Ditch the gels?

This episode is loosely under the theme of race-day nutrition. The longer the event distance, the more likely a runner is to experience gastrointestinal discomfort. Other factors such as heat and altitude can influence the desire to eat as well as the severity of symptoms.  

You often hear or read about the belief that runners need to figure out which foods work for them. While there’s sufficient truth to that notion, it’s been my observation that the idea is often over-subscribed. 

Our ability to eat later into races isn’t simply a factor of the foods we eat. The larger factor is the integrity and function of our gastrointestinal tract, which includes the viability of the cells that line the tract and absorb nutrients, the integrity of the barrier created by those cells, the species and activities of the microbial communities that dominate the tract, and the blood supply to those organs.

Think about the integrity and function of the muscles you use while running a race. As the race goes on, they experience more and more trauma - resulting in more and more damage - progressively reducing integrity and functional capacity. It shouldn’t come as any surprise that something similar is going on with your gastrointestinal tract. This brings us full circle to the fallacies in the notion I mentioned earlier, the idea that you just need to figure out what foods work for you. The foods don’t matter so much if your gastrointestinal tract is damaged. And, just as you can’t run an ultra-marathon without skeletal muscle damage, you can’t run an ultra-marathon without gastrointestinal damage - unless you walk the whole thing. What you’re trying to figure out is less about the foods as such and more about keeping your gastrointestinal tract strong and functional. 

The cells that line your gastrointestinal tract die and are replaced about every 5 days and the microbial communities in your gut are constantly shifting and adapting in a sort of dynamic equilibrium. Your gut in the next race you run will not be the same gut as you had in the last race you ran. It may be very similar, but make no mistake, it is a new gut. Don’t be surprised that doing exactly what worked last time suddenly doesn’t work so well the next time. Runners of ultra-marathons, especially the very long ones, often invest far too much emotion into the idea that ‘if they can just figure out what foods work for them, then they can do really well in races’ because you aren’t ever going to be able to predictably have a perfect gastrointestinal day if you are pushing your abilities as a runner.

We know that staying hydrated is very important, probably because that maintains blood volume, which ensures that you don’t have as much decline in gut blood flow over the course of a race. We know that foods that create a high osmolarity (lots of molecules per volume of water) disrupt the gut lining, which is why complex carbohydrates are less injurious to the gut than simple sugar. We now appreciate that some fats can help maintain gut health. And, there’s even a remarkable drink on the market called Enterade, created by scientists at the University of Florida - whose mascot is the alligator - and where Gatorade originated. They paid homage to that Gatorade name by calling their product Enterade because our enteric system refers to the intestinal tract. This product is a special mixture of specific amino acids in precise ratios that is used clinically, for example in cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy, which wipes out gut health and integrity. It builds, maintains, and restores gut strength and viability. [If you want to try Enterade it comes in vanilla and orange flavors*]. It would be extremely expensive for an athlete to use hasn’t even been studied in the setting of ultra-marathons but my point is that there are practices for making and keeping your gut strong. You can - at least partially - figure out those practices that seem to work well most of the time for you. But I caution you from the frustration that can come from thinking you’re ever going to figure out some formula that keeps you plowing through food every time, for as long as you want to run. That oasis is a mirage.

I’ll have more episodes on nutrition in the coming weeks and months but I want to get into today’s interview. I sat down in a hotel room to talk with Rafal Nazarewicz, PhD, the co-founder of Spring. They make packets of food for athletes that look like typical gels but the contents are actually just blended food. Moreover, they are like mini-meals in that they contain simple and complex carbohydrates, proteins, and fats. 

I have no affiliation with the company but really like the idea of eating real food, in realistic combinations, because that is exactly what our guts are used to and have evolved to handle.

I used their products exclusively during a 100-miler earlier this year and was able to eat well for about twice as long as usual before it became less appealing. I still got to a point where nothing looked good, but I was so much further into the race. 

As we point out near the end of the interview, there’s nothing magical about the product that Spring makes. Indeed, you might be able to find aid station foods or make your own blends that do exactly the same thing a lot cheaper. Indeed, it’s extremely expensive food if you were to simply compare to buying strawberries, bananas, nuts, and the other ingredients. But these are convenient, packaged well, and save a lot of time as they’ve been formulated with specific combinations of foods to have particular properties thought to keep your gut happy and your body nourished, at least for longer. 

You may hear some background noise once in a while in this interview, from traffic outside the hotel, and I apologize for that. Again, this is not an endorsement of any product. I stay clear of that on this show, which is one reason I don’t take any sponsorships or place any ads, but I thought this would be a fun conversation to share with you as we talk about some important aspects of nutrition for runners and the evolution of a product that’s real food.

*the Amazon links are affiliate links, meaning that anything you buy from the link results in a tiny bit of what you spend getting kicked back to SOUP to help keep the show going. Thanks in advance!