Gluten Free and Dairy Free

Kayla Johnson

Hey Y'all, 

Are there any athletes who are gluten and dairy free? My nutrition is strictly gluten and dairy free for medical reasons so unfortunately I can't make exceptions.

Looking for some tips on race days. I'm far away from participating in a race but, I'd like to go ahead and start gathering ideas to start seeing how my body reacts to the different options. 

Excited to see everyone's ideas! Thanks!

Alicia Chase

I'm GF. I use UCAN for training and racing. I have issues with digesting a lot of carbs and sugar when training and racing, and I've had very good luck with UCAN. I also like Bonk Breaker Bars and have had no issues with them. The PB&J tastes like the real thing!

Kayla Johnson

Awesome!!! I'll definitely look into these. Thanks for the information! 

Josh Church

@Kayla Johnson picky bars are also dairy and gluten free. I use them race morning but not during the race. 
I use them a lot when I'm not in race prep, while riding. 

Todd Middlebrooks

I'm also gluten and dairy free. This past year I used Infinit for bike and run nutrition. I also used Huma gels for additional calories as necessary. 

Kayla Johnson

Great information! I'm excited to have options. 

Thanks so much for the information! 

Jeremy Behler

Reach out to @tim cronk after Kona.   He's the Jan Frodeno of vegan triathletes

And @Danielle Santucci is the Danielle Ryf of Gluten Free triathletes

Trish Marshall

Our fabulous @Brenda Ross is also vegan and gluten free.  Yet another kick butt resource for you! 

Brenda Ross

@Kayla Johnson - yup, been gluten free for over 10 years and plant-based for 4 or 5 years.  I use GenUCan for training over 2 hours or hard Zone 4/5 workouts (Outseason bikes) but otherwise, I run off of fat.  Been working the fat-adapted angle for 1 year and just finished IMMT successfully rocking that WOE.  Lots of great athletes on the team that you can get resources from. Welcome to the family.

tim cronk

@JeremyBehler thanks for paging me...  

I have been avoiding this thread as nutrition/diet can be like politics/religion, on top of that it can be very "fadish" and everybody is selling something... Yes I am vegan which means No animal products , my choice to be vegan is for health, performance, environmental, and animal cruelty beliefs, its been 8 years now and I absolutely love what I eat, I do consume Gluten , while I believe "most" of daily my choices are very healthy, I do not believe what I do on race day or while key training sessions is healthy, which is to consume large quantities of highly processed race foods/fluids as long as they are vegan.  There is plenty of documentation in my Race Reports for those interested.

Currently there are 2 practices that are going viral within the triathlon space... They are gluten free and fat adapted... JMHO

Gluten Free - While there is such a thing as Celiac disease which is an actual allergy to gluten and there are those that are sensitive to gluten (both of which can be tested for) there are many others that are avoiding gluten for absolutely No reason at all... While avoiding gluten is quite easy and I dont think it is actually unhealthy , some may just wanna ask themselves why they are doing it?

Fat Adapted/Keto/HFLC etc - Not even going here... In the words of Metallica "Gimme fuel ,gimme fire ,gimme that which I desire" My body is an engine and chooses to run on high test fuel IOW carbohydrates....JMHO and not saying that the above approach may work for some, but I have been very hard pressed to find a winning FOP/PRO IM athlete that practices it, ULTRA running etc is another animal being much lower intensity.

@Kayla Johnson back to your original question there are tons of gluten free/dairy free training/racing products on the market... In fact I would say most of them are ... However read the labels carefully.

Alicia Chase

I would agree with @tim cronk although I do actually find GF to be kind of difficult to do in my everyday life, and if GF didn’t address a major health issue for me, I wouldn’t do it. That being said, many processed foods, whether they have gluten or not, are loaded with sugar and other ingredients of questionable nutritional value, and should be limited or avoided as much as possible. Same thing with HFLC diet. While ketosis is almost impossible to maintain while doing endurance training anyway, and while I do find that I definitely benefit from limiting processed carbs and including high quality fat in my diet, I train and perform much better with well-timed, good quality carbs on board.