According to my morning newspaper, today is going to be hot, very hot. And more than a little humid, with the humidex popping all the way up to between 39 and 43 degrees C., depending on which forecast you believe. (That’s between 102 and 109 degrees F., for my Metrically-challenged friends.)
Heat and humidity I don’t have a problem with – I love sizzling, sticky weather and always have. I do, however, take issue with the heat-survival tips offered in that same morning paper, or at least I do with one of them, the one that says in bold type “Skip beer on patio.”
Citing the advice of one Marco Vittiglio, Toronto’s manager of emergency planning and preparedness, the Toronto Star story suggests that “if you were thinking of sitting on a patio and enjoying a beer” then you should “think twice.” Even more directly, Vittiglio recommends that people “avoid drinking alcohol and caffeinated beverages.”
If you’re presently sitting through a heat wave, or have done so recently, then you’ve likely as not received the same advice from some source, be it the newspaper or radio or a website. And you may know from experience or common sense what the problem is with such counsel, namely that it makes the assumption patrons on a sunny patio will drink alcohol and only alcohol, and do so to excess.
Alcohol, as most drinkers know, dehydrates, which is presumably why Mr. Vittiglio and others suggest its avoidance in times of extreme heat. But what if you hydrate with water even as you enjoy your beer or glass of chilled rosé or gin and tonic? Why, yes, that would mean that you negate most or all of the dehydrating effects of the drink, allowing you to enjoy one of summer’s simplest indulgences without risk to yourself. So why don’t all these oft-quoted experts advise us instead to have a large glass of water alongside every drink we enjoy, and leave us alone to relax with our hot weather beers?!
