NUTRITION WITH TARA – IT’S ALL ABOUT YOUR GUT HEALTH

Contributed by Tara Davenport, Accredited Sports Dietician 
Tara Davenport is an Accredited Sports Dietitian based in Brisbane, Qld. Her experience stems from working with state level sport teams, the Australian Defence Force and every day endurance goers to athletes. Tara has competed in ultra marathons, trail races and is a keen runner. She uses evidenced based practices for her clients to ensure they are receiving the most up-to-date nutrition science, alongside with practical strategies to optimise performance and ensure nutrition is a life long focus.

WHY GUT HEALTH IS CRITICAL

Gut health has become a very popular topic within the sport world and research world. It’s fascinating to learn that our gut is like our second brain, and it’s because our gastrointestinal system is directly connected to our brain by a nerve called the Vagus.

The Vagus nerve produces what we call the ‘happy hormone’, also known as serotonin, so not only does our gut influence our nutrient absorption and reduce the risk of gut conditions, it can impact our mood, and vice versa.

What foods to eat for a healthy gut environment?

Choose a variety of foods that are high in fibre, and aiming for 30g of fibre per day (use a diet app to track fibre intake). Dietary fibre is found in foods such as fruits and vegetables, wholegrain breads and cereals (like oats), grains and nuts and seeds.

A good goal here is to aim for variety, so you can try to eat 30 different plants per week – now that’s a challenge for you!

Consuming a variety of high fibre foods means we have different fibres to produce a wide range of microbiome (or bacteria) in our gut. A particular fibre called resistant starch is particularly helpful. With the interaction of our gut microbiome, resistant starch helps to produce butyric acid that helps heal our gut lining to ensure nutrient absorption is optimum.

The production of these short chain fatty acids, like butyric, promotes optimum running performance as it also benefits our overall health. Another example of where our microbiome has epic roles in our body is the production of Vitamin B12.

Generally we can only obtain vitamins and minerals through our diet however certain microbiome can produce Vitamin B12 which has massive roles during our running so we run at our best and beat that PB.

What’s the difference between prebiotics and probiotics?

A prebiotic is a food that will help to feed a diverse range of bacteria in our gut. These foods include high fibre containing foods. I would choose these foods to focus on firstly, and perhaps bring in some of these foods more often that make great prebiotics: oats, sourdough bread, Jerusalem artichoke, garlic, asparagus and barley to name a few.

Probiotics are foods that contain some functioning bacteria or cultures. Foods such as yoghurt, kimchi, kombucha, kefir, sauerkraut, tofu and tempeh, pickled vegetables and some soft cheeses like cottage cheese, all have live bacteria. The key here is variety. Aim to consume a variety of these probiotic foods to ensure your microbiome is diverse.

The use of supplements like a prebiotic or probiotic capsule or powder is only really needed if we are suffering from bowel conditions, have had a virus and have been on antibiotics or are suffering from a depressed mood. However, when we are travelling for a running event probiotics are useful to help sustain a healthy immunity.

Gut health vs runners gut

Even if we have an optimum gut environment we can still find we suffer from cramps, bloating or poor timing of bowel movements (mid-race). Having a thorough understanding of what type of foods will sit right in our gut during and outside of training is very important. Aim to enhance your gut health through a focus on prebiotic and probiotic foods, and be familiar with any symptoms that may be present when we are stressed or emotionally down (that Vagus nerve attachment again), or after certain foods.

This awareness will help you to avoid runners gut.

Tara Davenport, Accredited Sports Dietician & Avid Runner

Get in touch with Tara by emailing her at taradavenportapd@outlook.com with any questions. She is available for face-to-face consultations at Milton or online consultations (these can be booked through her website here).