How often has someone told me they just can’t fuel on the run because their stomach hurts? Or they can’t eat before they run because it’s going to mean bathroom issues? These are super common issues that we can work on and resolve! Gut health not only plays a role in keeping our immune systems high while we put in tons of miles, but in allowing us to fuel our runs without distress.
Traditional Chinese medicine has long held the belief that your gut is one of the cornerstones to health. This thought process has only recently started to be explored by Western medicine due to the rise of people getting tested for allergies like gluten and corn to see if it will help them lose weight.
Let’s talk about what can throw off your gut and what you can do to start turning things around:
Understanding the Gut
We’re no longer talking about the stomach—we’re talking about the entire digestive tract. The intestines are where nutrients are absorbed and distributed to the body.
Your body produces 70% of its serotonin, maintains your immune system—and so much more—solely in the GI (digestive) tract. There are many things that can throw off the delicate balance of your digestion, leading to issues while you’re running:
- Too many processed foods
- Too much caffeine or alcohol
- Not enough fiber
- Food sensitivities/allergies
- Stress
- Lack of good bacteria
While there are other issues that can contribute to poor gut health, these are some of the primary reasons you could be experiencing discomfort.
Improving Gut Health for Runners
Understanding what is or could be throwing off your gut health is step 1. Here are a few ways you can better understand what’s going on:
- Take a good, hard look at your diet to determine if you’re getting enough fiber (most people aren’t).
- Try keeping a food journal to see if you’re eating something you might be sensitive to.
- Slow down when you eat! Put your fork down between bites, put your sandwich down, chew, swallow, and then go for another bite. This can help your body fully digest your food (and it’s more enjoyable for you!).
- Slowly eliminate processed foods and caffeine. You don’t need to give it all up, just take baby steps towards fueling your body with foods that make you feel better.
Now, it’s important to remember that you won’t see changes right away—it takes time! So here are two other things you can do right away:
- Reduce stress
- Take a probiotic
As a running coach and a runner myself, I was super interested in the data around probiotics. But more than that was the impact I saw probiotics have on the athletes I coach.
Those who had been struggling regularly with runner’s trots and were terrified to fuel before a run agreed to test out the Previnex Probiotic for a month and see if there was a change.
I recommend Previnex for a few key reasons:
- It’s the one I take and the one I trust.
- It has six strains of bacteria – more strains is better to fully recolonize your gut.
- It has 30 billion CFU – not 1 billion which many cheap brands do…that’s not enough.
- It’s been clinically tested and the quality can’t be beat.
- It never makes my stomach feel bad, which sometimes can happen with lower-quality probiotics that have fillers.
- It doesn’t need to be refrigerated.
- It has a proven coating to ensure it actually makes it to your digestive system to do the work.
When your gut is working better, you tend to have more regular bowel movements, you digest food better, and you have more energy.
For my athletes, this meant we could move away from not eating at all to slowly training their stomachs to handle more fuel. The result was improved performance since they finally had the energy to run long and didn’t need to keep planning routes for pit stops.
Fuel Up!
If you’re an athlete or runner and you’ve been scared to fuel up before or during a run, fear no more! Try these tips, tricks, and probiotics, and you’re sure to get back on the pavement or track with fewer issues.
Guest Author: Amanda Brooks, Run to the Finish
