Variety and diversity of foods and beverages Professor Lluís Serra-Majem, Professor of Preventative Medicine and Public Health at the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain. Eating a variety of foods is essential to achieve adequate nutrient needs and in general is correlated with better nutrition. Moreover, assuring dietary [...]

Assessment of hydration status Dr. Susan Shirreffs, Glaxo Smith Kline (UK). Because of the potential for problems resulting from abnormalities of fluid balance, hydration status is frequently assessed in physiology, nutrition and in clinical medicine. There may be many different reasons for assessing hydration status, and the method of choice [...]

Signs and symptoms of imminent dehydration Professor Ryszard Gellert,  Professor of Medicine, Department of Nephrology at the Medical Centre for Postgraduate Medicine and the IV Clinical Ward of Internal Medicine at the Bielański Hospital in Warsaw, Poland. Dehydration refers to a deficit of total body water volume, best represented by [...]

Hyponatraemia in marathon runners: Is it a real problem? Professor Ron Maughan, Emeritus Professor of Sport and Exercise Nutrition, Loughborough University (UK). For many years, the advice to those taking part in endurance activities was to be sure to drink enough to prevent dehydration. Because this advice was initially developed [...]