Are Microplastics in Your Sports Nutrition? How to Tell (And How to Avoid)

Microplastics, tiny plastic particles less than 5 millimeters in size, are quite literally everywhere in our world – in the air, in oceans and lakes, in soil, in food, in our bloodstream, and in our organs. The average American eats, drinks, and breathes in an estimated 74,000 to 121,000 microplastics each year. These particles come from essentially anything made of plastic – things like cosmetics, furniture, food storage containers, plastic packaging, and apparel – breaking down from age, sun exposure, or heat into tiny plastic pieces and making their way into our environment and our bodies.

In triathlon, plastic has long been the solution to racing and training challenges: lightweight water bottles, disposable sports nutrition wrappers, neoprene wetsuits, spandex tri suits, synthetic rubber tires, plastic cycling helmets, and the list goes on. On top of that, sweating opens your pores to make it even easier for those particles to enter your system. So when it comes to using any kind of plastic product as a triathlete, it’s not really a matter of if you’re being exposed to microplastics – it’s more a matter of how many microplastics are getting into your body. But don’t chuck all the plastic in your life just yet.

“If the idea of microplastics and your exposure does freak you out, try not to stress too much,” says Taryn Richardson, an advanced sports dietitian, founder of the Triathlon Nutrition Academy, and former nutritionist for Triathlon Australia. “I think it’s important to be aware and be mindful of our exposure, and do some things yourself to minimize it. But if it’s getting to the point where … it’s completely affecting your life, then that’s not healthy either. Training is enough stress without adding that mental load stress from something we don’t really know the long-term health implications of yet.”

The health effects of microplastics

We are only in the infancy stages of understanding the presence of microplastics in the body, much less to the point where we understand their near-term or long-term health effects – they were only first measured in human blood in 2022. However, research suggests that microplastics can cause neurotoxicity (including diseases like Alzheimer’s), digestive issues, respiratory problems, cardiovascular issues, inflammation, and endocrine disruption. While more research is needed to fully understand the effects of microplastics, we can safely assume that no good can come from tiny shreds of plastic clogging up our blood vessels, passing through our digestive tract, and floating around our lungs. And they certainly won’t aid triathlon performance.

“We’re high-achieving people, and we want to do everything for our health and performance,” Richardson says. But avoiding plastic can’t be an overnight change. To limit our exposure, it takes “small, incremental changes that compound over time to change some habits and behaviors.”

How to minimize microplastic exposure

The biggest culprits of microplastic exposure are single-use plastic food or beverage containers. And that plastic breakdown is accelerated with age, heat, and sun exposure. Reusable plastic – water bottles, food storage containers, cooking utensils – will tout being BPA-free or made from recycled plastic or materials, but the plastic will still break down, just at a slower rate.

In addition, some manufacturers are turning to bioplastics, which are biodegradable plastics made from things like corn or sugarcane instead of petroleum. While a bioplastic like polylactic acid (PLA) might have less of an effect on the environment, it has actually been found to shed microplastics at a higher rate than a petroleum-based plastic.

Bottom line: Avoid plastic if you can. Here’s what Richardson recommends for the easiest, most impactful swaps for triathletes.

Avoid disposable water bottles

Pretty much at all costs. And especially if they have been sitting for a long time in your hot car. Opt for stainless steel or glass water bottles for daily hydration.

Trade out your kitchen plastic

The next time you are replacing kitchen items, purchase glass food storage containers instead of plastic and buy only wooden or metal cooking utensils. Don’t microwave plastic, and stop using it if it shows signs of wear.

Get your food out of plastic

Pretty much everything from the grocery store comes in plastic – shop at farmers’ markets if you can, purchase grains (like rice or cereal) in bulk to put in your own containers, or even move the items currently in your pantry to glass containers instead of storing them in plastic bags.

Try training without plastic

It is not practical to ask a high-performing triathlete to carry around heavy stainless steel water bottles on race day, but can you use a non-plastic bottle when you’re on the trainer or the treadmill? Can you get one that fits in your bottle cages for rides? If you stick with plastic, make sure you minimize how long you use it, how often you expose it to heat or sunlight (which degrades it faster), and don’t set up your bottles the night before – prepare fresh bottles right before training.

Make your own sports nutrition

There is a notable lack of plastic-free sports nutrition packaging these days. The best way around it is to make your own sports nutrition with ingredients you store in glass, not plastic. Make homemade energy bars, sports drinks, and energy gels.

The future of microplastics in sports nutrition

While the sports nutrition industry has worked hard over the last decade or so to reduce the environmental impact of single-use packaging by setting up recycling programs or using recycled materials, almost every single product still uses plastic, which means you’re still consuming microplastics.

There have been a few innovators in the plastic-free space – Gnarly Nutrition announced last year that it would be selling its products in steel cans and eliminating the plastic scoop typically found in protein or drink mixes. UK-based Form Nutrition offers a plastic-free vegan protein powder, and Four Sigmatic’s protein powder is sold in an aluminum and cardboard container with a plastic lid. A small business in the UK offers “wrapper-free” oat-based bars featuring a beeswax coating. But major U.S. brands have not yet followed suit.

“I can’t imagine Ironman is going to start handing out glass water bottles,” Richardson says. However, “I think there’ll be a shift away [from plastic packaging] in the next 10 years.”

Richardson recommends reducing your exposure when possible and keeping an eye on the space. “It’s going to get bigger from here,” she says. “We’ve only just been able to quantify them in human blood. We’re only just beginning.”