only hot drink I can stand is blackcurrant Ribena.

I don't even like hot chocolate.

Sometimes I'll occasionally be caught with a cup of green tea if I'm freezing and don't feel ill enough for the hot Ribena.

But everyone in my office is so dedicated to hot drinks that we have tea rounds, many of which cause a lot of problems with who makes them and how often, but that's a story for another day.

Right now I'm thinking hot drinks and summer.

Why do it to yourself?

Our office suffers from broken air conditioning units which means our only form of breeze comes from the windows we desperately open each morning and the fans blowing all the hot air around in a hopeful fashion.

But despite this hot weather, the sticky-ness and uncomfortable-ness of it, everyone is still on the tea and coffee rounds.

When I was complaining I was hot when I was a child, my mother once told me, "oh, have a cup of tea, it'll cool you down". I instantly thought this was ludicrous, but she proceeded to explain her theory by telling me drinking a hot drink would induce sweating which would cool you down.

Raising your body temperature when you were already too hot for comfort seemed rather masochistic to me so I never found any truth in it.

And now while everyone is walking around the Worcester News towers going "oh, I'm so thirsty" and "I'm gasping for a tea" I find it just as much of a silly notion now than I did then.

So I'm going to clear up the tea makes you cool and tea cures thirst myths.

First of all based on the assumption that you are not already sweating, when you drink a hot drink, not necessarily tea, it raises your body temperature to 38C to start the sweating process to cool you down - so far so good. But once your body cools back down to 37C or below, you stop sweating. Pointless.

Secondly, although caffeine contributing to dehydration is a myth, it does cause mild diuretic effects - and who needs that when you're already melting over your keyboard and dying to get to the pub for a nice cold... cola.

They cause you to need the toilet more, headaches and even irritability.

So why do it to yourself?

Grab a bottle of water, a bottle of juice, squash, coca-cola (caffeine-free, of course), whatever, just stop torturing yourselves with these silly rumours just because you're British and adults and you're meant to like tea, posh, expensive coffee, or hot chocolate with lashing of whipped cream.