Heather: We always want to keep our immune system as strong as we can whatever the situation.
As athletes, it is a challenge balancing our food and our exercise. Obviously, what we
eat and how we train affects our immunity. Today, in this video, I'm going to be speaking
to an expert nutritionist to find out what we can be doing to optimize our overall health.
[music] We talk a lot about nutrition for training
and racing, but what about the essential foods that are required to keep us healthy? I mean,
if we're not healthy, obviously, we can't then race and train. Then, there's stress
to add into the equation, both mental and physical stress have an effect on our bodies,
yet, it is hard to measure that. I expect you're starting to realize just like me that
the equation for staying healthy is far bigger than just what we eat, as I discovered when
I spoke to Renee McGregor earlier. I made a mistake of starting off by asking her, "What
foods we should be eating to boost our immunity?" [music]
Hey, Renee, thank you so much for your time and joining us. I just want to start off with
talking about immunity today and lots of people are wanting to make sure they're boosting
their immunity in these situations. What foods, in particular, should we be looking at that
maybe we want to have a bit more of or at least making sure that we're managing to take
in at the moment? Renee McGregor: Firstly, I think the key thing
to say is we can't boost our immunity. We can support our immunity and we can maintain
our immunity, but we can't boosts it because I know there's a lot of misinformation out
there at the moment, especially in our current climate, a lot of posts coming out, Instagram
posts, advertisements for particular supplements that are going to boost your immunity, and
that's not possible. It's just really important to highlight that that's not the case.
However, we can definitely maintain our immunity, and it's a combination of lots of different
things. It's not just food, although, that has a massive part to play. It's also remembering
sleep. Sleep is huge in terms of our immunity. We know there's loads of studies that have
shown that if you get less than eight hours a day, it has a real negative impact on your
immunity. Stress, which, of course, is big at the moment, right? A lot of people are
feeling incredibly anxious and uncertain about the situation we're in, and I know from the
people I've been talking to from a work perspective, anxiety levels are incredibly high. It's trying
to find strategies that can help you deal with that, I suppose, which is really important.
Then, also, on top of that, is being active but not to the point where you are overstressing
the system. I know UK Athletics, Scottish Athletics, Scottish Ballet, and a lot the
other kind of professional bodies I've been working for, they've all sent out information
to all the athletes saying, "Do not do strenuous exercise right now because we know, again,
that can depress the immune system. Stay active, as in, do something most days, get outside,
all that kind of stuff, but you don't have to push yourself to the point of breaking
or even trying to overcompensate, which a lot of athletes tend to do, especially at
the moment, when they're feeling stressed and they're locked in, and we don't know what's
going on with the race calendar. It's difficult. It's a tricky time.
Heather: Going back to food, what can we do to help maintain our immunity then? Are there
certain food groups that we should be definitely making sure that we have more now than ever?
Are there certain foods that maybe we're not taking on that we could consider?
Renee: I mean, the key thing, I would say, is trying not to remove anything from your
diet at the moment. It's very much about a balanced approach as it always is, generally
speaking. Again, just some of the things I've read on social media recently, there's PTs
and some coaches suggesting people do a bit of fasting, miss out breakfast, things like
that, which actually is the worst thing you can do for immune system. My advice is try
and keep as much routine as you can and ensure that you're getting a really good balance.
We know that one of the key areas of immunity is ensuring there's enough carbohydrate in
the system, particularly, if you are being active. If you're trying to maintain some
level of training and you're getting out on the bike or you're getting out for a run or
doing some weight session, make sure you are fueling with your carbs before and after that
because that's when your immune system tends to be at its most vulnerable. It's after a
session when you don't refuel and you don't recover properly. I'd say that's one key nutrient.
The other thing is obviously making sure that you are getting as many vitamins and minerals
as you can. Now, I appreciate that can be quite hard if you're not going out at the
shops that often and you're not buying as much fresh fruit vegetables, but remember,
that there are options. We do have frozen, we do have canned, we do have dried, and they
all do contain high levels of vitamins and minerals. You can still make sure that you're
getting your vitamins and minerals, and the particular ingredients- well, the particular
nutrients I'll be looking at will be iron because we know, again, a low iron level can
reduce your immunity. Foods that are particularly high in iron are
fortified cereals, red meat, eggs, beans and pulses to a degree, green leafy vegetables,
whole grains. The thing you got to remember is that with plant-based options, it's much
harder to absorb the iron, so trying to have that with some vitamin C can really help to
boost the uptake of iron. That's a really important nutrient to be thinking about and
ensuring you're getting in your diet. Then, obviously, it's trying to make sure
that you're getting a lot of your B vitamins and also zinc and vitamin C, which, again,
if you're eating a really balanced diet, which you're having carbs protein, essential fats,
fresh fruit and vegetables, or frozen fruit vegetables or whatever, you're having some
sort of intake of vegetables and fruit. You should be meeting all your requirements without
really having to worry too much. Heather: What's your preference out of-- What
has the most nutrients when it comes to frozen, dried, or tinned? Obviously, fresh is the
best, but after that, what's the ranking order? Renee: Well, actually, [unintelligible 00:06:54]
frozen is actually probably better than fresh at times because when we buy fresh and we
leave it in our fridges or we leave it on the side, every day that it's left on the
side, it's actually losing vitamins and minerals. Whereas, when we have frozen, it's picked
and it's immediately frozen, so it preserves the vitamin content a lot more. I'm a big
fan of frozen fruit vegetables, and it's something that, even not in this present climate, I
tend to rely on quite a lot because while I do fresh fruit and veg, I also know that
with my schedule, sometimes, fruit and veg can be in the fridge for a week before I get
around to doing a thing with it. I would say frozen is probably at the top, then, canned,
and then, dried. Heather: You talked about, and I know we've
talked about it before, vitamin C to help absorb iron, do you need to be taking- having
some vitamin C in at the same time or before or after? Say, you're having a glass of orange
juice to get your vitamin C, is that best alongside, or when should you have that to
help absorb the iron? Renee: Ideally, alongside it is when we would
recommend it. Try having your whole-grain, fortified cereal in the morning with the glass
of juice is a great way of doing it, or even adding some frozen berries to your cereal.
That's also very high in vitamin C. That would be a really good way of getting it. There
are lots of different ways. Vitamin C is actually very, very easy to obtain. I think people
panic about vitamin C, but the average medium-size orange gives you your vitamin C requirements
for a day. It's not actually that hard to get your vitamin
C requirement. People think that they need to eat it in mega doses because, again, we've
been told it boosts our immunity. It doesn't boost our immunity, but what we do know is
that if you increase your intake of vitamin C and zinc on day one of, say, some sort of
cold infection, it can reduce the longevity of the infection. Now, whether that is the
same for COVID-19, I have no idea. I doubt it is because it seems to be like a very different
virus and affects people in very different ways.
Heather: Renee, at the moment, a lot of people are not doing maybe as much weight-bearing
as normal and also not getting as much sunshine as normal, is there anything we can do to
help our bone health at the moment? Renee: I mean, normally, I would recommend
a vitamin D supplement through the winter months. I would be saying, September to April,
anyway. At the moment, I have to admit I've carried on taking my vitamin D tablets because
although I am getting outside once a day, it is once a day, it's not as much as I would
like it to be. Again, we know that vitamin D is really important for your immune function
as well. I would say to people that if you have been
taking a vitamin D supplement, I would continue to take a vitamin D supplement for the time
being while we are indoors and as much as we are. The other thing you can do weight-bearing
is actually doing multi-directional type movement, so you don't necessarily have to go outside
and do that. That could be that you get- if you've got a resistance band or- you don't
even need one one of those. You could just do some lounges, maybe for 5 or 10 minutes
a day. Even that would be enough to try and keep the bone health turnover going.
Heather: You mentioned you're taking vitamin D, are there any other supplements that people
might want to take at the moment, or could help at all with maintaining their immunity?
Renee: Fundamentally, if you're getting a balanced diet, you don't need to take any
additional supplements apart from, say, vitamin D. There is some really good evidence that
taking a probiotic can help with upper respiratory tract infections. We know that when we are
preparing athletes for major international games; Commonwealth, Paralympics, Olympics,
we would usually encourage them to take a 12-week course of probiotics in the lead up
to the games in an attempt to help prevent any upper respiratory tract infections. That
would be something that could be of benefit right now.
Otherwise, unless you have a known deficiency, unless you are somebody that you know has
a low iron intake or you know it maybe not getting quite enough calcium because you're
not eating dairy, and perhaps you can't get your usual sources. I know I've had a few
of my clients contact me saying they're finding it really hard to get soya milk and soya yogurts
because, I suppose, everybody's just been out and bought what they could and stocks
are a little bit low. If you are worried about your calcium intake, then, that might be something
to be worth taking, but otherwise, you should be able to get everything you need through
your diet. [music]
Heather: That conversation with Renee has really drummed home to me the fact that protecting
our immune system cannot be achieved single-handedly by food alone, it is very much about a fine
balance, and it can be quite difficult to find, especially when circumstances are changing.
If there has been a dramatic change, it's really easy to overcompensate by dramatically
changing your diet, or your exercise, or even upsetting your sleep patterns.
For me, the biggest take-home from Renee is, whatever the situation, to try to maintain
some routine or as close to a routine as you can manage, listen to your body, and also,
just keep that really nice, healthy, balanced diet. Yes, sometimes that's easier said than
done, but hopefully, you guys found that useful because I certainly got some tips to take
home from that. Give us a like and a follow on our social media channels, and make sure
you stay nice and healthy. [00:12:32] [END OF AUDIO]