Russ Best is a Senior Academic Staff Member at the Waikato Institute of Technology, New Zealand. He teaches sports nutrition and biochemistry as well as leading the Environmental Ergogenics and Polo Science research groups, focusing on nutritional strategies to enhance performance in a range of environments and quantifying the horse and human contributions to Polo performance, respectively.

On this episode:

• The physiology of taste
• The mechanisms of carbohydrate mouth rinse signaling
• The bitter taste of caffeine as a complement to its ergogenic potential
• Quinine and its posible effects
• Thermal tastants: enter capsaicin and chilli
• Menthol applications in sports
• Take home messages

Ongoing research surveys/questionnaires:

Note: Please note that the data collection for these research will finish in the next couple of weeks, which means the links may expire soon.
(Publication date: 28/06/2020)

Athletes and coaches: Please help us understand how athletes control food intake in relationship to relative exercise loads (examining RED-S)! Check out the link to the anonymous survey (with a project description), or contact us for more detail. Survey: https://t.co/gLeqnbDQUK

— Megan Kuikman (@KuikmanMegan) June 9, 2020

Articles mentioned during the episode:

Best, R., McDonald, K., Hurst, P., & Pickering, C. (2020). Can taste be ergogenic?. European Journal of Nutrition.

Pickering, C. (2019). Are caffeine’s performance-enhancing effects partially driven by its bitter taste?. Medical hypotheses, 131, 109301.

Best, R., Payton, S., Spears, I., Riera, F., & Berger, N. (2018). Topical and ingested cooling methodologies for endurance exercise performance in the heat. Sports, 6(1), 11.

Best, R., Spears, I. R., Hurst, P., & Berger, N. J. (2018). The development of a menthol solution for use during sport and exercise. Beverages, 4(2), 44.