NUTRITION WITH TARA – IT’S ALL ABOUT YOUR GUT HEALTH

Kate Dzienis • September 24, 2019

WELCOME TO NUTRITION WITH TARA DAVENPORT.

Contributed by Tara Davenport, Accredited Sports Dietician
Tara Davenport is an Accredited Sports Dietitian based in Brisbane, Qld. Her experience stems from working with state level sport teams, the Australian Defence Force and every day endurance goers to athletes. Tara has competed in ultra marathons, trail races and is a keen runner. She uses evidenced based practices for her clients to ensure they are receiving the most up-to-date nutrition science, alongside with practical strategies to optimise performance and ensure nutrition is a life long focus.

WHY GUT HEALTH IS CRITICAL

Gut health has become a very popular topic within the sport world and research world. It’s fascinating to learn that our gut is like our second brain, and it’s because our gastrointestinal system is directly connected to our brain by a nerve called the Vagus.

The Vagus nerve produces what we call the ‘happy hormone’, also known as serotonin, so not only does our gut influence our nutrient absorption and reduce the risk of gut conditions, it can impact our mood, and vice versa.

What foods to eat for a healthy gut environment?

Choose a variety of foods that are high in fibre, and aiming for 30g of fibre per day (use a diet app to track fibre intake). Dietary fibre is found in foods such as fruits and vegetables, wholegrain breads and cereals (like oats), grains and nuts and seeds.

A good goal here is to aim for variety, so you can try to eat 30 different plants per week – now that’s a challenge for you!

Consuming a variety of high fibre foods means we have different fibres to produce a wide range of microbiome (or bacteria) in our gut. A particular fibre called resistant starch is particularly helpful. With the interaction of our gut microbiome, resistant starch helps to produce butyric acid that helps heal our gut lining to ensure nutrient absorption is optimum.

The production of these short chain fatty acids, like butyric, promotes optimum running performance as it also benefits our overall health. Another example of where our microbiome has epic roles in our body is the production of Vitamin B12.

Generally we can only obtain vitamins and minerals through our diet however certain microbiome can produce Vitamin B12 which has massive roles during our running so we run at our best and beat that PB.

What’s the difference between prebiotics and probiotics?

A prebiotic is a food that will help to feed a diverse range of bacteria in our gut. These foods include high fibre containing foods. I would choose these foods to focus on firstly, and perhaps bring in some of these foods more often that make great prebiotics: oats, sourdough bread, Jerusalem artichoke, garlic, asparagus and barley to name a few.

Probiotics are foods that contain some functioning bacteria or cultures. Foods such as yoghurt, kimchi, kombucha, kefir, sauerkraut, tofu and tempeh, pickled vegetables and some soft cheeses like cottage cheese, all have live bacteria. The key here is variety. Aim to consume a variety of these probiotic foods to ensure your microbiome is diverse.

The use of supplements like a prebiotic or probiotic capsule or powder is only really needed if we are suffering from bowel conditions, have had a virus and have been on antibiotics or are suffering from a depressed mood. However, when we are travelling for a running event probiotics are useful to help sustain a healthy immunity.

Gut health vs runners gut

Even if we have an optimum gut environment we can still find we suffer from cramps, bloating or poor timing of bowel movements (mid-race). Having a thorough understanding of what type of foods will sit right in our gut during and outside of training is very important. Aim to enhance your gut health through a focus on prebiotic and probiotic foods, and be familiar with any symptoms that may be present when we are stressed or emotionally down (that Vagus nerve attachment again), or after certain foods.

This awareness will help you to avoid runners gut.

Tara Davenport, Accredited Sports Dietician & Avid Runner

Get in touch with Tara by emailing her at taradavenportapd@outlook.com with any questions. She is available for face-to-face consultations at Milton or online consultations (these can be booked through her website here).

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AUTRA News Report 19-02-2025

By Kate Dzienis • February 19, 2025

The latest in race results, covering Cradle Mountain Run, City Run, Oscars 100 Hut 2 Hut and Yaberoo Trail Ultra.

Final 2024 Points Competition Results

By Alexis Oosterhoff • January 30, 2025

Results for the 2024 AUTRA Points Competition have been finalised, and are available on our Points Competition page. Full details of the top 10 (as shared on Facebook during January) are detailed below, and results for all participating AUTRA members can be found in the documents at the above link. It was a real battle throughout the year between our top two finishers, Phil Gore & Kevin "BK" Matthews, with both giving it their it their all at events, and through contributions to the community - volunteering at multiple events, and submitting articles to our monthly newsletter, Ultramag. They finished within 2km of total distance for the year (Phil on 1203.087km, and Kevin on 1205.510km), and it was only Phil's final volunteering effort on 6 Inch Trail Marathon in December that gave him the that very narrow victory. As you'd be aware from previous communications, this marks the end of the Points Competition. With trail running (of all distances) now incorporated into AU T RA's constitution, and after careful consideration of the costs of the competition payouts in it's current form, the committee felt it was time for it's retirement. This marks my seventh and final year of delivering the points competition to membership (2018-2024), after taking on the role from Cheryl Symons. It has brought me great joy in doing so, and I feel like I've had an opportunity to get to know so many of our members through seeing their race (and volunteering) performances over the years! I'm continuing in my role as the AUS/NZL statistician for DUV (from whom we shared the data for the points comp), and you can expect to continue to find your ultra-race result on their site. 1st Place - Phil Gore (WA) - 86 points Phil's achievements this year have included a massive 265.653km (and 2nd place) at the IAU 24h Asia & Oceania Championships, wins at the Red Dirt Backyard Ultra (33 laps), the Australian leg of Big Dog's Backyard World Team Championship (96 laps), and the Soochow/Taipei 24h Ultramarathon (270.826km). He also knocked out an easy (!) 72km at the Light Horse Ultra 24h in between supporting his amazing wife Gemma. Those two 24h wins netted Phil new Oceania 24h Open Male records, IAU Level 1 qualifiers, and pushed him to the top of Australia's 24h trophy board (with only the great Yiannis Kouros having run further). Phil topped-up his points by contributing one article to Ultramag, worked as an Event Director at Herdy's Frontyard Ultra, and volunteered at a further five events through the year. He finished on 86 points. 2nd Place - Kevin Matthews (WA) - 84 points Finishing in 2nd place in the AUTRA 2024 Points Competition is WA's Kevin Matthews. He monstered his way through the year with finishes at Australia Day Ultra 100km, Delirious WEST 200mi, 24 laps at Herdy's Frontyard Ultra, 190km at Light Horse Ultra 24h, 23 laps at Birdy's Backyard Ultra, and also completed Feral Pig 100 miler, Sandman 50km and Six Inch 47km. And to top things off, he contributed five articles to Ultramag, and volunteered at five events. BK ran 1205km in Ultramarathon races this year, all of them AUTRA-listed, and surpassed 100 marathon finishes (including 51 Ultramarathons!) Kevin finished the year on 84 points, a massive 34 points ahead of our 3rd place finisher Sue Robertson. 3rd Place - Sue Robertson (WA) - 50 points Finishing in 3rd place in the AUTRA 2024 Points Competition is WA's Sue Robertson. Sue completed the Ultra Series 100 miler trilogy of Delirious WEST, Irrational SOUTH and Unreasonable EAST, and rounded out her year with the Sandman 50km and Six Inch 47km races. She received 30 points from the racing at AUTRA-listed events, and was awarded a further 20 points by volunteering across eight events and contributing two articles to Ultramag, for a total of 50 points for the year. Thank you Sue! 4th Place - Margie Hadley (WA) - 47 points Finishing in 4th place in the AUTRA 2024 Points Competition is WA's Margie Hadley . She was the top-female finisher at both the No Time to Die Frontyard Ultra & Wild Dog Backyard Ultra, 2nd at Birdy's Backyard Ultra, ran 182km at the Australian 24h Track Invitational and placed 3rd at Coast to Kosci. Margie received 47 points in the competition 5th Place - Melissa Robertson (NSW) - 44 points Finishing in 5th place in the AUTRA 2024 Points Competition is NSW's Melissa Robertson. Melissa took out 1st place at Irrational SOUTH 200 miler, 2nd place at Lakes Trail Festival 100km, 1st place at Hume & Hovell 100 miler, 3rd place at Rumble in the Jungle and 6th place at Ultra-Trail Kosciuszko 100 miler! She also volunteered at the GNW 50km event, receiving 44 points in the competition! 6th Place - Aaron Young (WA) - 42 points Finishing in 6th place in the AUTRA 2024 Points Competition is WA's Aaron Young . Aaron finished in 1st place at each of the Ultra Series "Triple Crown" of 200 milers (Delirious WEST, Irrational SOUTH and Unreasonable EAST), 55 laps at Big Dog's Backyard World Team Championship, and rounded his year out with Feral Pig 100 miler. Aaron receives 42 points, just nudging ahead of Maree Connor (who also finished on 42 points) on a count-back 7th Place - Maree Connor (NSW) - 42 points Finishing in 7th place in the AUTRA 2024 Points Competition is NSW's Maree Connor. Maree had an outstanding year, achieving 2nd place with 221km (and an IAU Level 1 qualifier) at the IAU 24th Asian and Oceania Championships, 1st place at the Lakes Trail Festival 100km, 1st place with 67km at the Southern Sydney 6h race, and 1st place with 116km at the Narrabeen Allnighter 12h. Maree also competed at Spartathlon race this year (for which she contributed an article to the September Ultramag on her experience), receiving 42 points in the competition. 8th Place - Darren Linney (SA) - 41 points Finishing in 8th place in the AUTRA 2024 Points Competition is SA's Darren Linney . Darren completed 34 laps at No Time to Die BYU, 199km at the Adelaide 24h race, and 814km at the Australian 6 Day race, for a total of 1241km raced and 41 points . 9th Place - Tristan Cameron (WA) - 40 points Finishing in 9th place in the AUTRA 2024 Points Competition is WA's Tristan Cameron. Tristan completed the Ultra Series Triple Crown of 200 mile races (Delirious WEST, Irrational SOUTH and Unreasonable EAST), along with Feral Pig 100 miler, for a total of 1154km raced and 40 points. 10th Place - Jen Millum (WA) - 39 points Finishing in 10th place in the AUTRA 2024 Points Competition is WA's Jen Millum . Jen finished 1st at all three of the Ultra Series Trilogy of 100 milers (Delirious WEST, Irrational SOUTH and Unreasonable EAST), and was 2nd female with 35 laps at the Wild Dog Backyard Ultra. With a volunteer stint at the Yaberoo Trail Ultra, Jen finished the year with 39 points in the competition. To view the complete list of members who secured points in 2024 click here and then follow through to Points Summary under the 2024 tab. All winners have already been contacted, with cash prizes distributed for 1st - 7th places, and AUTRA Store vouchers sent for 8th, 9th & 10th.