A Review of the Role of the Gut Microbiome in Personalized Sports Nutrition

Abstract

The gut microbiome is a key factor in determining inter-individual variability in response to diet. Thus, far, research in this area has focused on metabolic health outcomes such as obesity and type 2 diabetes. However, understanding the role of the gut microbiome in determining response to diet may also lead to improved personalization of sports nutrition for athletic performance. The gut microbiome has been shown to modify the effect of both diet and exercise, making it relevant to the athlete's pursuit of optimal performance. This area of research can benefit from recent developments in the general field of personalized nutrition and has the potential to expand our knowledge of the nexus between the gut microbiome, lifestyle, and individual physiology.

Keywords: athletes; exercise; gut microbiome; metabolism; optimization; performance; personalized nutrition; sports nutrition.

Figure 1

The gut microbiome is influenced by numerous biological and lifestyle factors such as diet, genetics, antibiotics, exercise, and environment (e.g., pollutants, urban vs. rural, etc.).

Figure 2

Potential factors contributing to discrepancies between studies investigating the effect of exercise on the gut microbiome include aspects of study design (e.g., health or disease status; choice of model; age and gender; mode, duration, and frequency of training; and choice of diet) and analytic methods (e.g., DNA extraction, primer bias, and sequencing method; bioinformatic method; choice of metrics; and what taxa are measured and reported).

Figure 3

In studies investigating the effect of exercise on the gut microbiome, confounding dietary factors include dairy, light-colored vegetables, seaweed, rice, cereals, sucrose, fiber, protein intake, fat intake, and total food intake.

Figure 4

The gut microbiome may influence performance via mechanisms such as antioxidant enzyme activity, immune modulation, gastrointestinal permeability, substrate utilization and storage, mitochondria cross-talk, and/or the gut-brain axis.