Gut training to increase carbohydrate absorption during training and competition is a hot thing right now and in my professional opinion, will not be going away anytime soon.

If you plan on pushing your body’s limits of carbohydrate absorption, you may be interested in an emerging area of research that suggests the gut microbiome plays a meaningful role in how efficiently you can absorb and utilize carbohydrates.

Let’s dive into how gut bacteria may influence carbohydrate digestion and absorption and potentially help you improve your athletic performance.

The Gut Microbiome and Athletic Performance

The gut microbiome consists of bacteria, viruses, fungi and other microorganisms that live primarily in the large intestine. These microbes assist in digestion, regulate immune function, produce metabolites and interact with metabolic pathways that influence energy production.

For athletes, the microbiome becomes especially important because eating a high carbohydrate diet can challenge digestive capacity and intense exercise can impair gut function.

Athletes who can digest and absorb more carbohydrate with less gastrointestinal distress have a clear advantage during training and competition.

Training the Gut for Higher Carbohydrate Intake

Many athletes (especially those training for endurance events) are consuming more carbohydrates per hour during training and racing. The ceiling of carbohydrate intake and absorption is most certainly rising and one reason some athletes tolerate these high intakes better than others is the adaptability of the gastrointestinal system, including the microbiome.

"Training the gut” involves a few different implementation strategies, one of which is feeding more carbohydrates during exercise. This can lead to increased intestinal carbohydrate transporter expression, improved gastric emptying and adaptation of gut bacteria that specialize in carbohydrate fermentation. This last point is the one I want to highlight.

Gut microbes adapt and can help break down carbohydrates and producing metabolites that influence gut health and absorption.

Certain bacterial “groups" are particularly important for improving carbohydrate metabolism which can be extremely helpful if you are trying to consume more than 90 grams of carbohydrates per hour.

These include bifidobacterium, lactobacillus and prevotella. 

• Bifidobacteria ferment complex carbohydrates and fibers to produce short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) such as acetate and lactate. This can support gut barrier integrity, reduce inflammation in the intestinal lining and enhance carbohydrate fermentation capacity.

• Lactobacillus are commonly found in fermented foods and probiotic supplements and can help improve digestion of certain sugars, reduce gastrointestinal distress during exercise and support intestinal enzyme activity.

• Prevotella bacteria are more common in athletes who eat a high carbohydrate diet and can improve carbohydrate fermentation, increase production of SCFAs and enhance energy extraction from carbohydrates. 

To help reduce GI distress symptoms, often accompanied by eating more carbohydrates, having a more resilient microbiome may be the key. So, the next step is improving your microbiome by eating more prebiotic and probiotic-rich foods such as fruits, vegetables, whole grains, nuts, seeds and beans.

You can also consider taking probiotic supplements specifically ones that include lactobacillus rhamnosus, bifidobacterium longum and lactobacillus plantarum but keep in mind that probiotic effects are strain-specific and results vary significantly between individuals.

If you want to try to improve your carbohydrate absorption for training and competition, improving your gut health may just be the missing piece of the puzzle. 

Of course, let’s not forget that improving gut health has tremendous positive effects on overall health also so whether you are trying to eat ore carbohydrates during training to improve athletic performance or not, it’s to your benefit to improving your overall microbiome.

Did you know the team of Sports Dietitians at eNRG Performance specializes in improving gut health? Reach out to us to learn how to improve your health and performance via enhanced gut functioning.                 

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