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Probiotics: Are they worth taking?

Thinking about adding probiotics to your diet? Renee McGregor explains all you need to know

Renee McGregor
Credit: Getty Images

What are probiotics?

Probiotics are food supplements made up of live bacteria.

What are the benefits of probiotics?

They’ve been recommended for a number of years now, as they’re beneficial to both the digestive and the immune system.

Recent developments are emerging that suggest that gut microbiota can influence mood, stress and sleep quality – all hugely important for recovery, which involves both physical and psychological components. So the fact that probiotics can reduce both physical symptoms of stress, especially post-race when the immune system is most vulnerable, as well as enhance mood and sleep quality, ensures that an athlete can return to training in optimal condition. (Gleeson, M 2016).

What type of probiotic is best?

The evidence also points to using a water-based probiotic in preference to a tablet form. This is because a tablet will be seen as solid food within the stomach and will be broken down by stomach acids, making it less effective. Whereas a liquid form will pass through the stomach directly into the gut where it can get to work immediately.

Profile image of Renee McGregor Renee McGregor Sports dietician

About

Renee McGregor (BSc (hons) PGDIP (DIET) PGCERT(sportsnutr) RD BASES) is a leading sports dietitian, specialising in eating disorders, REDs, The Female Athlete, athlete health and performance. Her practice and knowledge is supported by extensive experience of working in both clinical and performance nutrition, including Olympic (London, 2012), Paralympic (Rio, 2016) and Commonwealth (Queensland, 2018) teams. She is presently working with a number of national governing bodies, including Scottish Gymnastics, The GB 24 hour Running squad, Scottish Ballet, Women’s Reading Football and England National Ballet. She has also provided CPD to The Welsh Institute of Sport and Sports Institute, Northern Ireland. On top of this Renee is the diet lead for global ultra-marathon events series Ultra X, part of the Stylist Strong Women series and an ambassador for Bath MIND Charity. She is regularly asked to work directly with high performing and professional athletes that have developed a dysfunctional relationship with food that's impacting their performance, health and career. No matter who she is working with, whether that’s elite, club-level athletes or those with a dysfunctional relationship with food and training, compassion and care is always central to her practice. She provides a person-centred, holistic approach. She's the best-selling author of Training Food, Fast Fuel books. and Orthorexia, When Healthy Eating Goes Bad. She is the co-founder and director of #TRAINBRAVE a campaign raising the awareness of eating disorders in sport; providing resources and practical strategies to reduce the prevalence. In 2020, in order to increase accessibility to her knowledge and experience she started The Trainbrave Podcast and had over 40,000 downloads in its first year. She is on the REDS advisory board for BASES (The British Association of Sport and Exercise Science) and sits on the International Task Force for Orthorexia. Renee has been invited to speak at several high profile events including The European Eating Disorder Society Annual Conference as the UK expert in Orthorexia, Cheltenham Literature Festival, Cheltenham Science Festival, The Stylist Show and Google. She writes for many national publications and is often asked to comment in the national press. She regularly contributes to radio and TV, including News night and BBC 5 Live. On top of this Renee recently appeared on BBC to support as a diet lead in Freddie Flintoff’s ‘Living with Bulimia’ documentary.