Food Matters Live Podcast · Food Matters Live

Sports nutrition and functional ingredients - what the science says

·47 min·2 clips

Josh Rowe compares nutrition advice today to MS-DOS in the 1980s and argues it must move to the iPhone era.

1. The Food Matters Live Podcast, recorded live at the Food Matters Live event in Ascot, presents three scientists on sports nutrition and functional ingredients, covering hydrogel fueling, magnesium, turmeric and omega-3. 2. Host Anthony Zahra introduces Josh Rowe (head of sports tech at Morton, PhD in biochemistry and physiology), Phil Beard (education and R&D at Viridian Nutrition) and Dr Abby Caywood (science director at Holland & Barrett, honorary research fellow at the University of Southampton). 3. The episode's framing is that consumers face constant messaging on supplements, and the speakers aim to "cut through the pseudoscience" using evidence, with Beard flagging "a lot of misinformation around magnesium." 4. Rowe says 85% of the top 100 marathons were run in the last six to eight years, and links this to the 6 May 2017 attempt, Kipchoge's 2019 run, and hydrogel technology that forms a three-dimensional structure in the stomach and releases carbohydrates in the small intestine. 5. Rowe describes sodium bicarbonate's "fueling performance paradox": athletes traditionally needed 20 to 25 capsules, which caused vomiting or diarrhea, so Morton built 3 mm micro tablets inside a hydrogel shield, and he says 92 of Paris Olympic medal winners used a bicarbonate product. 6. Beard states that people absorb around half the magnesium they consume, that under 1% of body magnesium is in the blood, and that high blood levels can indicate deficiency, so "sufficiency is the first thing" and form matters less. 7. Beard defends magnesium oxide, saying the 4% bioavailability figure traces to a single 2001 study, that it has the highest elemental value, and that amino acid forms are lower in magnesium and more expensive, while advising against oxide for people with high acidity or on PPIs. 8. Caywood explains that Holland & Barrett grades evidence from randomized controlled trials, systematic reviews and meta-analyses over the last 18 months to two years, and reports 450 mg of turmeric extract for two weeks reduced morning joint pain, and 500 mg for 12 weeks reduced BMI and waist circumference, both graded moderate. 9. Caywood notes that adults in the recent NDNS survey ate on average only 26% of a 140 g portion of oily fish weekly, that the most frequently recommended EPA plus DHA intake is 250 mg per day, and that she recommends 500 mg combined. 10. Suited to supplement-curious consumers, sports nutrition practitioners and food industry product developers.

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