Supplement Selection for Ultrarunning with Floris Wardenaar, PhD #217
Episode overview:
Floris Wardennar is an assistant professor at the College of Health Solutions since September 2017 with expertise in Performance Nutrition.
Floris’s education:
PhD Dietary exposure assessment in athletes, Wageningen University 2017
MS Nutritional Physiology, Wageningen University 2005
Internship, the University of Texas at Austin, Department of Kinesiology, 2005
BS Nutrition and Dietetics, Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences (Hogeschool van Amsterdam, HvA) 2001
Episode highlights:
(35:15) Sodium bicarbonate example: best for sprinting 30-90 seconds, lack of relevance to ultramarathon running, know what problem you are trying to solve
(51:18) Single substances: caffeine example, controlling dosage, timing, and substance, coffee example
(1:01:00) Personalized nutrition: potentially the future, testing for deficiencies, magnesium supplement example
Our conversation:
(0:00) Introduction: untangling the minefield of supplementation, bringing on Floris, his new paper on how athlete stakeholders contribute to training recommendations
(2:16) Setup: recording in person, moving labs, working out of Arizona State University
(3:51) Floris’s background: growing up in the Netherlands, cycling, nutrition, nutritional physiology, sports dietetics, working with elite athletes, investigating dietary intake of Dutch athletes, moving to a larger university in the U.S.
(9:06) Research and practice: Floris’s transition from practice to research, providing tools for practitioners
(10:47) Supplement regulation in the Netherlands: contrast with supplements in the U.S., NZVT origin, contamination and doping
(13:33) NZVT testing: third party versus NZVT batch testing
(15:07) Supplements and doping in ultra trail: recent double blinded study on ultramarathon runners, no athletes reported using banned substances yet 16% turned up positive, doping controls are coming to trail and ultra
(17:21) Floris on accidental doping violations: unfamiliarity with the rules, positive tests from supplements, avoiding unknown substances in supplements, elite versus amateur athletes
(19:52) Education and doping: amateur cycling example, claims of ignorance and contamination, sport enforces strict liability, the burden of proof is on the athlete
(22:28) Athlete stakeholders: family, friends, peers, and personal experience, general consensus from experts, stakeholders are less equipped to provide advice on specific supplements
(25:30) Seeking advice on supplements: coach qualifications can be hard to assess, sports RDs are the experts, sport specialization of RDs, deferring to professionals
(27:30) Coaching and supplements: the role of a coach, specialists can help you with backup plans, coaching experience versus personal experience
(30:04) Gels and sports drinks: Floris on gels first entering the market, developing a toolkit for athletes
(31:49) Addressing supplements: stakeholders solve problems differently, new supplements have little evidence to back them up, the risks of n=1 testing, considering safety, evidence, and individual fit
(35:15) Sodium bicarbonate example: best for sprinting 30-90 seconds, lack of relevance to ultramarathon running, know what problem you are trying to solve
(36:49) Reconciling athlete stories: context, sponsors, “it can’t hurt” philosophy,
(38:57) Limited athlete bandwidth: Floris’s rule of never working with more than 3 supplements, reducing the noise, decision making and athlete support
(40:47) Compliance: maintaining a short supplement list to ensure proper usage, examples
(42:24) Defining supplements, the Australian Institute of Sport, considering both health and performance
(44:56) AIS guidelines: link in the show notes, ABC classification system, framework for evaluating supplements, instructions for athletes versus health professionals
(47:20) Athlete education: safe supplement use, using normal foods to achieve the same effect as sports foods, “food first, but not food only”
(49:15) Polarization of sports supplements: hyper-specificity versus supplements that cover all foundational nutrition
(51:18) Single substances: caffeine example, controlling dosage, timing, and substance, coffee example
(52:44) GI distress: a multifactorial problem, trialing one substance at a time, ongoing research to address GI complaints
(54:44) Multivitamins and IVs: exotic supplements that claim to be catch-alls, avoiding IVs, fluid retention from drinking normally is better than with IVs
(57:41) Revisiting multivitamins: low dose multivitamins, association between dietary quality and supplement interest, inconsistency in supplement use, multivitamins are insurance, know why you are taking them
(1:01:00) Personalized nutrition: potentially the future, testing for deficiencies, magnesium supplement example
(1:03:35) Blood testing: working with a doctor, calcium example, complex nature of physiology, blood testing is often only one piece of the puzzle, KoopCast 186 on blood testing, the compliance challenges and effort associated with blood testing
(1:07:08) Wrap-up: where to find Floris, Athleate Instagram, making research more accessible
(1:09:24) Outro and recap: single supplementations, know what problem you are trying to solve with supplement use, share the KoopCast
Additional resources:
Blood Biomarkers with Charlie Pedlar, PhD | KoopCast Episode #186
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