MONTEVIDEO: It was potentially devastating news for Uruguayans: a warning that their national drink, mate, could cause cancer if consumed hot.
But the plucky South American country, already grumpy after being knocked out of the Copa America football tournament, found a silver lining as they faced an affront to their cultural identity.
News came from the World Health Organization on Wednesday that drinking very hot liquids poses a cancer risk.
That was hard to swallow for a country where in every park and square folk sit slurping mate, an herbal infusion brewed with hot water.
But the WHO report also brought salvation for lovers of the ground green leaves, whose champions include Argentine-born Pope Francis and Uruguayan football icon Luis Suarez.
Along with the hot-drink warning, the WHO removed mate from a blacklist of drinks whose contents were thought to cause cancer.
The WHO in 1991 said coffee and mate -- pronounced something like "mattay" -- were thought to have carcinogenic qualities. Now it says it is the heat, not the contents, that poses the tumor risk.
In the case of mate, "its components actually lessen the damage from the temperature," stopping cells from mutating into tumors, said Nelson Bracesco, a biologist researching mate at Uruguay´s state medicine faculty.
"That has been proved in a test tube. It remains to be tested on humans or animals," he said. "It would help to explain why in Uruguay imports of mate leaves have increased strongly and the type of esophageal cancer in question has been decreasing in recent years."
With three million inhabitants, Uruguay is tiny compared to its mate-rich neighbors Argentina and Brazil. But in mate-drinking terms, it is a giant.
Argentina and Brazil are the region´s biggest mate producers, but Uruguay consumes more per head than any of these countries, according to industry estimates.
Walking in the street, sitting in the park or standing on the bus, Uruguayans can be seen everywhere cradling their mate gourd with a thermos under their arm.
The gourd, a hollowed-out pumpkin, is filled nearly to the brim with mate leaves.
The gourd, a hollowed-out pumpkin, is filled nearly to the brim with mate leaves.
The water is added in small doses, sometimes over a period of hours. The infusion is consumed by sucking on a metal straw called a bombilla.
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