Check out my latest contributions in the latest edition (June 2013) of Men’s Fitness magazine (UK).

• ‘Nutrition Q@A’ section, p10o: In this month’s ‘Nutrition Q&A’ column I discuss why most popular ‘healthy’  breakfast cereals are actually bad for you!

Get your copy from your local newsagent or get a subscription online via www.mensfitness.co.uk

I am regularly quoted, featured, and contribute expert opinions and content for a variety of UK and US magazines and press.

Check out my latest contributions in the latest edition (May 2013) of Men’s Fitness magazine (UK).

• ‘Nutrition Q@A’ section, p102: In this month’s ‘Nutrition Q&A’ column I discuss which types of sugar are worst for you and why!

Get your copy from your local newsagent or get a subscription online via www.mensfitness.co.uk

The Scale of Supplements

There’s no doubt about it, the supplement industry is big business! Take for instance recent data by Researchers Key Note, who valued The UK market for vitamins, minerals and other food supplements such as fish oils at an attractive £364 million in the UK in 2010, with a projected worth of £389 million in 2015-2016. In another example we have the sports nutrition market which, despite the current economic struggles pervading both national and international markets, has grown somewhat exponentially in recent years and has thus also proven to be an extremely lucrative market, worth billions. With this in mind, it comes as no surprise that there is an increasing presence of supplement products in mass-market channels such as supermarkets and the television, which in itself is one of the major factors driving this strong growth of the market. As such, this has led to increasing exposure of supplements among a more general consumer base and it is these consumers, rather than bodybuilders and elite athletes, who provide the driving force of future growth in the marketplace.

Priorities, Priorities, Priorities!

It goes without saying that the use of supplements is becoming more and more ‘normal’, which is actually quite concerning because essentially you cannot substitute a poor diet (but that’s a story for another day!). For now I would like to focus on where our priorities should lie when it comes to choosing a supplement.

In the first instance, the priority for many when choosing a supplement will be its purported effects (big emphasis on ‘purported’) and cost. While these are somewhat reasonable variables to consider, it is more prudent to consider three others: (1) Safety (2) Quality (3) Effectiveness. Allow me to explain…

Safety

There are thousands upon thousands of dietary and ‘performance enhancing’ supplements on the market and this number is growing every day. Whilst many of these supplements can be useful across the lifespan i.e. glucosamine may help with arthritis, probiotics may aid with healthy immune and gut function, protein and carbohydrate may help athletes meet their high macronutrient targets, it is important for us to be cognizant of the fact that a vast array of supplements in the marketplace are NOT REGULATED, which means there is no guarantee what’s in them! In general, the supplement industry is doing a decent job at controlling what is put out on display, however, as with most things in life, there are outliers! That is, on the fringes there are companies (particularly internet and black market companies) which are selling substances that are either contaminated or are falsely including performance enhancing substances, which in itself offers the potential to be very damaging to ones health and may also be detrimental to the performance, and indeed careers, of athletes. For example, a plethora of athletes have been caught knowingly taking a supplement they believed was ‘OK’ which was in fact contaminated with other substances, one or more of which was banned in their sport. A prime example of this is the over the counter medication Sudafed, which contains (albeit not contaminated with) the active ingredient pseudoephedrine hydrochloride which is a position holder on the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) list of banned substances! Not only are such naïve actions likely to lead to a fine or a ban (or both!), they also offer a potentially serious compromise to health and well-being.

To highlight my point here, I would like to direct you to the UK Anti-Doping website⁽¹⁾, and specifically a list of all persons currently serving an Anti-Doping Rule Violation⁽²⁾. My aim here is not to demonize particular individuals, rather to highlight the scale of the matter at hand. I am sure many of the listed athletes were caught out completely unaware they had imbibed a banned substance! The website is a hub of information for athletes, coaches, parents, and indeed the general public who are looking to learn more about doping in sport and of the advantages/disadvantages of supplements. It offers information on current and historical sanctions, reports on the UKAD’s National Programme, UKAD rules and regulations, as well as documents which provide information on specific issues such as asthma medications, and much more.

Another excellent resource comes by means of the WADA website⁽³⁾. This contains a wealth of information regarding their monitoring programme, inclusive of the 2013 prohibited list, which provides information on substances prohibited in competition and in particular sports, as well as those which are on their monitoring programme (and are thus ones to be congisant of as these may be included on the prohibited list in the future). This also comes as an excellent free app which can be located on the Apple App Store. Here, you can quite simply type the name of a particular substance into the search engine and it will tell you how it fairs with their regulations i.e. is the substance safe to use, monitored, prohibited etc.

Quality and Effectiveness

While the marketing of supplements is chaotic, the input of manufacturers to ensuring supplement ‘quality’ has not been so rigorous. There is a common belief held by the population that all supplements are created equally, which has led many to source the best value. However, in reality the quality of supplements is highly erratic. Grade, form, purity, bioavailability and third party verification all contribute to the effectiveness of a product and, as is particularly the case with vitamins, can affect the ability of the product to work effectively. It can be difficult for anyone to determine which brands are best but as a general rule of thumb the quality of a supplement can be assessed by asking the following:

1. Authenticity – Do the ingredients on the label match the ingredients contained in the product?
2. Potency – Are the amounts of each ingredient listed on the label the minimum amounts contained in each capsule, tablet, or teaspoonful, at its expiration date? In most cases, if there isn’t an expiration date, exclude.
3. Purity – Are there any unlisted ingredients added to the product? Do the ingredients contain dangerous levels of biological or chemical contaminants, filters or additives.

It is also prudent to check whether products have been screened and have passed a certification test. Informed Sport is one company that does just this. Essentially, it is a quality assurance programme for sports nutrition products, suppliers to the sports nutrition industry, and supplement manufacturing facilities. For example, companies such as NutritionX, Myprotein, Flora, and Lucozade amongst others, send in many of their products to be tested for banned substances by the world-class sports anti-doping lab, HFL Sport Science. Their website provides an easy to use search function where you can find products that have been through the arduous certification process ⁽⁴⁾. This is certainly worth checking out!

Concluding Thoughts

We have the right to choose supplements that may improve our health and indeed our performance, but it is extremely important for us to recognize which are safe, effective and high quality. The expansion of the supplement market adds significant pressure on companies and manufacturers to develop and produce new products to add to their consume base, most of which are not (1) Supported by sound scientific research, (2) Effective, (3) Tested for banned substances. The process of carefully selecting such products may seem like an arduous task, but it is one that is necessary to ensure we are benefiting, and not impairing, our health, performance and in some cases careers.

References:

1. http://www.ukad.org.uk

2. http://www.ukad.org.uk/anti-doping-rule-violations/current-violations/

3. http://www.wada-ama.org

4.  http://www.informed-choice.org

Click here to view the embedded video.

Supplementation of carbohydrate (CHO) sources (e.g. glucose or glucose polymers), has been widely observed to increase exercise capacity, most notably during prolonged exercise at moderate to high intensities (1).  These effects are largely attributed to a prevention of hypoglycaemia and the maintenance of high rates of CHO oxidation towards the latter phases of exercise when endogenous stores are either low or depleted (2). On this basis, it appears somewhat intuitive for athletes to seek methods of maximising their rate of CHO oxidation in the hope that a greater contribution from exogenous sources will increase exercise capacity through the ‘sparing’ of endogenous sources.

Please read the full article at Sports Nutrition Insider