Sunday 16 March 2014

Guanabana - go go

Today I took part in a controlled experiment on a new dietary supplement. Since Journal of Sports Science weren't interested in my results, I have instead 'published' them here.

Background: No previous studies have assessed the effects of guanabana juice on endurance athletes. In fact, very few people knew about this juice drink, despite its availability in Tesco Metro, Sheffield.

Methods: A subset of a training group based in Wildboarclough, Cheshire, was selected to take part in this controlled study.* 1 group didn't drink guanabana juice before the race, 1 group did.** All other variables in terms of training, course, weather, preparation, etc were almost identical.***

Results: The group that did take the guanabana juice the night before the race was about 2 and a half minutes faster.

Conclusion: Guanabana has beneficial effects on the performance of athletes. Further studies are warranted during which this same subset of athletes will drink guanabana juice over longer periods of time, with the guanabana juice being paid for and delivered by the company that makes it.

Footnotes:
*N=1 (me - Mrs Noel wasn't too keen on it)
**The groups were as follows: me last year in Wolf's Pit fell race; me this year in Wolf's Pit fell race
***As previously noted, I have been training a lot more prior to this year's race, and turbo training on the bike, and the course was drier this year. I doubt these difference will have affected the results of the study much.

P.S . Guanabana is also known as Soursop: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soursop. The company who sells it made a good choice not to call it this on the packet - I wouldn't have bought a litre of "soursop"

1 comment:

  1. sound very tasty.... why can't I manage to get your blog address in my RSS feed?

    ReplyDelete