VCOM View Magazine Vol. 12 | No. 1

MAPLE WATER May be an Exercise SUPER BEVERAGE VCOM Research Shows

By Desi Hammett

T he market is flooded with sports drinks claiming to improve athletes’ hydration, stamina and performance, but one all natural beverage has VCOM-Louisiana Assistant Dean for Research and Associate Professor for Sports Medicine Randy Aldret touting its benefits. Maple Water is pure

Drink Simple provided beverages for each of the test subjects, with half of them getting Maple Water and the other half getting a placebo that tasted like Maple Water but contained nothing of nutritional value. Subjects had their blood drawn prior to drinking their beverage and 90 minutes after consuming the beverage.They were then

put through a graded maximal exercise exam, where they ran on a treadmill with an oxygen mask to gather data about their oxygen capacity while exercising. Ninety minutes after that exam, they had their blood drawn again. “We found that the group who had Maple Water 90 minutes before being on the treadmill outperformed the group who had the placebo,” says Aldret. “The times the guys came in and drank Maple

sap from maple trees. According to Drink Simple, the small New England company that distributes the beverage, maple sap has the

“We found that the group who had Maple Water 90 minutes before being on the treadmill outperformed the group who had the placebo. ”

consistency of regular water, but is infused with nutrients from the trees. Aldret notes that it has naturally occurring electrolytes and other nutrients that keep the plant alive during the winter. He and a team of researchers wanted to study the fluid to test its nutritional properties.The team established a cohort of ten overweight college-aged males for the study, and each test subject was brought in on two separate occasions, two weeks apart, to collect data.

-Randy Aldret, EdD

Water and ran on the treadmill, they performed better than the days when they came in and drank the placebo.” Subjects also had decreases in two pro-inflammatory markers and one increase in an anti-inflammatory marker, meaning that they were better able to ward off post exercise inflammation. “So, on top of it making them actually perform better, they actually recovered better by

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