I’m beginning to think that EVERYTHING enhances exercise performance in rats. It seems that every study of the effects of some supplement on exercise performance in rats that I come across reports a positive result. This would not be a problem if human studies produced the same results, but they seldom do. So rat study [...]

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In 2004, exercise scientists at the University of Birmingham, England, published an eye-opening study showing that cycling time trial performance was enhanced when athletes rinsed their mouths out with, but did not swallow, a carbohydrate solution. The authors speculated that the carbohydrate in the solution may have excited carbohydrate receptors in the tongue that in [...]

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Researchers from England’s Northumbria University recently compared the effects of three beverages consumed during a recovery period following a bout of cycling exercise on performance in a subsequent cycling endurance test. The three beverages were chocolate milk, a commercially available sports drink, and a commercially available fluid replacement drink. On three occasions, nine trained male [...]

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The rate at which an ingested fluid is absorbed into the bloodstream depends in part on the contentration of nutrients in it. This is an important consideration in the formulation of sports drinks, because a sports drink that has too much or not enough carbohydrate in it might not be absorbed quickly enough to slow [...]

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The American College of Sports Medicine recently published its 2009 position statement on nutrition and athletic performance. The summary of this document contains the following sentence: “Sports beverages containing carbohydrates and electrolytes may be consumed before, during, and after exercise to help maintain blood glucose concentration, provide fuel for muscles, and decrease risk of dehydration [...]

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The glycemic index is a measure of the effect of carbohydrate-containing foods on blood glucose levels. Foods that increase blood glucose levels rapidly are classified as high-glycemic. It is widely believed that low-glycemic foods are preferable in the diet because they result in less fat storage than high-glycemic foods.
The glycemic index has relevance for [...]

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A new Norweigan study that was intended to find a link between omega-3 fatty acid intake and artery health instead found a link between intake of vitamin C-rich foods and artery health. The study was performed by researchers at Ulleval University Hospital and published in the journal Nutrition, Metabolism, and Cardiovascular Diseases.
More than 500 men with [...]

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Beta-alanine is a non-essential amino acid. In the body it is combined with another amino acid, histidine, to form a compound called carnosine, which buffers acids produced by the muscles during exercise. Studies on the effects of beta-alanine supplementation on exercise performance have produced mixed results, but some have shown increases in anaerobic capacity (or [...]

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Asker Jeukendrup and colleagues at the University of Birmingham, England, have performed a number of interesting studies comparing the effects of one-sugar (glucose only) sports drinks and two-sugar (glucose plus fructose) sports drinks on total exogenous carbohydrate uptake and performance during exercise. Past studies have demonstrated that when consumed at high rates, glucose-fructose sports drinks [...]

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A new study published in the Journal of Physical Activity & Health has published a new study whose results suggest that some states are burdened with a culture of physical activity that promotes obesity.
Researchers from the University of Vermont used data from the 2005 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System to correlate rates of obesity [...]

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