There was an article in a recent issue of the Irish Independent written by George Hook, which yet again gives an incorrect negative view of sports nutrition and supplements. A number of inaccurate points were made in the article by George. This was followed by another negative story on footballers and supplements, which aired on Radio 4.

As someone who has spent well over 17 years in the industry I am bored by the all the lies, scare-mongering and general misinformation printed in newspapers with headlines designed only to sell papers. Therefore from this day on the balance will be readdressed, with my new regular column called ’supplement myths’. The purpose of this column will be to set the record straight as and when sports nutrition is put into a negative light unfairly.

The article started with a couple of paragraphs about the infamous BALCO Labs court case and rightly raised the concerns about this organisation. To avoid any confusion, we’ve included more detail so you can understand the issues.

After over a year of court cases, October 2005 saw Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative (BALCO) founder Victor Conte given a four-month prison sentence, after pleading guilty to drugs offences. The BALCO scandal has involved some of athletics’ top names, with British sprinter Dwaine Chambers and ex-world double sprint champion Kelli White both receiving two-year bans for using banned Conte’s designer steroids.

Conte pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute anabolic steroids.
According to media reports, Conte allegedly gave Marian Jones, winner of five medals at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, anabolic steroids code-named “the clear” (tetrahydragestrinone, also known as THG) and “the cream” in exchange for her endorsement of a supplement that Conte’s company supplied.

Let there NOT be any confusion that the steroids he distributed (which he was sent to prison for) were injected via syringe and needle into the backsides of well-known athletes. They were not and never ingested via supplements (cross-contaminated or not). It is upsetting that his black-market steroid business, which he and his bunch of cheating athletes took knowingly, was fronted by a legitimate supplement business. This does not mean for a second that his supplements were contaminated, or that supplements are steroids.

Unfortunately, for some in the media, this has created confusion and they confuse and link the two. One such journalist George Hook, who claims he is, “the most controversial rugby commentator in Ireland” puts his foot in it by writing the most inaccurate article on rugby and sports nutrition that I think has ever landed on my table.

In George’s article, he questions the intelligence and professionalism of rugby clubs and the British & Irish Lions teams for not having qualified staff to analyse the safety and efficacy of sports nutrition products. Hook even attacks them for even thinking of using sports energy drinks such as PowerAde or high protein drinks, such as Promax by Maximuscle.

Top level rugby clubs and teams like the Lions employ highly-qualified staff, who take considerable care and make every effort to ensure that their players and clubs only use the finest products that are safe and effective.
Many clubs that have made the transition to the professional arena now call on the professional services of an army of fitness coaches and nutritionists. Players work under the guidance of professional strength and conditioning specialists who ensure they reach a peak of fitness at just the right time. Nutritionists and dietitians ensure that players are eating the right foods at the right times. One of their roles is to provide the players with effective sports nutrition products, which are fully drug screened for any possible contamination or banned substances.

Dave Reddin, for example, strength and conditioning coach on the 2005 British & Irish Lions tour, performed extensive research in the sports nutrition industry before choosing Britain ’s top sports nutrition company ‘Maximuscle’ as the only sports food suppliers for the British Lions. During the tour, numerous players in the Lions team were tested and passed with no issues.

In the same article, Hook makes ludicrous claims that up to 20% of Creatine bought over the counter is contaminated with anabolic steroids. Again, there is simply no evidence to support this at all. We test Creatine on a regular basis and we have never seen any evidence of this. Neither has Trading Standards, who perform regular spot checks on the industry. In fact Creatine works so well, why bother. We are regularly in contact with the testing labs and universities and this is a claim that is completely untrue. Considering George Hook is meant to be a top Irish journalist, it is amazing he could write such inaccurate information.

I will not, though, defend the industry 100%.
As with any industry, the sports nutrition industry does contain its share of rogue traders. Take the motor industry, for example. If you want a decent second-hand car with a full service history, then you go to a reputable main dealer. Or you can visit one of these “under the arches” garages and take your chances with a cheaper car, with no evidence, service history or comeback. It’s the same with sports nutrition. Ordering cheap products from small classified adverts in the back of fitness magazines, obscure internet sites, PO boxes, etc., is a gamble, not just with your money, but also with your health. With these “made in the bedroom” products, it’s not just your car that’ll break down.

I don’t want to hear some gold medal-winning Olympic athlete crying on TV after buying some strange dodgy supplement with no label on from some PO box classified advert. WADA is right to make the athletes 100% responsible for what goes in their body. It stops the silly sob stories, and prevents highly-paid lawyers getting richer on the back of athletes blaming sports nutrition products for their positive tests, like Dwain Chambers who was found to be using designer steroids from BALCO.

If athletes truly want to use drug-screened products that won’t cause a positive test, they can start with Europe’s top nutrition companies, such as Lucozade, Maximuscle, and Powerade, all whom have responded positively to the challenge of making sports drinks and nutrition products to the highest manufacturing quality in order to meet the demands of many of the biggest names in British sport.

Maximuscle, for example, supplies both Rugby World Cup Winner Josh Lewsey and Welsh International Gavin Henson.
The company also pioneered the world’s first ISO17025 certified and UKAS approved sports nutrition testing programme with a WADA (World Anti-Doping Agency) approved laboratory and tests every batch for problematic banned substances. How often is that ever mentioned or talked about? Not likely, as good news doesn’t sell papers!

Quite apart from the contamination issue, some misinformed journalists have also tried to create ‘news’ about the fact that products containing whey protein, such as Promax by Maximuscle, contain the amino acid L-tryptophan, a popular amino acid that years ago when taken as a free form amino acid was used to help calm the nerves and promote natural sleep. Had they bothered to do the simplest of research or talk to the most basic of nutritionists, they will have known that L-tryptophan is a naturally occurring amino acid present in all dairy products, meat and many plant products . That includes the milk you put in your tea and the baby formula you feed your baby. Even breast milk is rich in tryptophan.

Tryptophan is an essential amino acid that your body cannot make by itself, and you need to get it from your diet. Promax contains a blend of specially selected whey proteins derived from milk. Because milk contains tryptophan, so will Promax, or indeed any product containing whey protein. Oh well… another example of ignorant scaremongering that helps sell newspapers.

Some journalists also naively compare the effects of supplements to those of steroids or think that supplements are steroids. Even though supplements can deliver excellent results when used as directed in conjunction with your training, with most studies showing a gain of 4-5 pounds in 4-5 weeks (with popular products such as Creatine or whey protein), they’re not steroids! Steroids are synthetic drugs controlled by strict laws and are only available by prescription or the black market. If supplements really delivered “steroid-like gains,” then athletes would not be using anabolic steroids to remain competitive. Nor would they need to rely on the services of people like Victor Conte and his team of chemists to help them avoid a positive dope test.

Journalists seem to make a habit of blaming the sports nutrition industry where no proof exists.
Take the recent case of Middlesbrough’s Portugese defender Abel Xavier, who failed a drugs test following the club’s UEFA Cup match against Xanthi on 29 September 2005 . At the time, the name of the substance found in Xavier’s system had yet to be made public. No mention was made of whether it was caused by a performance-enhancing drug, contaminated supplements or a recreational drug, such as cocaine, marijuana, etc.

Yet despite this, journalists ran a typical negative report on Radio 4, where they blamed contaminated supplements for Xavier’s positive doping test. In an attempt to make the news piece even more credible, they invited John Scott, UK Sport’s director of drug-free sport, into the BBC Radio 4 studio. He commented, “anyone who chooses to use supplements is dicing with an extremely dangerous product where drug testing is concerned.”

What was amazing, was that UK Sport acknowledge that sports nutrition products are needed by elite athletes if they want to excel in sport. It is a shame Radio 4 and John Scott were more interested in creating a sensational news story and not giving some useful advice for the listeners.

Maximuscle is one of the few only sports nutrition brands that drug screen each and every batch to ensure they are all 100% free from problematic banned substances. UK Sport know this and could have offered some sensible advice on which brands offer this protection to elite athletes, as opposed to the typical negative mantra that UK Sport staff are all told to repeat.

But back to Xavier. Since news of Xavier’s failed test was made public, it was found that Xavier tested positive for the steroid Dianobol (also known as Methandrostenolone) an infamous steroid often used by athletes in the early 80’s. Xavier is trying to say all he did was take a supplement (no surprises there, that’s what they all do). However, there have been no reports of any supplements or sports nutrition products being contaminated with the banned steroid Methandrostenolone . This is a prescription steroid and would never be found in a natural supplement, unless it was put there on purpose from someone spiking Xaviers drinks or Xavier being very stupid and buying an actual bottle of steroids with labelled as a “supplement” and bought from some dodgy ‘under the arches’ type shop.

The reality is that UK Sport is so bored of athletes blaming their positive drug tests on supplements, that they now make athletes 100% responsible for what is found in their body, with virtually no get-out clauses.
Based on this, any athlete that was going to buy an ‘under the arches’ supplement brand from an obscure supplement shop, a PO box, or a ‘friend in the gym’ needs his head examined. If you’re on a million + wage a year as a Premier League footballer, why would you stick in your body something that you had no guarantee was safe? Every week they are warned to be careful!

UK Sport, EIS, UK Athletics and every other organisation knows that Maximuscle are the only sports nutrition brand that test each and every batch of supplements for any problematic steroid or stimulant on the WADA banned list . It’s why Maximuscle supply more drug tested elite athletes and clubs than anyone else. If you’re an elite athlete and you’re not using a sports nutrition brand that drug screens every batch, don’t blame anyone for what happens.

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