Background: Meal ingestion has been suggested to reduce susceptibility to the development of gastric tachyarrhythmia, the abnormal activity of the stomach that frequently accompanies nausea.
Aim: To determine the types of meal that are most effective in preventing the development of gastric tachyarrhythmia, nausea and the symptoms of motion sickness provoked by a rotating optokinetic drum.
Method: Participants received a carbohydrate beverage, a protein-predominant beverage or nothing immediately before exposure to the rotating drum. Subjective symptoms of motion sickness and electrogastrograms were collected during a 6-min baseline period and a subsequent 16-min drum rotation period.
Results: Subjective symptoms of motion sickness scores were significantly more severe during the no-meal condition than during either the protein or carbohydrate condition. Central, peripheral and, to some extent, gastrointestinal symptoms were more severe during the carbohydrate condition than during the protein condition. Gastric tachyarrhythmia increased significantly less from baseline to drum rotation during both the protein and carbohydrate conditions than during the no-meal condition.
Conclusions: Liquid protein-predominant meals were most effective in suppressing both the development of gastric tachyarrhythmia and the entire spectrum of motion sickness symptoms, including nausea.