Runners in the London Marathon may be tempted to down several litres of water to keep their cool and achieve their best time, but large fluid intake does not achieve either, according to a sports scientist from the University of Exeter.

The sporting community has long assumed that drinking large amounts of water helps to keep the body's temperature down, which improves performance. A recent study led by Dr Chris Byrne of the University of Exeter shows that the level of fluid intake has absolutely no effect on body temperature or performance.

Dr Chris Byrne, sport scientist from the University of Exeter said: 'We'll see many of the Marathon runners clutching bottles of water. The conventional view among both scientists and the fitness media is that fully replacing sweat losses by fluid intake during exercise will reduce an athlete's body temperature and improve performance. Our research, which for the first time measured internal body temperature continuously during an actual race, revealed no evidence that fluid intake makes runners cooler or improves performance.'

People who significantly cut back on the amount of salt in their diet [Read Salt Shakedown] could reduce their chances of developing cardiovascular disease by a quarter, according to a report on bmj.com today. Researchers in Boston also found a reduction in salt intake could lower the risk of death from cardiovascular disease by up to a fifth.

Cardiovascular disease refers to the group of diseases linked to the heart or arteries, for example a stroke or heart disease. While there is already a substantial body of evidence showing that cutting back on salt lowers blood pressure, studies showing subsequent levels of cardiovascular disease in the population have been limited and inconclusive. This research provides some of the strongest objective evidence to date that lowering the amount of salt in the diet reduces the long term risk of future cardiovascular disease, say the authors of the report.

Good news if you're a daiquiri fan. Strawberries are good for you, but serving them in daiquiri form may make them even healthier in terms of antioxidants (but NOT in terms of calories).

While exploring ways to help keep strawberries fresh during storage, researchers from Thailand and the US discovered that treating the berries with alcohol led to an increase in antioxidant capacity and free radical scavenging activity within the fruit. While such a boost helped the berries resist decay, the same compounds would also be expected to make the strawberries healthier to eat.

Dr Korakot Chanjirakul and colleagues at Kasetsart University in Thailand, in collaboration with scientists at the United States Department of Agriculture, tested the berries with ethanol and found that the treatment improved the physiology of the fruit as measured by several different laboratory tests for antioxidant activity (SCI’s Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture, doi 10.1002/jsfa.2841).

The following is an interview with Jane Park, assistant director of content for the Sesame Workshop. The Sesame Workshop's multi-year, content-driven initiative to help young children and their caregivers establish an early foundation of healthy habits that can last a lifetime. It harness the power and reach of Sesame Street to make overall health and well-being crucial to early development in much the same way we have helped children learn to read and write.  Read the very interesting interview and also take a peek at the investigation on preschool nutrition.