Episode 180 - Microplastics & Performance: What Every Triathlete Should Know

Microplastics & Performance: What Every Triathlete Should Know.

There’s a sneaky, microscopic invader you're probably overlooking and in this episode,  I'm joined by  Dr. Heather Leslie, one of the world's leading researchers on microplastics, to shed some light on this topic that's both mind-blowing and crucial for anyone looking to optimise their performance and health.

Dr. Leslie is a renowned researcher specialising in plastic and chemical pollution and gained international recognition for her groundbreaking discovery of microplastics in the human bloodstream. In 2024, she established an independent consulting and research company based in Amsterdam.

During our conversation, we explore what microplastics are, how they get into our systems, their potential impact on our health and performance and most importantly, what we as triathletes can do to reduce our exposure.

Links:

Dr Heather Leslie Website: https://heather-leslie.com

Contact email: [email protected]

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/heatheraleslie/

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Episode Transcription

Episode 180: Microplastics & Performance: What Every Triathlete Should Know

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: You focus on fueling, right,staying hydrated, getting enough sleep, mobility, recovery, all the things to optimize your performance. But what if I told you that there's something sneaking into your system that you didn't even sign up for something tiny, something microscopic, yet potentially harmful? What on earth am I talking about?

[00:00:20] I'm talking about microplastics. You've probably heard about plastic pollution in the ocean, but did you know that tiny plastic particles have now been found in human blood in our organs, and even in the air that we breathe now as triathletes, we are constantly consuming fluids, sports, nutrition products, and spending time in environments where microplastics are.

[00:00:44] So what does that mean for our health and our recovery? Ultimately our performance to help us understand this growing issue and something I'm quite personally interested in myself. And I also know that my Triathlon Nutrition Academy athletes are interested in this topic. I've invited one of the world's leading researchers on microplastics, Dr.

[00:01:05] Heather Leslie, to join me. Her groundbreaking research has uncovered these tiny contaminants in human blood. She's a Canadian living in Amsterdam for the last 30 years. See if you can pick her accent. She's an independent consultant and researcher and can play five instruments, like talk about high achiever.

[00:01:24] Heather: In this episode, we're gonna unpack what microplastics are and how they make their way into our bodies. What does that actually mean for our health and performance as endurance athletes? And most importantly, what can we do to reduce our exposure? Welcome to the podcast, Dr. [00:02:00] Leslie. Thank you very much. You can call me Heather. 

[00:02:01] Taryn: Okay. I'll do that. Now. I know a lot of listeners are probably wondering if they've clicked on the right podcast right now, like This is a triathlon nutrition podcast.

[00:02:10] What on earth is Taryn talking about? But as a dietician, long-term health is one of my key values and a big focus of mine, along with lots of performance gains that we talk about on the podcast specifically for triathlon. But I really love to educate people on all things health and as triathletes, we use gels that are wrapped in plastic sports, drinks that come in plastic bags or plastic bottles.

[00:02:33] There's plastic bottles that you get handed out on the bike course and plastic cups that we drink from, and they bake all day in the sun. They could be out there for 12 hours cooking in liquids that you consume and gels that you consume at all those aid stations. And they probably haven't even considered their exposure risks.

[00:02:51] So I would love you to kick us off. You are way smarter than me. This is a topic that I only know a micro bit about. What on earth is microplastics for those that are to the.

[00:03:03] Heather: Yeah, microplastics are little tiny shreds of plastic, and they are coming off of our plastic stuff, and they're very, very diverse because our plastic stuff is diverse. If you look around your room right now, wherever you are, you'll see a lot of things made of plastic, you know, devices, textiles, things you're wearing, things that are in the furniture plastic has been the design choice. you know, it's the answer to every design question, pretty much, uh, these days. So there's a lot of different sources of them, and microplastics are really, really hard to see, sometimes not even microscopes can see them.

[00:03:37] You have to get even more, Advanced equipment to, to see these things,but they're there and we found out a way to measure them. once they're released from your products, they go into the air and all sorts of other places, so they're really going on a big journey.

[00:03:53] Taryn: And why do we need to be concerned about them? Why is it another thing that we need to worry about in life?

[00:03:58] Heather: Yeah. I don't want [00:04:00] to make people too concerned that they get into fear. That's one thing I think is really important in this whole thing, is not to be afraid, because that's really bad for your body. And also, you don't really make great decisions when you're afraid. But I think it's really good to be conscious of all these things.

[00:04:17] And once you listen to this podcast, I think you'll look at the world a little bit differently. You'll look at your stuff a little bit differently and you'll look at your, your behavior a little bit differently.

[00:04:26] And you won't change overnight, but you could just take small steps, especially the new things that you're going to add, the new things you're gonna buy. 

[00:04:34] so plastics are really complex materials because they have a,polymer in them.

[00:04:40] So, that's how we know them, like polyethylene or polystyrene something with poly in the beginning, that means it's a polymer. Um, so that's kind of like the spaghetti, these long chains. And then you also have the sauce, which, are the chemicals that go into these materials that give it its functionality.

[00:04:58] Like they make it, squishy or they make it, hard and, and, or they make it resistant to, ultraviolet, breakdown or many different things that, these chemicals do. And it's really surprising, even to me as a, a chemist and ecot toxicologist that plastics producers need to put so many chemicals in a single product.

[00:05:21] hundreds of different chemicals, in each material. And so this makes it a real cocktail of different things and some of the things won't be harmful to you, but there are some that are really concerning that we already have on our radar.

[00:05:35] that makes plastics really difficult to talk about in a simplified way because we're talking about a huge array of chemicals. And then we're talking about the microplastics, which are particles, which are little packages of these chemicals that bring these chemicals into our body when we inhale them or swallow them.

[00:05:51] Taryn: Yeah, it's crazy. I'm really excited to do some educating of our listeners of what this whole topic is about. So thank you [00:06:00] for sharing what that is. your biggest research in this space is around how, we can quantify this in the human body. Can we take a step back from that and talk about how they actually enter our body?

[00:06:12] Heather: Yeah. So we know that they're all over the place. they're in your vacuum cleaner. You've sucked them up from your floor you open your jar of honey, which I did once at my work, when somebody asked me to measure microplastics in honey, I took the jar that was on my desk that I sometimes use to make lunch with, and I looked at that.

[00:06:30] There's a kaleidoscope of, little particles in there. Just different colors, actually. Beautiful 

[00:06:35] so they can come in through our food. They can, we can breathe them in. So just by using, products, that are made of plastic, there's, microplastics shedding off of them. So we have them in our indoor air, especially indoor air or next to roads, where we have a lot of particles coming off of tires, which are also made of plastic. so it just kind of depends where you are.

[00:06:57] You also have sometimes occupational exposures. You know, if you work a lot with textiles, there's a lot of dust around. in our homes, that's where it's mostly concentrated 'cause that's where all the plastic is mostly our sheets are, our clothes, our upholstery, our carpeting.

[00:07:13] in our kitchens a lot of plastic. we have plastic containers. plastic lined paper cups. they look eco groovy, but they're not really, because there's this polyethylene lining in them when you put hot liquids in, and that's just encouraging chemicals to come into your tea or coffee.

[00:07:31] So yeah, there's many, many different exposure routes. Basically, if you use it, it's interacting with your body, 

[00:07:37] Taryn: Oh, that's crazy. It kind of is a little bit overwhelming, to be honest.

[00:07:41] Heather: Yeah, it is, but it's good to keep grounded, you know, and also feel like there's something I can do about it. in here, in the Netherlands, The Public Health Institute has done all these studies about how much we eat, and you probably know how much the average, uh, person in your country eats, being a dietician.

[00:07:58] But,

[00:07:59] here it's like around [00:08:00] three kilos a day. Around a third is food. And, two thirds is, is drinks. offer a lifetime that's like 90 tons maybe of food and drinks that we're consuming, and that's something that we are responsible for. you know, these are decisions that we are making ourselves.

[00:08:18] So if we're conscious of what we want to eat and drink, we can just do it. You know, it's really not that easy because we're in a system and it's very hard to change our eating habits in a system when we're being advertised, all sorts of things. And, we see other people consuming different things.

[00:08:35] But yeah, if you kind of get aligned with what makes you really happy, What makes you, feel like you're doing what you want to do for your body and not what the external world is telling you to do for your body. so if you can align with that and then you can figure out, if I wanna reduce my microplastic exposure by what I'm consuming, I, I obviously can just go ahead and do that.

[00:08:57] it's not easy to change into new habits,but it is possible.

[00:09:01] Taryn: Yeah. Amen sister.So you listed off some of those common things there, but do we know what the main exposure sites or sources are for the general population of microplastics?

[00:09:12] Heather: Well, I would say it's a, it's what we call a diffuse source. It's not like a point source, and that is making the whole, issue kind of complicated. You know, if it was just one chemical, we could zoom in and clean that up. But this is so diffuse, it's so many different products, in our day to day. and they all have their own, special fingerprints of which chemicals are in there.

[00:09:36] and also even if you know what's in there, they could reformulate it based on market prices or just updating product lines to do something else. and there are some, Types of products like food and drinks and cosmetics where they have to put the ingredients on the labels.

[00:09:55] And there you're a little bit more powerful 'cause you actually know what's in there. With other products, it's [00:10:00] not so clear. It's it's very non-transparent. Even sometimes for the brands who are, who are selling you the product, they don't even really know, from further upstream in the production process what actually went into these, products.

[00:10:14] So there's a lot of unknowns in this and it's kind of important to navigate and not need to know all the, high resolution details about everything. But just to, work with what you do know. And that's important when you know something and you wanna use it, just you can go ahead and use it.

[00:10:31] so with the cosmetics and the food, you can actually kind of look at, the ingredients. You can see how they're packaged That's where you can start.

[00:10:39] Taryn: thinking about the triathlete population, you know, that they have, you know, gels in, in packaging, like everything comes in a plastic package. Really, there's nothing that doesn't, I can't think of anything. And they use plastic cups out on aid stations. They get given water bottles that are like a harder plastic, but they do sit in the sun all day.

[00:10:57] is any particular specific risks for us as a triathlon population for their microplastic exposure?

[00:11:04] Heather: Yeah. Well those are things that you just mentioned. plastic and sunshine don't really go together very well. That's why, for things that are supposed to be in the sunshine, like, I don't know, outdoor furniture or. decks of boats and things like that, they're gonna have UV stabilizers in there, uh, which are also toxic when they leach out.

[00:11:22] so depending, you know, if it's food contact, products, there is an effort and there is special kind of regulation of what they can and cannot put in there. regulations don't fully protect human health. So you can be fully compliant with regulations, but still environments and human health are not fully protected.

[00:11:40] That's also kind of a hard message, but it is true. And we should take that on board. That means more self responsibility. but yeah, if you're a triathlete, 

[00:11:49] Taryn: bottled water.

[00:11:50] Heather: That's especially bottles that have been in the sunlight. So there's UV radiation that starts to break down these, water bottles. And there was a study, I think last year [00:12:00] or the year before where they found close to, a quarter of a million nanoplastic particles in a liter of bottled water that was in a plastic bottle.

[00:12:09] And that was a real shocking amount. and I was called, you know,for a professional comment on that, study, and I thought, gee, do you really need a toxicologist to tell you don't drink that. You know, just think about it for yourself I mean, it seems like a no-brainer that you wouldn't want that.

[00:12:25] you know, and we're at the stage in history where we don't know with a high resolution what all this stuff does to you, but, it just doesn't even feel right. And that's not a very scientific thing to say. But, to be adding a substance that we're just starting to learn how to measure them. They're very difficult to measure. 'cause they can be, six orders of magnitude from tiny nanometer size to, something that will fit through a blood, sampling tube or needle, let's say.

[00:12:53] there's this huge size range of particles and all these different chemistries. So it's very difficult to really quantify all this and then to translate what you find into a human health effect later. There's a lot of uncertainties along the way, and we're just starting out.

[00:13:07] it's important to be. Using things like the precautionary principle, like when there's a signal like, this might not be cool. Let's see if we can just reduce our exposure. the fun thing about that is you have to get a little creative and be a little bit more individualistic and go your own way.

[00:13:26] Because you know, the masses are just going to be buying what the advertising says you need to buy. And it takes a little bit of discernment to figure out, what do I do? I really wanna buy that. Do I really wanna drink this bottled water that's been out in the sun in 30 degrees for, for God knows how long?

[00:13:46] just making these decisions and realizing you can make a decision. 'cause a lot of us are. Under the impression that we can't make a decision and that we need, I don't know, the un to sort it out. I mean, they're gonna be the last ones to [00:14:00] sort these things out. after all the companies have died out who didn't wanna change, and all the new companies that are bringing, great products on the market, then finally the regulators will say, okay, well I guess we can regulate this now.

[00:14:12] 'cause nobody's gonna push back against the regulation. So, yeah, I'm really into making decisions for yourself. so you know, there's other materials out there, that we can certainly use.

[00:14:24] It requires. functional substitution. you need to be hydrated, but is there only one choice when you wanna be hydrated? Does it have to come from a plastic bottle on the side of the road? or is there another way we can provide hydration? we just use our, our human ingenuity and ourcreativity and we'll come up with loads of fit for purpose solutions that reduce our exposure.

[00:14:48] And again, if you don't feel like reducing your exposure, you don't have to, nobody's forcing you to. but if it really resonates with you, like, yeah, yeah, I've wanted this for a long time and I just never took this first step. Yeah, you can just choose to take that first step.

[00:15:04] Taryn: Yeah, I would love to get into some of that practical stuff. 

[00:15:07] But before we do that, what are some of the health implications and, you know, potential health effects of microplastics in the human body?

[00:15:15] Heather: so our study, a couple of years ago showed microplastics in the human bloodstream for the first time. And that was a big technical challenge, but also a bit disappointing when we actually did find them in there, because that's the river of life. It was a bit disappointing to actually be able to find so much plastic in the bloodstream. And since then, the studies have been repeated and we're still finding that. So I'm pretty convinced we did a lot of quality control in that. And if it's in your bloodstream, it's also in all of your organs because where does blood go?

[00:15:47] It goes everywhere. It nourishes your entire body. just the blood vessels themselves are very important. 'cause they're, they're noticing, you know, if you've got enough sugar in there, they, they're noticing the nutrients coming, these [00:16:00] cells that line the blood vessels, are real sensors for what's going on.

[00:16:05] And then we've got microplastics coming by and they're, they're clogging up these blood vessels, like the very small blood vessels and. You really don't want small blood vessels to get inflamed. And that is the thing that really shocked me, as a scientist, coming at it from a little bit different angle than a healthcare professional.

[00:16:25] But when I found out that these particles, and we know that from fiber and particle toxicology, that particles really can elicit, a toxic effect through inflammation. And, you know, even if our body can get rid of some of these particles, they just don't do it as fast as we're swallowing them back into our bodies, so the rate that we can get rid of them is not equal to the rate that we're 

[00:16:51] absorbing them again.

[00:16:53] that's kind of like a constant dose that we're getting that's concerning because you don't want an inflammation to get chronic because every doctor I speak to will reassure me, that chronic inflammation is really a prelude to chronic diseases. And even in recent years, they've talked about, inflammation in the brain being a sort of, an instigator of neuropsychiatric diseases.

[00:17:18] Parkinson's and dementia can even come from inflammations of the brain. So,and now we know that microplastics can cross the blood brain barrier. Andit's not, proof that if you eat so much microplastics you'll get this disease, but it's sort of a signal that's a bit in your face that, it's a risk and we don't know how, We know it's plausible, but we can't quantify that risk at this point in science. it's something that I feel really requires the precautionary principle, which is when you see a signal, you should probably start to reduce your exposure if you really wanna be at the top of your game in terms of health.

[00:17:57] that's the concern, from finding these microplastics, [00:18:00] which contain little chemicals. Sometimes we call them Trojan horses 'cause they can come in and then in your body they can also release the chemicals they're carrying, 

[00:18:08] Taryn: That's crazy. I was reading a paper where they found microplastics in the placenta of unborn babies, and you're like, oh my God. Like, what are we doing to our children? 

[00:18:18] Heather: yeah, we also measured them in amniotic fluid, and that's really, you know, you're born polluted, basically. and there's a famous study of umbilical cord blood delivering mother's blood to the babies they screened it for hundreds of chemicals.

[00:18:32] It was a, it is a huge analytical, study. our bodies are a reflection of our stuff and our chemicals that we're using. So it's, you can't really tell a chemical, okay, I want, I'm gonna make you, stay right here. 'cause chemicals just don't understand English.

[00:18:47] they just, go wherever they feel like going. according to their chemistry, makes them, sometimes want to go to, the water phase. you know, they wanna dissolve in water, but sometimes they would rather dissolve in something less watery like your adipose tissue 

[00:19:01] so yeah, they really have their own little personalities that makes them travel and accumulate in certain places. you don't really want to add, extra chemicals that you can avoid because we already are exposed via things that we have little control over, so eating them and drinking them less can only be helpful to our bodies to reduce the whole toxic load.

[00:19:27] So do you have to watch what you wear in public now because you are the face of microplastic research much?Yeah. Well, I do tend to think about it, especially when I'm coming on a podcast. I'm wearing something wool and something cotton, but I did get out my polar fleece. And I know, an activist here in Amsterdam who's quite famous, Maria Ster Ball, she works at the Plastic Suit Foundation and she said once she went to a shop and they gave her a plastic bag and she walked out of the shop and some TV camera was there and said, aha, I've got you.

[00:19:58] It's your 

[00:19:58] plastic [00:20:00] bag. But I mean, we laugh about that because sometimes you can't help it. I've argued with people in shops, oh, I don't want a bag. Oh, please have a plastic bag. You know, they consider it part of the surface and you end up, like, I can argue with them, or I can just take the plastic bag

[00:20:15] Taryn: Yes. I get judged for food choices I make when I'm out or if I bump into somebody that I know in the grocery store, they look in my trolley. I'm like, stop it. I'm a human as well. I'm a real person.

[00:20:27] Heather: Yeah. And, you know, judging other people for what they're doing is not even good for us. And it'smostly an ego thing like, Hey, I caught you doing this, you know, so that makes me a little bit better than you. And we just don't wanna go there. everybody's making their way and doing their best they're making decisions, with the information that they have.

[00:20:46] And based on a lot of emotions. Except the only thing that I think we don't realize is how much advertising does to us. and how much that convinces us, to buy stuff that we don't really need and we don't really want, but we think we're supposed to have it. and that's a tricky one because it's kind of, stealthy and we don't really realize it.

[00:21:04] I mean, awareness of that it can happen to you. like 700 times a day we see brands and, uh,it's pretty hard to shut that off

[00:21:13] Taryn: triathletes definitely get marketed to a lot. And you can go on, like there's a big website called The Feed that's got all these different sports nutrition products on it, and you see something new and there's always order bumps in your cart and things like that.

[00:21:24] So how do we reduce our exposure? Like what are some of the big things or easy wins that somebody could walk away from listening to this podcast wherever they are? What are they doing?

[00:21:34] What are some things that we could change like today or, or tomorrow to get some, you know, runs on the boards, some quick wins. And then maybe what are some things that are more of a longer term thinking about, you know, you're not overhauling your entire wardrobe today,

[00:21:48] Heather: Yeah. 

[00:21:48] Taryn: some easy, fast things, and then maybe some bigger picture things that we could do to reduce our exposure of microplastics.

[00:21:55] Heather: one thing I don't think we should do is just empty out our homes and throw out everything in our closet [00:22:00] and all of our furniture. 

[00:22:01] Taryn: That's not good 

[00:22:01] for the environment either.

[00:22:03] Heather: so wear your stuff, wear it out, and, uh,when you're gonna buy something new, that's a time, that's a decision making time.

[00:22:10] And you can inform yourself about, what you think is also acceptable And sometimes, you know, you're gonna have your, guilty pleasures. I mean, you wanna do everything you can for your performance, right?

[00:22:20] So you really don't wanna cut any corners, and I really understand that. but at a decision making point, you can just weigh all of your options and see if you can make some decisions that will improve Your performance of your body. 'cause after all, we're talking about our bodies and we don't want them to be assaulted by chemicals and microplastics because that's also bad for our, our performance on the long run. things like textiles, when we were growing up, we were wearing cotton T-shirts and now we're being sold these nylon t-shirts that leach a lot of stuff out of them that our skin can absorb. And a colleague of mine here in the Netherlands, was testing nylon with lung cells and she just added little shreds of nylon to a medium, where lung cells were growing in.

[00:23:08] And the lung cells didn't wanna do their job anymore when they,when they got the 

[00:23:12] nylon.

[00:23:13] they were just like, Nope, that's it. We're done. get that out of here. we don't wanna grow. and, you know, having lung cells not doing their job, not growing, the way they're supposed to, that's a little concerning.

[00:23:23] So I don't wanna really increase the amount of, nylon fibers that I'm,I'm inhaling, so maybe I can do the same, activity. Instead of having some sort of nylon supersonic, thing that was sold to me, I might be able to do the same job With cotton, we're talking about looking for the function.

[00:23:41] It's not necessarily that we need this plastic, but we need to have this function. We need to keep the sun off of us, and we need something to whisk away. Uh, sweat which Cotton does. Which linen does. Linen is also an amazing product. and it has very. properties to it. [00:24:00] yeah, I really wanna myself buy more linen.

[00:24:02] You can do lots of exercises in wearing linen, nice baggy stuff, probably not for your triathlon 

[00:24:09] Taryn: cycling.

[00:24:09] Heather: cycling not so good. So maybe you can't really replace that. But other things, you can, the underwear underneath, can also be a cotton underwear instead of a synthetic.

[00:24:19] these are things that we can think about and what are the big things, I think is what we consume. So the water that you're consuming when you're training. You're not always in a race, maybe in a race, you know, you just have to go with what the race, wants. You could talk to the people who organize the race and say, you know, I'd like to have filtered water and I don't want it in a plastic bottle.

[00:24:38] Taryn: Good luck getting past Iron Man.

[00:24:42] Heather: Yeah. But you never know. Maybe in 15 years Ironman is like, I can't believe we used to do that. You know? It's just, raising 

[00:24:48] awareness of people who are,are doing it. and the other thing is that not all athletes are gonna be on board with this. They're gonna say, you know, you only live once.

[00:24:56] I don't wanna change this. This is working for me. And that's okay

[00:24:59] too. But if you really wanna change it for yourself, you have to look into how to change it. Do you really wanna be having with every liter of bottled water, you know, all of those, couple hundred thousand, micro nanoplastics, I mean, those are really absorbable in your body.

[00:25:15] You know, if it's less than 10 micrometers in diameter, it goes right into your, through your gut. It's a very, thin. Layer in your gut, and it's, it's supposed to be there for absorbing food particles, but you can really fool it into absorbing a nanoplastic particle too. So do you want that or would you rather have clean water that's filtered the way nature does it? You know, I, I often say, which makes my friends laugh, trust nature and don't trust a chemist. And they're like, yeah, but you are a chemist. I said, yeah, but trust nature more. 

[00:25:48] when we're opening up these packages, you know, there's a protein bar in there, but you could also eat protein in your kitchen.

[00:25:56] that's got natural protein in it and it doesn't have a lot of additives in it. There could [00:26:00] be extra bonuses. And, some things can be even better in ways that we didn't expect, because, you're cooking more whole foods, which are fresher. and there's more, good energy in a fresh food than something that's gonna expire in 2027 So you have to think about the freshness of food. it might kick you off into eating more fresh food if you're not eating everything that's packaged. And if you're eating protein the way nature made it, how could that be wrong?

[00:26:28] Taryn: I'm constantly beating my head against a brick wall, trying to get people to eat more fruits and vegetables and things that look like they came outta the ground rather than from a package. I would love to see Iron Man take on different sorts of ways to give athletes water, but I'm fairly sure it's just from the hose in somebody's yard in a huge, big vat.

[00:26:49] There is no filtered water coming onto the race course. But is there any, like, thinking through the practicalities of that, is there anything that somebody could switch to? The only option I can think of is glass, but there's no way you'd wanna race on a bike at 40 Ks an hour with a glass water bottle.

[00:27:07] Heather: Is there anything that exists at this point? Yeah. plastic always wins when it's, about the lightweight. there are a lot of companies that are starting to, you know, they, they hear podcasts like this and they hear, media reports and they hear scientists from time to time and they think there's a market for people who don't wanna drink, 250,000 nanoplastics with their bottle of water.

[00:27:30] Uh, so maybe we can come up with something. some people are making metal, stainless steel that can be, very strong. So it can be made thin, maybe not as quite as lightweight as plastic. every gram counts, you know, especially when you're,in, you're in a race.

[00:27:45] I can imagine that you'll make an exception for that. We can't, overnight say there's no more plastic in the world. It's, that's just, not gonna happen. And it would cause so much disruption that it wouldn't be even fun to live on this planet. you know, if we suddenly overnight [00:28:00] didn't have plastic anymore.

[00:28:01] So for some things, I can imagine you can make a, a exception, but if you're a training, you can use a, a different material, water bottle without, affecting your performance very much, I would say. it's just good to keep in mind, what's available there is more and more available, to avoid the plastic water bottle. That's a really big one. like the single use plastic water bottle, the thin ones that sit on the shelf for years. That's the type of thing you're talking about.Yeah. And they often don't even have really great water quality. I mean, that's, it's sometimes just a, I know a tap water, it's not just beautiful spring water from some clean mountain area all the time. So it's, sometimes I, I really avoid it 'cause I also think that they don't taste good. 

[00:28:44] my, my own water that I, I filter at home, I, I really prefer.

[00:28:48] But again, if I'm in a restaurant or something and they don't have that water, then I'm gonna be drinking the water that there is. Or if you go to your friend's house, you can't just carry around your own water with you all the time. So you have to make exceptions. But it's about seeing where it is easy, like the low hanging fruit, let's say.

[00:29:04] where can I skip this water? I mean, maybe when I'm. In the middle of a big race, I'll make an exception, but when I'm at home, when I'm training, when I'm at the office, I'm just not gonna be drinking water out of these, these bottles that have been sitting, uh,sitting around

[00:29:20] for months absorbing Nanoplastic particles.

[00:29:24] Taryn: is it a time thing as well? The longer it sits in that vesicle, the more microplastics are gonna leach into the water or into the food.

[00:29:31] Heather: Yeah, I we call it aging of the plastic. So it slowly starts to lose its properties, you know, that keeps it all together. It can get little fractures in it, and it can release little bits. especially, you know, if there's sunlight involved, then it accelerates everything.

[00:29:48] Also if, if there's heat things go faster when it's warm. 

[00:29:52] Taryn: How warm is warm asking for a friend? 'cause it's very hot here in the summer as it is in Amsterdam in the summer. But how warm is [00:30:00] warm?

[00:30:00] Heather: you know, say with every 10 degree increase in, in temperature, the speed of things might double. Something like that. That's like a very, very rough estimation. it modifies the rate, but it doesn't really change the overall result. You know, if you wait a little longer, it's the same thing as, as heating it up.

[00:30:20] the age of the plastic really makes a difference. and the thing is that it never really goes away, so it's just gonna crack and fracture. but in our lifetimes, you know, it's not gonna go away unless we. Burn it unless it's incinerated, then the plastic will disappear. But otherwise, the little tiny shreds, can stick around for a long time and at some point, yeah, there's nothing really linear about what plastic does it.

[00:30:45] it's good for a few months. Then depending on the conditions, it'll start to show signs of wear and tear. then things can get going really fast. Like at some certain point, the whole thing can just fall apart. Like a, I had a plastic, uh, flower pot that started, it used to be red, then it got pink, then it got white, it was starting to look worse and worse 'cause it was right in the sunny window.

[00:31:10] the whole thing just falls apart into small microplastics and, and bigger chunks. So that's how it goes with these. With water bottles too, and with any of our stuff that we're using, like clothes, they start to lose fibers, you know, when you wash them or when you're exercising.

[00:31:27] When you have a sweat on your skin, then chemicals can really easily be absorbed from the textiles that you're wearing into that nice,

[00:31:36] moist area. And so I thought, yeah, it's really important what you have against your skin, like the real that's really next to your skin.

[00:31:44] I, I think it's, it's hard to find things that are made from natural products that don't have nasty pigments, but, uh,

[00:31:52] Yeah, how do you replace it? You know, maybe you don't. it's a real challenge to engineers and designers to come up with new materials, and [00:32:00] for sure there are people out there who are, conscious of this, and they certainly are in the textile world.

[00:32:06] I'm working with someone right now who's developing new textiles the textile community is aware of this, and they're really trying to reduce, through all sorts of different waves, like different weaves, you know, fiber densities, ways to reduce the amount of, yeah, microfibers that are coming off of this stuff.

[00:32:22] But of course, then there's also the chemicals, which they're also aware of, which are, it's also a difficult one for them. So it's, it's, it's a long road ahead. So I think as individuals we just have to try to navigate and where we can reduce our exposure.

[00:32:37] Taryn: And just the little things that you can do. So things that I did myself at home were get rid of all my plastic food storage containers. There's some of those that shouldn't have been in the house all altogether, but switching those over for glass, not using plastic when I'm cooking. So like, you know, plastic utensils for stirring hot foods.

[00:32:56] I use only wood uh, or metal. plastic storage containers in the pantry area as well. Like there's so many of those now and slowly switching those over to more glass. And I guess not leaving food in plastic packaging, either putting it into a glass container so that it's not sitting in that really thin plastic package for a long period of time.

[00:33:18] Is there anything else like that? Any big wins that we could do in the home?

[00:33:23] Heather: Yeah, those are great ideas. if you don't have plastic in your home, you're not going to be shedding it, you know? So when you're making new purchases, if you can, uh, avoid, purchasing things that are packaged in plastic, especially food is really difficult, you know, cereals or rice or things like that.

[00:33:38] you know, you have to go to a place that, that sells things in bulk

[00:33:41] Taryn: Yeah, we do that and have done that for a long time.

[00:33:45] Heather: and there's, uh, sometimes there are shops that are really conscious of that. And, uh, you can try shopping, for some things that you can't, buy unpackaged, uh, in a regular supermarket, you can go to a shop that's really doing its best to reduce that doesn't sell you [00:34:00] cucumbers that are packaged in plastic or, or bananas, you know, nature's packaging.

[00:34:04] Those you don't really need 

[00:34:05] Taryn: Yes, I know

[00:34:07] there is definitely a movement away from plastic stuff. Well, particularly in, in Australia, you know, plastic straws are disappearing. I saw our grapes, they used to come in these annoying plastic bags with carry holds and they are now being produced in paper. And I saw an article of blueberries locally being packaged up in little cardboard boxes.

[00:34:28] Instead of those annoying plastic containers, they come in. Like there's definitely a movement in that direction, which is really exciting to see.

[00:34:35] Heather: Yeah, There are so many people working on that. I also have a friend who came to Amsterdam, went to a conference and they were discussing all sorts of innovations, including those blueberry packages. That was one of her things that she worked on for many years.

[00:34:48] Blueberries. she tells me that at the very end of developing a new food product, they think, oh yeah, and the packaging, because they're in, concerned with nutrition mostly. Uh, but yeah, that, that's becoming more and more of a thing for, food science to think also about these packages and, you know, the migration of stuff outta the package into the products that consumers just don't want.

[00:35:13] that's a good thing that, you know, you see what happens when consciousness is, an awareness, is, Growing. You see that's reflected in, the products that we see in our, in our shops. And you vote for that product when you buy it, uh, over something that's badly packaged. And there's a lot of things like, yeah, if we don't package it in plastic, it doesn't have a long shelf life.

[00:35:36] But you can also ask yourself, how long do you want this cucumber to, to exist? You know, I wanna eat it now. I don't wanna eat it like next month or next year.

[00:35:45] So there's certain things, you know, fresh is fresh and the longer, you know, it's a beautiful product, it has wonderful hydration in it, um, with really highly energized water.

[00:35:57] it's full of life. It's a living thing [00:36:00] still. And you could eat that, and get all the benefits of that huge health benefits of eating fresh stuff. And the longer it sits around. it's not getting healthier as it's sitting on the, on the shelf. So I would say forget the plastic you need, to eat it, within a certain timeframe, as fresh as possible.

[00:36:19] don't buy it to eat it, you know, in summer.

[00:36:22] Taryn: as you were talking, I was thinking, you know, farmer's markets is a, is a great way to pick up fresh produce without any plastic packaging that comes from fruit shops in the supermarkets. It blows my mind how much plastic packaging is in the supermarket for things that you can get in so many other places without any wrapping at all.

[00:36:39] So that could be another one, the bulk scoop bin placed to get. Cereals and grains and nuts and seeds is a good one. There's so many things, like I, my mind is definitely blown. I'm sure people listening if you're still hanging in here with us,  

[00:36:56] hopefully there's some good practical things that you can just start to think about to change how we do consume foods.

[00:37:02] 'cause this is, yeah, huge problem. Something that we're only at the beginning of really understanding and any tiny little things you can do now to reduce your exposure, I think are gonna have huge benefits later on in life.

[00:37:15] Well, thank you so much for joining me, Heather, and talking, getting real nerdy. You're talking nerdy. I love it.

[00:37:21] Not too nerdy, but diving into the microplastics world, I know that there's some people listening that have never even heard of it and are like, what on earth as you're talking about.

[00:37:30] But we've given them hopefully a good little understanding about what it is and what the problems are and a few tips to walk away with to think about and maybe make some change to reduce their exposure. what is next on the cards for you? What sort of nerdy research study are you cooking up now in this space?

[00:37:47] Heather: Well, I, I do really want to, find out, uh, exactly what we were talking about. Like, what can we do on an individual level. For many, many years, I've been talking with every level of government, know, they have their limitations in how [00:38:00] much they can listen and how much they can implement.

[00:38:02] There's a lot of great people out there. I really enjoyed all my interactions, but I think, you know, uh, what I really wanna focus on is what we can do using our own individual power. so at the individual level, not waiting for legislation which takes years and years and years and not waiting for all the science to come in.

[00:38:20] 'cause that's gonna be decades away as well, before we really have that all nailed down. it could be never enough for some people. You know, we don't wanna be more and more certain, more and more evidence and then we'll take action. But, you know, then we're not gonna be here anymore.

[00:38:34] Some of us, you know, we're, it's gonna take that long, so why not, uh, live the way we want to today and see how. How much we can be aligned with that. So what I'd like to do is, is show the evidence that we have so far. 'cause we do know quite a lot. and how can we use that knowledge? You know, it's not just what you know, it's how you use it.

[00:38:54] yeah, I really would like to, give people more, information that they can use, in their own homes and in their own lives. And then any companies that contact me, sometimes they're doing their due diligence before they're investing in a company there's a lot of people out there with good heart, that wanna do better for the environment and wanna protect health.

[00:39:14] I mean, a lot of people have children. That's a big, motivator to do it better because oftentimes the children will get angry with you 'cause they have a lot of knowledge. They're very smart, they're wonderful, uh, how much they can teach us as well. so there's a lot of people talking about how their kids are inspiring them in, in their businesses to create new products and to invest in new products.

[00:39:37] So people who want to work on that, they can also contact me here in Amsterdam. that's what I'm really excited about doing. you know, and there's a lot of measuring going on by laboratories to, you know, slowly build up our, our evidence base at the same time.

[00:39:53] So it's, it's exciting time to be alive.

[00:39:55] Taryn: Yes. I will link your website in the show notes if [00:40:00] anybody does wanna reach out or you know, Maybe there's somebody listening that is very entrepreneurial, that can help us in the triathlon space,

[00:40:08] Heather: Yeah, I would love to work on that. you really have to know the, the area very well and you have to kind of study it and see, because a lot of times when you're thinking, oh, I've got a solution for that, it creates a new problem. You know, so you really have to focus on, we need to hydrate these, these athletes.

[00:40:23] how can we do that and what sort of framework do we have to do that in? And that there's always a solution. I mean, never underestimate the power of ingenuity when you wanna do something, we can do it.

[00:40:35] Taryn: Yep. My mind already goes to like making your own gels, making your own sports drinks. Like there are so many things you can do that you maybe haven't even considered. So thank you for opening our eyes to this area. I feel like it's like the tip of the iceberg on like this huge, big thing, but at least we've got the ball rolling and people can start to make some change and take some action around the things that they can control in their life.

[00:40:58] So thank you so much, Heather. It's been a real treat.

[00:41:01] Heather: I enjoyed it too. Enjoyed, and I, I wish all your athletes, all the best.

[00:41:06] Taryn: Oh, thank you. 

 

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!