Professor Brendan Buckley - Ban kids who take supplements

Mickk

I havn't seen the original article but from reading the comments on http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/sport/2009/0430/1224245683631.html and also the mail he sent BobbyOLeary I think he sounds quite sensible. I would bet he is taken out of context by the paper to make it as sensational as possible.

I am in the industry and there are alot of greedy unregulated supplement companies out there, competing with chinese imports and holland and barret or Lidl buying 1000 tonnes of their own (70%) brand it's really hard to compete for smaller companies and they will often cut corners.

I think the main message from Dr Buckley is to be aware of what you are putting in your body. Anyone in the game long enough to remember TMOF? In 98-99 it was the first own brand protein retailer. Now the TMOF products were great (and actually owned by a current Boards.ie poster) but in the early days they were filled and flavoured in a sitting room infront of the telly, not exactly lab conditions. They also sold a legendary eca (which had illegal and banned ephedrine) and most probably used a cap em quik to make them...
Also do you think when a 24 year old web developer started myprotein in a 4mx5m lockup garage he actually really knew 100% what was in the bags he was selling? The internet is a dangerous place, a nice website could mean a multinational company spending millions on QC and R&D or it could mean a 16 year old putting flour in tubs and selling it as protein, there is no regulation or if there is it certainly isn't enforced efficiently.

Also more recently don't forget Nutrition x fell out with the company who manufactured their proteins because Nut x had it tested and it came out to have 40% less protein than it should have had! The same company then had a warehouse full of bottled water pulled from Superquinn and Aldi because it contained traces of fecal matter just last December!
Also I love BSN products (and do sell loads of them) and especially the Syntha 6. I love the flavour (it sometimes tastes a bit too good to be true) but it doesn't inspire me with confidence that BSN was sued last year for their products not containing any CEM3 and just having Creatine monohydrate. It's still ongoing and I am not saying it is true but for someone to bring a class action against BSN and go ahead with it they obviously believe it 100%. Also BSN have since stopped using CEM3 in No Xplode, Nitrix and Cellmass and changed to AVPT.

I think everyone here would agree that some of the claims on supplements are rubbish, anator p70 is my personal favourite "The worlds first and only Muscle Gene Activator" although all muscletech claims are pretty good.

Also there is a whole industry built on prohormones. They are basically mild steroids with more harsh side effects. If you are going to use steroids then do your research and just use them. Changing steroids by one molecule and putting them in a supplement bottle with fancy labels is just dangerous.

The problem is that "foods" like whey protein, meal replacements, weight gainers, amino acids (including creatine), vitamins and minerals are lumped in together with chemicals, bull**** and prohormones and all called supplements. This blurs the line for people on the outside looking in and gives everything a bad name.

I think Dr Buckleys main message is to know what you are taking, cheaper isn't always better because the industry isn't regulated and just like foods bigger more reputable brands offer more security that what is in on the label is whats in the tub. What I think he should make more clear is that it is not just sports supplement companies which need regulation, the The Children's Food Campaign looked at 107 baby products and discovered more than 50 products from various firms with higher-than-suggested levels of saturated fat, salt or sugar.

Cow & Gate said: "In discussion with the Food Standards Agency we have already taken the decision to discontinue our baby biscuits, when we became aware of presence of hydrogenated fat, which contains a very small amount of trans fats." So basically a company of that size wasn't aware of what was in the biscuits they were selling to babies. Makes you think about whether to believe what is on labels of all foods including supplements...

amazingemmet

Excellent post ^