Episode 148 - Top 10 Superfoods for Endurance Athletes

Top 10 superfoods for endurance athletes

 

Wondering how to fine-tune your nutrition for peak endurance performance?

I’ve got you covered. 

Today, I'll be sharing my top 10 "superfoods" that every endurance athlete should consider incorporating into their diet.

I’m not talking about the typical marketing gimmick superfoods; I’m talking about nutrient-dense foods that genuinely enhance performance and overall health.

 

References:

1. Richard C, Cristall L, Fleming E, Lewis ED, Ricupero M, Jacobs RL, Field CJ. Impact of Egg Consumption on Cardiovascular Risk Factors in Individuals with Type 2 Diabetes and at Risk for Developing Diabetes: A Systematic Review of Randomized Nutritional Intervention Studies. Can J Diabetes. 2017 Aug;41(4):453-463. doi: 10.1016/j.jcjd.2016.12.002. Epub 2017 Mar 27. PMID: 28359773.
2. Hess J et al. Impact of Agaricus bisporus Mushroom Consumption on Gut Health Markers in Healthy Adults. Nutrients. 2018 Oct 2;10(10). pii: E1402. doi: 10.3390/nu10101402. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6213353/

Links:

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It’s for you if you’re a triathlete and you feel like you’ve got your training under control and you’re ready to layer in your nutrition. It's your warmup on the path to becoming a SUPERCHARGED triathlete – woohoo!

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Episode Transcription

Episode 148: Top 10 Superfoods for Endurance Athletes

Welcome to the Triathlon Nutrition Academy podcast. The show designed to serve you up evidence-based sports nutrition advice from the experts. Hi, I'm your host Taryn, Accredited Practicing Dietitian, Advanced Sports Dietitian and founder of Dietitian Approved. Listen as I break down the latest evidence to give you practical, easy-to-digest strategies to train hard, recover faster and perform at your best. You have so much potential, and I want to help you unlock that with the power of nutrition. Let's get into it.

[00:00:00] Taryn: Hello, and welcome back to another episode of the Triathlon Nutrition Academy podcast. I'm your host, Taryn. I'm an Advanced Sports Dietitian and Triathlon Nutrition Specialist, and I have regretfully signed up to do a team at Sunny Coast 70. 3 in not very long. I am doing this swim because I am a born and bred swimmer.

[00:00:43] Taryn: I have been swimming basically since before I could walk, but I haven't swum for at least six years, probably more, if I'm honest, probably closer to 10 would be the last time that I actually swam regularly and properly. And I have decided to swim 1. 9 Ks in the open water at Sunnycoast 17. 3 for a bit of a giggle, a bit of a, You know, camaraderie with our TNA team because a lot of them are coming across to do the race and I was super excited and I thought, you know, it would be easy.

[00:01:19] Taryn: I wouldn't need to do much training, but because I've been out of the water for so long, getting back into the water has actually been far more challenging than I expected it to be. I have never struggled with swimming my entire life. Even, you know, spending a few months out of the water, I'd be able to just jump back in and it would be a breeze.

[00:01:38] Taryn: But spending multiple years out of the water, I've probably done, well not enough swims, let's be honest. I don't think swimming once a fortnight over the last couple of months has really helped my cause. Uh, but I've probably swum maybe six times or something and my arms are still hurting every time I jump in the water.

[00:01:58] Taryn: So wish me luck. I will let you know how it goes, but I still hold that I could beat the American and Canadian athletes from TNA who are coming across to do that race. So yeah. I'm only slightly competitive, just joking, but it should be fun. I will, yes, let you know how it goes. I think my goal for the next six weeks is to increase my swimming from once a fortnight to once a week, if I can.

[00:02:24] Taryn: And, you know, potentially if I don't want to drown, probably. twice a week is ideal. , anyway, I'll let you know how it goes. It should be a whole lot of fun and yeah, fingers crossed that I don't drown. So today is If you are a triathlete listening, you are probably listening to the only triathlon nutrition podcast in the world to get some tips on what to eat, what to fill your body with.

[00:02:50] Taryn: And I want to cover 10 super foods with you today that every endurance athlete should eat. Now I say super foods in inverted commas, because super food is a marketing term. It is, a term used for food to claim that it is better than the others. It's super, uh, it has way more health benefits. It's got way more nutrients, whatever properties we're talking about, , it is way more nutrient dense.

[00:03:17] Taryn: Now, I don't believe in superfoods, I put that title there because I knew that you would know what it means, but as an expert in nutrition, superfoods is not a word I will ever use in my vocabulary. I think that we definitely have much more nutrient rich foods, but there are no key standout foods that are super and better than all the rest, because we do need to have a wide variety of foods in our diets.

[00:03:42] Taryn: Now, if you ever look at a list of superfoods, you'll see that they're all basically plant based foods. They're fruits, they're vegetables, they're other grains and cereals and things sometimes, but a lot of it is very much our plant based foods because they are so nutrient rich, and we should be eating a As many of those as we can without causing negative implications of too much fiber and things like that, but we should be having a whole heap of foods like this in our diet and I want to give you 10 to make sure that you are including to get the most out of your health and also performance because I am very much a practitioner that likes to set my athletes up for life.

[00:04:19] Taryn: I don't believe in quick fixes and fads and like random diets. I want to set my athletes up for performance in triathlon because that's generally why they walk through the door. But my underlying goal is always to set them up with healthy habits and behaviors and food choices that will keep them doing triathlon into their 80s or 90s, if they can.

[00:04:43] Taryn: They want to. And if that's what you want to achieve as well, if you want to do an Ironman when you're 85, then putting the right foods in your engine and the right fuel now is what is going to help you achieve that later on in life. We can do so much damage to our bodies and our whole health system, even though we are training a lot and we think we're super fit and we're super active.

[00:05:07] Taryn: If you aren't putting the right gas in your engine and putting the right building blocks in. when they need to be, then you can be doing long term damage that you won't even know about until later on in life. So let's kick it off. Here's my list of 10. This is my sports dietitian, triathlon dietitian list of 10 foods for endurance athletes to get the most out of life.

[00:05:30] Taryn: So in no particular order, the first one that you should be including, and I hope that you already are, is a whole heap of different types of berries. They are very rich in antioxidants, in particular flavonoids. And you want to have a variety of these things. So things like raspberries, strawberries, blueberries in particular are rich in anthocyanins, and I'll talk about those in a second.

[00:05:54] Taryn: Plus blackberries, cranberries, whatever berries you can get your hands on that are not poisonous. Please don't go scavenging at random berry bushes because yes, some of those are poisonous. but these guys are so rich in antioxidants. They are quite low carbohydrate despite being a fruit and low in kilojoules.

[00:06:12] Taryn: And I quite like using them as a snack and other sort of strategic times in the days because they are sweet and as low as they are in calories and carbohydrate as something sweet that can be really useful for athletes that crave sweet. these antioxidants and flavonoids and things like anthocyanins in particular is really powerful and it's good at fighting inflammation and reducing that oxidative stress that we experience with exercise.

[00:06:42] Taryn: Our body has these free radicals that are just produced by normal cellular activity. We have way more of that stress and oxidative stress as a triathlete, because that happens when we exercise as well. And so we need these beautiful antioxidants in our diet to mop up that stress in a way to dampen the stress and We get so focused on the macros and making sure we've got our carb targets for the day and our protein targets and like all the things that are telling us to have a certain amount of calories or macros with no thought and process around all of the micronutrients.

[00:07:19] Taryn: And they are super, super important as well. So make sure you're including lots of different types of berries and don't get caught in the trap of, Just Eating Strawberries or Just Eating Blueberries, go and get the mixed bag of frozen berries next time you go and purchase something like that, rather than just a single type.

[00:07:38] Taryn: They are very much a seasonal fruit as well, so they will be much richer in antioxidants and nutrients when they are grown and produced in season, and they're not flown halfway across the other side of the world. To get to you out of season, so I would load up on them when they are in season, wherever you are.

[00:07:58] Taryn: And when they're not, see if you can bulk buy and stash some in the freezer or lean on those frozen varieties as well, if you need to, so that you have them all throughout the year. But we're not having random, like say for instance, at the moment, strawberries here are kind of coming into season. They're still frozen.

[00:08:14] Taryn: 5 upon it, which is ridiculous. They get down to about 2 upon it, but this is just the start of the season. So in the previous months to now, I wasn't eating strawberries fresh because one, they like, you need to take out a second mortgage to do that. But I know that the nutrients of those strawberries are not as good as the ones that will come in as we come into season now.

[00:08:37] Taryn: Okay, so number one was berries. Get amongst berries as many different types as you can. Number two, again, these are in no particular order, but I want to give you ten things that I want you to focus on or make sure you are including in your diet in some way. And number two is eggs. As long as you're not allergic to eggs, please don't start eating eggs if you're allergic to eggs, but eggs are a really good quality source of protein that we tend to not eat or not associate with getting protein.

[00:09:07] Taryn: They also contain this magic amino acid called leucine and it is one of those building blocks. It's an amino acid, so it's a building block to build muscles and all types of cells and life in and hormones in our bodies. But leucine in particular is magic because it's also the switch that turns on muscle protein synthesis.

[00:09:28] Taryn: So it has a, like a two pronged sword. We've got the building block of leucine as an amino acid in eggs. And Plus, if we have the right amount in the right time, that can also help turn on that switch to drive muscle protein synthesis rates, which we want. We're not going to get bulk and swole as a triathlete, but we want our muscle protein synthesis and all those repair pathways to be elevated after we exercise.

[00:09:52] Taryn: And because we exercise a lot and more than once a day, Uh, then we're always recovering and repairing. Now, eggs in history have been quite controversial in the nutrition space because they do contain cholesterol. And so people used to avoid eggs for that reason, but we now know that that cholesterol from our diet is not well absorbed.

[00:10:15] Taryn: if we're eating properly and we're eating good fiber, it can just pass straight through and out the other side, rather than be absorbed and elevate our cholesterol. So there's a lot of research in eggs and hearts. disease and cardiovascular risk. And a lot of the research indicates that there's no measurable increase in heart disease or even diabetes risk.

[00:10:36] Taryn: if you're eating six to 12 eggs in a week. So our Australian Heart Foundation guidelines, you can go and look those up if you like. , if you are a heart issue person and you're worried about eggs, go and have a look at the recommendations for how many eggs that you can eat in a week with no adverse effects for the cardiovascular system.

[00:10:56] Taryn: Eggs also are a little powerhouse of nutrients. Make sure you eat the yolk. Don't just eat the white. That's where, yes, a lot of the protein is, but a lot of the nutrients are in the yolk. So we want to eat the whole egg and not waste the protein. All of the beautiful nutrition that's in there. So things like our vitamins, choline, selenium, vitamin A, iron and phosphorus.

[00:11:19] Taryn: A few of the key nutrients that you're going to get from eggs. Eggs also have these two powerful antioxidants, zeaxanthin and lutein. Say that 10 times fast. And they are known to protect our eyes. and our vision. So make sure you're eating eggs and unless you're allergic, I'm not saying eat eggs if you're allergic, but definitely look to include those in your diet as an endurance athlete.

[00:11:46] Taryn: My third food, which I think is a great little option for a variety of different people is quinoa. Now you might know it as quinoa, Q U I N O A. It's not pronounced quinoa, it's pronounced quinoa, but it is a very protein rich grain that kind of had a hot minute there, I don't know, 10 years ago and you might still be eating it.

[00:12:12] Taryn: But it is much more commercialized now too. So those bags of, microwave rice and pots of microwave rice, a lot of those you can get mixed with quinoa now. And it's a very much a readily available grain. You can just get it from the supermarket in the rice section generally. Sometimes It's in the health food section, but it is as a grain, it is carbohydrate rich, but it's also a very protein rich grain.

[00:12:37] Taryn: It's also rich in fiber and a lot of essential amino acids. So particularly useful for perhaps a diabetic, you've got your carbohydrate source, but there's some protein in there as well, as well as our pre menopausal and menopausal like in that peri phase of, of women, that could be a great grain for you to include.

[00:12:57] Taryn: So you're not. freaking out that you're eating carbohydrate. You've got a bit of protein in there as well. And our vegan athletes, anyone that is strictly vegan, doesn't have any animal sources of protein, then quinoa might be really good grain to help bump up your protein intake in meals. So I, I love it.

[00:13:14] Taryn: We have a grain salad in the recipe database that mixes quinoa and a few other things. And it's a great one to batch up and keep in the fridge as a nutrient rich carbohydrate sauce mixed with the way that we do the salad. So you can go and check that out if you like, dietitianapproved.com/recipes.

[00:13:34] Taryn: Okay, number four. Not so sexy, but definitely one that I think we need to be eating more of is our legumes. So think things like chickpeas, lentils, baked beans, red kidney beans, four bean mix, three bean mix, those types of things. They're all legumes. They are a rich source of carbohydrate and protein plus all this beautiful gut loving fiber.

[00:13:58] Taryn: Now there is truth in the saying that baked beans make you fart. So, just go easy on them, particularly if you don't eat them regularly or you don't eat much. And if you suddenly started eating loads of them, hey, don't blame me, that's on you. But maybe slowly increase your intake so that the bacteria in your gut aren't just having a field day with all that fiber and fermenting it and going crazy with gas production, and pain and bloating, all those symptoms that you can get when that suddenly happens.

[00:14:28] Taryn: But I find that triathletes or just generally people don't eat legumes in their life. And they are something that people struggle to cook with. They don't know how to use them. they don't taste great like straight out of a can. So there's lots of tips and tricks that you can do to, Put them into foods and also flavor them in a way that makes them really palatable and delicious.

[00:14:50] Taryn: I love things like roasted chickpeas as a snack or edamame beans is another one, and I throw them into lots of salads. Casseroles spaghetti. , we have a recipe for Mexican mints actually in our free recipes, which is a great introduction to legumes. If you are not one to partake in the legumes, you can go and get that one for free at Dietitian Approved.

[00:15:15] Taryn: com forward slash recipes as well. Mexican mints is an Australian way of saying ground beef, but it has lots of beautiful Mexican flavours in there, as well as our legumes. And it's packed full of veggies and other nutrients, so it's one for all stages of life. Kids love it, adults love it, it's great for batch cooking and meal prepping.

[00:15:36] Taryn: as well as the oldies love it too, because it is very soft and easy to chew. So Make sure you're trying to include more at every different opportunity that you can. Like if you have not gone into the, you know, wonderful land of legumes yet, try getting yourself just some cans to start with and adding it to foods.

[00:15:57] Taryn: Even just little bits, sprinkled on things, mixed in things, is a great way to So I think we need to be eating more of those and, you know, replacing some of our meat with legumes as well. You just need to understand how much protein that, you know, can of legumes or whatever portion is that you're eating is providing compared to meat or the chicken or the fish or whatever it is that you're replacing.

[00:16:20] Taryn: Uh, you might find that you need to eat a bit too much for what your guts can tolerate. To get protein, but there's easy ways around that where you can combine foods and have mixed meals. And that'll give us that full range of essential amino acids as well. All right. Number five, triathletes and just people in general need to eat more nuts and seeds.

[00:16:42] Taryn: And not just a handful of almonds every day, I mean like variety in our nuts and seeds because we tend to avoid them because we think they're too high in calories, or we just eat the same things all the time because it's easy and you know, just grab a bag of almonds and have a handful every now and then.

[00:16:59] Taryn: But our nuts and seeds are a great source of protein. and also good fats. And I want you to have the more different varieties of our nuts and seeds, the better. They have beautiful protective effects on our heart. They also have gut loving fiber and each individual nuts and seeds, nut or seed has a different array of nutrients.

[00:17:23] Taryn: So I'm not going to dive into every nut and seed and what their important nutrients are. I think the summary of that, the practical application of eat more nuts and seeds is variety. So things like almonds are really rich in vitamin E, which has antioxidant and protective, properties to help with that cellular damage that I talked about earlier.

[00:17:44] Taryn: Really important. Chia seeds is another one that's a great plant based source of omega 3, which we just struggle to get if you are a vegan athlete. And so you want to be looking at your nuts and seeds and going, which are the key ones for me to get the right nutrients for things that I'm missing out on to make sure that your diet has everything that you need. Now, people avoid nuts and seeds because they think they're calorie dense and you know, potentially they are, but There's some new research that came out. If you want to dive back into the archives, episode 61 about nuts and their nutrient density and energy density, because they did more recent research and they realized that on average, we extract about 26 percent less calories than we thought we did from them. So on paper, when you look at the calories provided from nuts and seeds, it might look like a lot, but when we actually eat them, we chew them, we digest them and break them down, we don't do a particularly good job of extracting the calories from nuts. A lot of it kind of keeps passing through and out the other side. And so those calories don't count, right? It's kind of like corn. You eat it. And often it still ends up in the exact same form that you ate it. On the other end, nuts are a little bit like that.

[00:18:59] Taryn: So don't be afraid of nuts. If you're a calorie counter and you're like, Oh shit, I can't have this amount of nuts because it tips me over. Like, who cares? Don't worry about it. Don't stress the minutiae details of that because we need more nuts and seeds in our diet to give us all of the nutrients that they provide, as well as the good fats that are often really missing from triathletes diets.

[00:19:23] Taryn: All right. Number six. Number six is mushrooms. These guys are a nutrient powerhouse and we could talk about mushrooms for an entire episode. There is actually a lot of research in mushrooms, which is really cool. They have so many little intricacies and wonderful, exciting things. They're very unique as well.

[00:19:44] Taryn: So they contain a lot of our B vitamins, niacin and folate, pentothenic acid, and riboflavin. And they also provide lots of antioxidants and essential minerals like selenium, copper, and phosphorus. Now what's really cool about mushrooms, I'm getting excited now. If you expose mushrooms to UV light, they can naturally generate vitamin D.

[00:20:09] Taryn: How cool is that? There are not many food sources of vitamin D, so now farmers have cottoned on to this , In particular, in Australia, once they harvest the mushrooms, farm the mushrooms, they expose them to UV light and one serving can be your vitamin D requirements each day. How cool is that?

[00:20:32] Taryn: They also have prebiotic fiber and they've done some research around resistant starch. So there are so many good things in mushrooms to help our vitamin D, all of our nutrient needs, and our gut microbes be happy. So if you aren't somebody that eats mushrooms, try adding them to your next egg cook up, or throw them into spaghetti or something to try and eat.

[00:20:55] Taryn: add some mushrooms into your diet. I might do a whole episode on mushrooms, not the magic kind, but actual mushrooms, because there is so much cool research about these guys. We don't have time to go into all the details of our, of the mushrooms today, but it's something I might add to the list for the future because they are very exciting little pieces of food.

[00:21:16] Taryn: All right. Number seven. is beetroots. Now, you might have heard of beetroot being a really good source of nitrate, which is a vasodilator and can help us with exercise. But you'd have to eat a whole heap of beetroot to get the right amount of nitrate. So there are other ways that we can do that. if you've built the foundations with your nutrition first, and that is something that you're looking at as the sprinkles on the icing on your cake.

[00:21:44] Taryn: Please don't dabble in nitrate if you haven't built your cake sponge, or iced it with our sports nutrition principles, because Doing something like that is going to be far less effective as getting your fueling and hydration and just daily nutrition right. But bee treats in your diet can be a source of nitrate, not the performance enhancing dosage.

[00:22:08] Taryn: But they are kind of becoming popular amongst endurance athletes for that reason. But like I said, you're going to have to eat so much beetroot that your poo is going to be like purple or red, and you're going to worry that you're bleeding, but don't worry, it's just the pigment in beetroots. But these, like just in our diet, can help increase our blood flow and that oxygen delivery to the muscles.

[00:22:31] Taryn: I love to wrap them up in foil and roast them in the oven for a good couple of hours. Like it's a weekend type thing when you're doing other jobs, and serve that with some cottage cheese mixed with some olive oil and some lemon juice. Ah, it's just delicious. Goes really well with a nice steak if you're a meat eater.

[00:22:51] Taryn: So beetroots is something to include. I would go whole beetroots as much as you can. The canned sliced things are very heavily sweetened. Like they taste sweet and delicious because there is a whole heap of sugar in there. So try and go whole beetroots if you can. And don't cut off the. beetroot leaves.

[00:23:09] Taryn: Eat those. They're a great source of nutrition as well. All right, number eight. This one probably should have gone first if there was any order, but there is no particular order. You could call this a superfood if you really wanted to. I still hate that term. I'm never going to use it as a, uh, superfood.

[00:23:26] Taryn: Nutrition expert, but a powerhouse of nutrients and performance enhancing effects is extra virgin olive oil. I will do an entire episode on extra virgin olive oil, because there is some really cool stuff out there on that as well. . It has high levels of monounsaturated fats, which we know that we need, particularly with our current diet, we don't get enough monounsaturated fat.

[00:23:51] Taryn: So this would be my oil of choice when it comes to cooking.

[00:23:56] Taryn: It also has all these beautiful bioactive molecules that give it all these functional properties that I won't dive into today to help mop up that oxidative stress that we have from exercise. And it's also beneficial for helping reduce inflammation. is a compound that they're doing research on called oleocanthel and it is a compound found in extra virgin olive oil that has anti inflammatory properties with effects that are similar to taking something like ibuprofen.

[00:24:25] Taryn: So that is a pain medication here in Australia. I'd have to have a look at what the U. S. equivalent is. , but there's particular doses of extra virgin olive oil that you'd have each day that are providing the same benefits as taking an ibuprofen. Now, a lot of people self medicate with things like that on the daily for whatever aches and pains that you may have, headaches, which are potentially from things like dehydration or working or, you know, just the training demands.

[00:24:55] Taryn: So it's taking people off medication and providing like an amazing ability to do that with just food. So like I said, I'm not going to go into the detail. It's super nerdy, but it's so cool. And I think you should be, if you're not already using more extra virgin olive oil in your diet, in preference to all other oils, would be my hot tip, particularly as an endurance athlete.

[00:25:25] Taryn: All right. Number nine. I can't keep it to one thing here, but it would be a deep sea fatty fish. So salmon, tuna, herring, mackerel, those sorts of deep sea fatty fish that give us a beautiful amount of omega threes. And those fatty acids that again, we're often missing from our diet. And you might be going, yeah, cool, Taryn, I eat salmon once a week.

[00:25:46] Taryn: Like, no, mate. No, dude, we need to have more of this stuff in our diet. The more often that you can have it, the better. You know, up, up to sort of three times a week, if you can, to give you the right ratio of EPA, DHA. If you have no idea what that is, don't worry about it. but it is a great source of protein and a great source of the right types of fats that we're often missing in our diet.

[00:26:10] Taryn: Now, omega 3s are great for cardiovascular health And improving our blood flow, plus our brain health, our joints. There are so many benefits. So it's something that I want you to think about, including if you're not already, and more if you are already including it a little bit.

[00:26:27] Taryn: Now, if you're allergic to fish and you can't have that, then you'll need to find another option. please don't eat fish. I'm not saying eat. Fish, if you're allergic, that is not what I'm saying. And if you really don't like it, then again, you're going to need to find another option so that you can get all the EPA, DHA, and those omega 3s and omega 6s that we need in our diets.

[00:26:49] Taryn: All right, lucky last number 10. The least sexiest of them all, but our green leafy vegetables. Yep. So things like spinach, kale, the green part of your beetroot, uh, salad greens, bok choy and those Asian greens, micro greens, watercress, collard greens, mustard greens, swiss chard, rocket or arugula, depending on what you call it, cabbage, romaine lettuce, like all of those leafy greens.

[00:27:16] Taryn: As many different types and varieties as you can get. Kale was on the superfood list for quite a while there and you know it has lots of nutrients. So does baby spinach and spinach and most people eat those too. But you need to not forget about all the other leafy greens out there and have more variety.

[00:27:34] Taryn: So instead of just making a salad with baby spinach leaves. Try and make it with a whole different types of leaves and, you know, mustard greens, collard greens, watercress, micros, whatever it is that you've got. The more different variety that you can have, the better. They're a great source of fiber, but also very nutrient rich.

[00:27:53] Taryn: So think things like vitamin A, vitamin C, vitamin K, and, , E. A lot of the dark greens are also a great source of folate, which can help with neural tube defects. But it's also really necessary for DNA duplication repair, which helps to protect us against cancer.

[00:28:12] Taryn: Vitamin K is also important to help with our bones and protecting us from osteoporosis and also preventing other inflammatory diseases. Spinach in particular has lots of iron, some calcium, magnesium, potassium, vitamin A, vitamin C, like just so many things. So that all of our essential nutrients are coming from these plant based foods, and we need to be eating more of those.

[00:28:37] Taryn: whether you want to call them superfoods or not, that is going to help our overall health and long term health, but also performance as an endurance athlete. So there's some cool stuff in say extra virgin olive oil and sporting performance, which I'll talk about on another episode, but I always bang on about, you know, eating fruits, eating your vegetables, and Yes, I'm a Dietitian and that's my wheelhouse, but there's a method to the madness.

[00:29:04] Taryn: There are so many nutrients in all of our different types of foods that we need and we need more of as an active person, particularly somebody that likes to train three sports in a week So I'd much rather you focus on having a huge variety of foods in your diet that looks like the actual food from the ground or however it was made, grown, produced, rather than things that are coming out of a packet all the time, because they are far less nutrient rich.

[00:29:34] Taryn: And I'm not as beneficial. Like, yes, it might take your macros, but you need to start extending your thinking into micros. So there you have it. That is my list of 10 super foods that are very much triathlon dietitian-approved. I want you to think about incorporating those into your diet to help you.

[00:29:55] Taryn: not only enhance your health, but your performance in sport. A lot of them are going to help our endurance capacity, and you know, help us keep pace with the demands of triathlon and trying to work and parent and all the things that we do. Food is your superpower. If you can get that right, then I always say that you'll feel supercharged.

[00:30:16] Taryn: Remembering that balance is the key. So we're not just eating one thing and thinking we're super healthy because we are. Eating a crap load of kale, or a crap load of blueberries. Variety is a spice of life. So I want to be pulling from all of those different examples and all of the different types, rather than just sticking with one food and thinking that we are doing a good job.

[00:30:39] Taryn: Alrighty. So I wanted to get back into some listener questions and we have a great question from Lawrence in Christchurch, New Zealand today. They have asked, is there a place? for fasted training for perimenopausal female athletes. and my short answer is yes, I very much disagree with the one size fits all approach that is out there at the moment that women shouldn't do fasted training.

[00:31:08] Taryn: I think there is a time and place for everything. So it really just depends on what your goals are and what types of sessions that you would do fasted. That advice was from Strength Training. Do I think women should do fasted training? Yes. Do I think women should do fasted strength training?

[00:31:26] Taryn: No. Definitely not. Should anyone do fasted strength training? Probably not. , unless you were trying to strip muscle off, which, is suckful. I've done that a few times with a couple of athletes and it's not pretty. It's not nice. So no, you shouldn't do strength training fasted, but there are other sessions as a triathlete that we can lean on that tool in our tool belt.

[00:31:52] Taryn: So it does depend on what your goals are and what your training program is. I'm not saying fast for every single session. It's something that we talk about very early on in the triathlon nutrition academy program. We tackle recovery nutrition in week one and pre training nutrition in week two, because I find that triathletes have no idea how to fuel or not training.

[00:32:14] Taryn: And so they're kind of dabbling in this middle ground of, Not really fueling and not really fasting, you know, something like, as an example, having a banana before every session. You're not doing a very good job of anything by doing that. And so I'd much rather set you up with a strategy for each and every session that you have in your week so that you know, alright, this session I'm fueling and this is what I'm doing to tick the right boxes for my fueling for those types of sessions.

[00:32:42] Taryn: And then I am doing these sessions fasted, and this is what I'm doing specifically to do that session fasted, because A lot of us have no idea how to actually fast. And once you turn on the switch for carbohydrate oxidation, then you're no longer in that fasted state. So short answer to your question, Lawrence is yes.

[00:33:04] Taryn: But as always with nutrition, it really just depends on where you're at, like what your goals are, what your training program is. and you know, what you're trying to achieve by doing fasted training. We want to be strategic with our nutrition, not just follow blanket advice that perimenopausal menopausal women shouldn't fast.

[00:33:24] Taryn: I really think that we need to look at, you know, you and your situation and your nutrition should be tailored to you. It shouldn't just be this generic throw everyone in the same bucket advice that is very much mainstream at the moment. Does my head in. but great question. And if you. want to chat further, uh, reach out.

[00:33:43] Taryn: I'm happy to field any questions. but pre training nutrition is something that we dive really deeply into in the triathlon nutrition academy program. So there is no gray zone around what you're doing. You will have a specific plan for each and every session so that you are being more strategic with your nutrition.

[00:34:03] Taryn: All right, legend. Thank you so much for listening. Wrapping me around your ears today. , any requests, please let me know as I map out our episodes for the back half of the year. Uh, and I'll keep you posted on my Sunnyco 70. 3 swim prep. I'm off to swim tomorrow. I'm up to about 2. 6 Ks, but my arms other things that die before my lungs, before my legs, before anything else.

[00:34:29] Taryn: The old arms are still. Very much Struggle Street, but I'm going to beat you anyway, Kelly, I'm still going to beat you. All right. Thank you. Legends. I'll talk to you next week.

Thanks for joining me for this episode of the Triathlon Nutrition Academy podcast. I would love to hear from you. If you have any questions or want to share with me what you've learned, email me at [email protected]. You can also spread the word by leaving me a review and taking a screenshot of you listening to the show. Don't forget to tag me on social media, @dietitian.approved, so I can give you a shout out, too. If you want to learn more about what we do, head to dietitianapproved.com. And if you want to learn more about the Triathlon Nutrition Academy program, head to dietitianapproved.com/academy. Thanks for joining me and I look forward to helping you smashed in the fourth leg - nutrition!