Why Athletes Need a Gut That Performs
Ok, so you put all your effort into training and nutrition, but what about giving your gut a workout?
New research has given Gut Performance™ new evidence that your gut performance is critical to your athletic performance! The gut and the good bacteria that live there (microbiome) plays a primary role in your ability to absorb nutrition; recover from workouts and handle stress. It affects energy levels, mood, metabolic function and how you feel on a daily basis.
Gut Performance™ helps your gut perform at an optimum level day after day by helping the good bacteria thrive whilst helping to eliminate the bad bacteria.
The lining of your gut allows nutrients, amino acids, proteins and minerals to be absorbed into your body. If this cellular lining is compromised, then your body will not be making the most of the good stuff you are putting into it.
A healthy gut also eliminates toxins and waste products from entering your body, helping you to feel good. Toxins can enter the blood stream if the gut has been compromised by poor diet, drugs, alcohol, etc., and chronic inflammation of the intestinal tracts can develop. Gut Performance™ has been shown to help reduce inflammation of the gut.
High protein diets can often have a negative effect on the good bacteria due to the fermentation of amino acids in the gut itself. Gut Performance™ is high in both soluble and non-soluble fibre (12% of recommended daily fibre requirement), which has a protective affect by ‘feeding’ the good bacteria. These high-fibre complex carbohydrates (indigestible carbs) are packed with natural phytonutrients that have an anti-inflammatory action often associated with some proteins.
Red Beets are awesome for the Gut
Natural Organic Nitrate (NO)
Beetroot powder is particularly high in organic nitrate which is converted to nitric oxide (NO). NO plays a number of important roles in maintaining good gut health. However, for people training or competing, NO acts as a vasodilator, opening blood vessels and allowing more blood and oxygen to be delivered to muscles.
Red beets come loaded with dietary fibre, a carbohydrate important for digestive health. The fibre in red beets lowers the risk of diverticular disease, a disease associated with colon inflammation that causes gas, bloating, irregular bowel movements and nausea. Beetroot fibre also keeps you regular, softening your stool to make it easier to pass.
Beetroots also offer digestive benefits because of their Vitamin B-9 (folate, content). A diet rich in folate lowers your risk of colon cancer. It can protect you from the higher risk of colon cancer associated with alcohol consumption. Folate also aids in new cell growth, so it plays a role in tissue repair and importantly, the repair of the digestive tract tissue.To boost the benefits of Beetroot, we recommend adding Gut Performance™ to a beetroot juice or smoothie – see our recipes for ideas.
For a Healthy Mind
The gut produces some very powerful neurotransmitters that regulate mood, appetite and energy levels. New research shows that the gut has a major impact on brain function and the balance of neurotransmitter agents. Poor gut health has been shown to increase the onset of mental health issues such as depression and poor cognition. As we all know, competing and winning is as much about the mental approach as it is the physical and technique side of things.
Detoxify your gut
The guts microbiota is sensitive to high levels of hormones such as cortisol and adrenaline, which are common in training and competing athletes.
The gut’s lining is made up of a cell layer with each cell held together by a ‘tight junction’. These junctions allow nutrients into the bloodstream and keep toxins out. The ‘tight junctions’ can be damaged by various chemicals and compounds such as cortisol, antibiotics and other drug therapies, making the junctions more permeable, letting toxins into the body and absorbing less nutrients. When these toxins enter the bloodstream, it can make you feel ill and trigger an immune response. Chronic inflammation can develop. Gut Performance™ helps maintain the cell integrity and normalise the gut, reducing inflammation.
Poor gut health may also inhibit the guts ability to get rid of harmful compounds from the body. We are constantly exposed to various chemicals that mimic the hormone estrogen. Estrogen is found in plastics, our water, some foods, personal care products and so on. Dietary fibre is necessary to bind to estrogen in the digestive tract so that the body can get rid of it. Fibre also reduces the amount of an enzyme called B-glucuronidase that breaks apart bound estrogen that was on its way out of the body so that it can re-enter the body via the large intestine causing cell damage and inflammation, so you get a vicious cycle.
