The Key Nutrients Cyclists Forget About To Stay Strong And Healthy

Here at Fuel The Ride Academy, it’s probably no surprise that we spend a lot of time discussing fuelling. After all, it’s a fundamental part of nailing down nutrition as a cyclist and an area where there is the potential for significant gains in performance, particularly if you’re not doing it very well already.

The macronutrients in our diet—fat, carbohydrates, protein, and water (and sometimes alcohol)—are the nutrients we need to consume in large quantities, primarily to provide sufficient energy to sustain life. Therefore, they make up a significant part of our diet.

Once we’ve nailed down our fuelling strategies, though (i.e., getting enough of each of the macronutrients), there are still other critical components of the diet that are often forgotten about. Namely, our micronutrient intake plays a vital part in supporting our health, with many also playing a role in performance.

Micronutrients are nutrients we consume in very small quantities, often fractions of a gram. Still, they are usually essential because we cannot produce many of them, so we rely on our dietary intake to supply them. Their roles include supporting the immune system, working as antioxidants, producing red blood cells for oxygen transport, bone metabolism, energy metabolism and nerve function. All of which are essential for health and performance. 

Key examples of micronutrients include fat-soluble vitamins like vitamins D, A and E, water-soluble vitamins like Thiamine, Riboflavin, Pyridoxine, B12, Niacin, Pantothenic acid, Biotin, Vitamin C and A. Minerals including sodium, potassium, calcium and magnesium and trace elements like iron, zinc, copper, chromium and selenium.

Knowing if you’re getting enough of many different micronutrients can be challenging. Athletes can also have heightened requirements for micronutrients compared to the average population due to increased losses through sweat and urine (sodium, calcium and zinc), reduced absorption as a result of the inflammation associated with training (iron) and extended periods that some athletes spend indoors (Vitamin D). To name but a few examples. 

A well-balanced diet is often sufficient to meet the needs of all micronutrients in healthy humans. However, many athletes often look to use micronutrient supplements to ensure that they get sufficient micronutrients, but this can come with issues. Any supplement has the risk of being contaminated with banned substances. As such, if you’re subject to any anti-doping rules, this can be a significant risk unless you're using a batch-tested product. There can also be issues around toxicity; taking a supplement in a high dose, when your diet isn’t necessarily deficient in a micronutrient, can come with risks, as high doses can result in toxicity, which can also be harmful to health. More is definitely not better. 

Many micronutrients are also unlikely to be beneficial for performance unless you are clinically deficient, and supplementing with them brings you back to a level of sufficiency. 

So, what are the best and most effective ways to ensure that you consume sufficient micronutrients in your diet? Here are three key aspects of diet to focus on.

1. Eat enough – Whilst athletes often have heightened needs for many micronutrients, they also require more food to meet their daily energy demands of training. Ensuring you consume a diet that has sufficient energy intake is a key way to ensure you are getting enough micronutrients. Often, athletes on restricted diets are more at risk of deficiencies. In endurance athletes, for example, those who consume inadequate energy are likely to be at much greater risk of iron deficiency.
2. Don’t eliminate any food groups – Whilst it is often possible to consume sufficient micronutrients on a diet that restricts food groups (i.e, vegetarian or vegan), it does make it more challenging to achieve adequate intakes of some micronutrients. Take iron for example, heam iron from animal based products is much easier for the body to absorb and therefore helps ensure we get enough of it in. As such, not unnecessarily avoiding any food groups is a key way to ensure you get everything you need. 
3. Eat a wide variety of different nutrient-dense foods. The more variety in our diet, the better our chance of getting all the nutrients we need. Making sure you mix things up can not only help ensure your diet is not monotonous but is very effective in ensuring you get enough micronutrients. 
   
   

Coach Ben