The Effect of Ingestion of Beverages or Meal That Contains Research Paper

The Effect of Ingestion of Beverages or Meal That Contains Electrolytes Prior to Exercise - Research Paper Example Commercially available carbohydrate-electrolyte beverage and chicken noodle soup were used in the study. The purpose of the article is well defined and the study population includes both men and women as the participant’s hence eliminating gender bias and the response of both men and women towards intake of electrolytes prior to exercise would be determined. The introduction explains the importance of pre-exercise hydration status and states that this aspect is mostly neglected in the guidelines set by the American College of Sports Medicine. The authors believe that body fluid balance will greatly aid in the performance and endurance levels. It further states that research carried out using consumption of water alone has not yielded any beneficial result and it only increased urine output during exercise. The authors of the present study have ascertained, after conducting laboratory investigation, that intake of high sodium containing beverage or meal before exercise speeds up the recovery of plasma volume and also increase water retention within the body by decreasing urinary output. The article also cites previous research studies in which consumption of electrolyte containing beverages, especially those rich in sodium, both before and after exercising have improved body fluid balance and also aided in preventing excessive water loss through urine. However previous studies had not related water intake with the consumption of sodium-rich beverages. The present study proposed to determine that fluid balance could be maintained by increasing the ad libitum water intake and reducing water loss through urine upon consumption of sodium-rich beverages and meals before exercise. It hypothesized that consumption of chicken noodle soup 45 minutes before exercise would improve fluid balance by increasing water intake and reducing urine output while no considerable improvement was expected after consumption of water alone and carbohydrate-electrolyte beverages. The authors also expected the responses in both men and women to be similar. The population sampling and methods to be used have not been elaborated in the introduction.