Confused by nutritional supplements? Not for long.
Written by: Shawn Talbott, PhD
Without a doubt, dietary supplements have widespread usage and appeal—to the tune of more than $25 billion in annual sales in the United States alone. Approximately 85 percent of Americans have used dietary supplements at one time or another, and more than six in 10 members of the population are regular users of supplements (using them on most days of the week). The numbers for supplement use are even higher for athletes.
Despite the large number of people currently buying and using dietary supplements, however, a huge gap often exists between the practice of supplementation and the knowledge behind those choices and usage patterns. For example, many consumers are not careful about recommended dosages for supplements—and the common assumption that “if a little is good, more is better” can pose serious health consequences.
Choosing a Supplement
In choosing dietary supplements, ask the following questions:
1. Is it safe and legal?
2. Do the product’s claims make sense?
3. Do studies exist on the actual finished product (not the individual ingredients), and were those studies conducted in endurance athletes?
4. Was the amount of the supplement in the study the same as the recommended amount on the label?
5. Is it right for you (do you need something for general nutrition or endurance or recovery or nothing at all)?
Natural Versus Synthetic Vitamins
In most cases, natural and synthetic vitamins and minerals are handled by the body in exactly the same way. A good example of this is the B-complex vitamins, which can be obtained in supplements as “natural” B vitamins (usually from brewer’s yeast or a similar substance) or as purified chemicals and listed on the product label as thiamin (B-1), riboflavin (B-2), niacin (B-3), and so forth. When any of these supplemental sources of B vitamins is consumed, the vitamins are absorbed, transported, and utilized by the body in exactly the same way—so we can say with confidence that there is no difference between natural and synthetic when it comes to B vitamins.
Two interesting exceptions to this rule are folic acid, which is better absorbed in the synthetic form (compared to natural forms found in foods), and vitamin E, which is far superior as the natural form (absorbed and retained in the body two to three times better than synthetic vitamin E).
Brand Name or Generic?
This is one of the most common questions that I get when it comes to multivitamins. People want to know if they can just buy the “grocery store version” to get their daily nutrients. The ultimate answer is really less about generics vs. brand-name products than it is about choosing between supplements that provide “basic” versus “optimal” levels of particular nutrients. Therefore, the answer to this question will depend on two primary factors: How much money can you afford to spend on a supplement, and are you looking for a basic or an optimal supplement?
Many of the generic or private-label store-brand supplements on the market will do a satisfactory job of helping you meet the basic RDA (recommended daily allowance) levels for essential vitamins and minerals. The primary limitation with these generic products, and even with many brand-name supplements, is that the basic RDA levels of most vitamins and minerals fall far below the levels associated with optimal health and certainly below those needed for optimal endurance performance.
With respect to the B vitamins, there is good scientific evidence to support daily intakes at 200-500 percent of RDA levels for optimal stress response and cortisol control. These levels are two to five times higher than the levels found in most multivitamin products.
Calcium and magnesium are two minerals that are known to help regulate the body’s stress response, yet most generic supplements and one-tablet-a-day-type brand-name supplements provide only a small fraction of the 250–500 milligrams (mg) of calcium and the 125–250 mg of magnesium needed to promote a normal stress response. The primary reason for skimping on the calcium and magnesium in these products is not cost (both are very cheap), but rather space considerations in the capsules and tablets. Both calcium and magnesium are bulky minerals—that is, they take up a lot of space—so an optimal daily dosage requires more than a single capsule each day (and sometimes as many as four capsules, depending on the mineral source).
The bottom line here is that everybody should take at least a basic multi-vitamin/multi-mineral supplement (MVMS)—and virtually any product, generic or brand-name, on the shelf at Wal-Mart, Rite-Aid, or your local grocery store will satisfy the basic RDA-level requirements. However, if you are interested in a supplement that delivers more than the rock-bottom levels of nutrients, and if you can afford to spend a little more on your daily supplement regimen, then you will want to consider a MVMS that provides higher levels of B-complex vitamins, calcium, and magnesium.
Herbal Supplements
When it comes to selecting herbal supplements, the situation can quickly get very confusing. Because herbals are really a form of natural medicine, it is crucial that you select the right form of the herb so that you get the safest and most effective product. Herbal supplements are an area in which generic products are not equivalent to brand-name products. It is vitally important to select either the exact product that has been used in clinical studies, or a product that contains a chemically equivalent form of the herb that has been studied. The easiest way for most consumers to select a safe and effective herb is to select only those extracts that have been “standardized” to provide a uniform level of the key active ingredients in each batch of the product. The best scenario would be to select only those specific products that have undergone clinical studies of their own and in endurance athletes (rather than selecting products that contain ingredients on which studies have been conducted)—but there are far fewer finished products that have been subjected to clinical testing than there are raw ingredients (cordyceps, rhodiola, glucosamine etc.) that have been evaluated in such research.
Where to Buy Supplements?
The preceding three points should offer enough general guidance to help you weed through the many less desirable supplement products on the market and select products that can make a difference in your overall health. With the explosive growth in the supplement market over the past decade, consumers can now find vitamins, minerals, herbs, and other supplements for sale in a variety of places—including specialty supplement stores, natural-foods stores, drugstores, grocery stores, discount department stores, and through direct marketing, infomercials, catalog sales, and the Internet. Are any of these outlets “better” than the others? Not really—but each has its own particular niche.
For example, the least expensive “bargain” products will be found at supermarkets and discount department stores (e.g., Wal-Mart), but these products may suffer from many of the problems outlined above with regard to basic versus optimal supplementation. Supplements that are a step above the cheapest and most basic of products can typically be found at drugstores, natural-foods markets, and specialty supplement outlets, including running and cycling shops. These are the middle-of-the-road products that do a decent job of balancing high-quality and optimal nutrient levels with moderate prices. The most expensive products, and those with the widest range in terms of quality, safety, and effectiveness, are typically sold through direct sales channels such as the Internet, catalogs, and independent sales agents. In some cases, these products are designed to deliver optimal levels of all nutrients in the most bioavailable forms, but the obvious downside is their high price. In other cases, all you get is the high price—without any of the optimal levels of the crucial nutrients.
So how can you differentiate among these premium-priced products? By asking to see the results from their clinical studies. Products in this “premium” category will almost certainly need to justify their high price with strong scientific evidence to support their claims and to show that their product is justified at this price. If the company cannot provide you with scientific evidence to support its premium products, then you are well advised to look elsewhere for your supplement.
Using Supplements
After you have selected your supplements with the help of the above information, the following guidelines can help you use those supplements in the proper manner (that is, to optimize both safety and effectiveness):
Remember that a dietary supplement is just that—meaning that it is meant to be added to an otherwise healthy diet. It is not meant to substitute for a balanced diet or to make up for a poor diet.
Follow the dosage recommendations on the package. The recommended dosage is important for safety and effectiveness—especially for herbals and other supplements that combine multiple ingredients. Don’t assume that if one tablet is recommended per day, two or three will be even better.
Keep all dietary supplements in a safe place—away from heat and light that may accelerate their breakdown, and away from children who may accidentally ingest them.
Summary
Now that you know how to choose your optimally-formulated, research-proven, endurance-specific supplement based on the broad criteria above, you can put it to its best use by adding it to your otherwise super-charged diet and training regimen (and not hoping that the supplement will act like a magic bullet).
####
About the Author: Shawn Talbott is multiple Ironman and ultramarathon finisher and a sports nutrition expert with a Ph.D. in nutritional biochemistry and a master’s degree in exercise science. He lives in Salt Lake City. For more information visit www.ShawnTalbott.com
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Performance in a Pill (3) - Banned Substances, Buyer Beware
Do you know what’s really in your sports nutrition supplements?
Written by: Shawn Talbott, PhD
Doping. Even uttering the word makes many of us in the endurance community cringe. It is a word charged with ethics, emotion, politics. For us non-elite athletes, the issue of doping, or use of banned performance-enhancing drugs and methods, is mostly a theoretical one. Even if you were stuffed to the gills with testosterone and amphetamines at your next event, chances are you wouldn’t have to fear urinating in a cup or providing a blood sample for a doping test (even if you were on the top step of the podium). However, if you plan on stepping onto the podium at Kona, or an Olympic Trials race, or a state championship cycling event, or even a NCAA-sanctioned running race, your chances of peeing in that cup are greater. The higher your level of competition is, the more likely you are to find yourself subjected to a doping analysis. (I’ve been tested twice as an elite-level rower, but never as a triathlete.)
Are Your Supplements Tainted?
According to the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), athletes are “strictly liable” for any prohibited substances which are found in their bodies (blood and urine samples)—no matter how the banned substance made its way into the athlete’s body. It’s not overly cynical to “expect” any doping athlete to blame a contaminated dietary supplement for his or her positive dope test, but WADA doesn’t let athletes off the hook for “accidents”; even when some supplements have clearly been found to contain undeclared steroids and stimulants.
According to a much-quoted 2001 study commissioned by the International Olympic Committee, nearly 15 percent of sports supplements (634 products from 215 suppliers in 13 countries) tested positive for undeclared prohibited substances (anabolic agents or stimulants). Such findings have led to a policy of “supplement avoidance” among many people in the endurance community – even when scientific evidence clearly supports the use of some types of dietary supplements for promoting wellness, enhancing recovery, and generally helping athletes maintain a high state of mental and physical performance. Taking a “just say no” approach to supplements is simply unrealistic for some endurance athletes, however. We need to explore every option that can help keep us going amidst the demands of work, family, and other aspects of our life outside of our endurance training.
None of us, elite or amateur, wants our supplements to contain any “undeclared” ingredients, especially if they’re prohibited by the rules of our sport. If your electrolyte powder has a smidge of testosterone in it, you probably won’t have to give back the Maillot Jaune, but you want your nutrition products to contain what they’re supposed to and nothing else. This is where good quality control comes in.
Contamination and Quality Control
Most manufacturers of dietary supplements are responsible and ethical, and they have no desire to market contaminated products. But even while many companies will tell you that their products are “formulated without banned substances” or that their products are “manufactured in a facility which contains no banned substances”, you never really know that the products you’re ingesting are clean unless those products are specifically analyzed to confirm the absence of prohibited substances.
Testing products for banned substances is an extremely intricate area of analytical chemistry. The credibility of a banned substance screen really comes down to the sensitivity (or the “limits of detection”—the smallest amount of a substance that can be detected) of a particular analytical method, because even a minute “trace” amount of a banned substance present in a nutrition product could result in a positive doping result. Many labs can analyze substances down to microgram levels of sensitivity (mcg), but banned substances present at nanogram-levels (ng = 100 times lower than most labs can detect) could cause a positive doping result.
I have personally been involved in several projects where doping risks have been associated with dietary supplements used by elite athletes. In two instances, we were able to trace contaminated herbal extracts (containing undeclared ephedrine in one case and intentionally spiked with sildenifil, the active ingredient in Viagra, in another) back to their origin (China in both cases). In another instance, the individual raw materials checked out clean but the finished product tested positive for testosterone precursors (DHEA and androstenedione) – with contamination eventually traced to an improperly cleaned encapsulating machine that had been used months before to manufacture bodybuilding supplements.
Endurance athletes also need to understand that some dietary supplement ingredients (and medications) that are perfectly legal in the United States may also be considered prohibited by WADA for use in sport (training and competition). DHEA, a precursor for testosterone synthesis used for anti-aging benefits, and sildenifil (Viagra), used for other types of “performance enhancement”, are two examples of substances that are perfectly legal for the market, but banned for athletes.
You could take one of several positions on the issue of dietary supplements and the risk of consuming banned substances:
1. I’m an elite athlete who can’t afford to take the risk with supplements, so I’ll just say no, even if that means I’m giving up a legal performance edge to my competition by forgoing the all supplements).
2. Who cares? I’m an age-grouper doing this for fun and a challenge. I’ll take the risk of taking supplements so I can gain any edge that can help me train harder and go faster.
3. I want the benefits of the right supplements, but I don’t want to break the rules, and I want to know what I’m putting into my body.
No matter which group you fall into, you ought to be concerned that your nutrition products are produced under Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP), which are mandated and overseen by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and that they contain only those ingredients that are disclosed on the label (which is mandated by U.S. law). There are a handful of organizations that can analyze dietary supplements for the presence of prohibited substances (primarily anabolic agents like steroids and stimulants like ephedrine and amphetamines). They include Banned Substances Control Group (BSCG), HFL Sports Science, NSF International (which certifies supplements for Major League baseball and the National Football League), ConsumerLab, and the National Products Association. Be aware that the limits of detection and the compounds they analyze differ between the organizations.
Buyer Beware
As you’ll read in coming editions of the “Performance in a Pill?” series, there are certainly some dietary supplements that are of potential value to endurance athletes—but the responsibility for choosing and using the right supplements (and avoiding the “wrong” ones) comes back to the individual athlete. Only through self-education and asking the right questions can you make an informed decision about which supplements are right for you.
####
About the Author: Shawn Talbott is multiple Ironman and ultramarathon finisher and a sports nutrition expert with a Ph.D. in nutritional biochemistry and a master’s degree in exercise science. He lives in Salt Lake City. For more information visit www.ShawnTalbott.com
Written by: Shawn Talbott, PhD
Doping. Even uttering the word makes many of us in the endurance community cringe. It is a word charged with ethics, emotion, politics. For us non-elite athletes, the issue of doping, or use of banned performance-enhancing drugs and methods, is mostly a theoretical one. Even if you were stuffed to the gills with testosterone and amphetamines at your next event, chances are you wouldn’t have to fear urinating in a cup or providing a blood sample for a doping test (even if you were on the top step of the podium). However, if you plan on stepping onto the podium at Kona, or an Olympic Trials race, or a state championship cycling event, or even a NCAA-sanctioned running race, your chances of peeing in that cup are greater. The higher your level of competition is, the more likely you are to find yourself subjected to a doping analysis. (I’ve been tested twice as an elite-level rower, but never as a triathlete.)
Are Your Supplements Tainted?
According to the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), athletes are “strictly liable” for any prohibited substances which are found in their bodies (blood and urine samples)—no matter how the banned substance made its way into the athlete’s body. It’s not overly cynical to “expect” any doping athlete to blame a contaminated dietary supplement for his or her positive dope test, but WADA doesn’t let athletes off the hook for “accidents”; even when some supplements have clearly been found to contain undeclared steroids and stimulants.
According to a much-quoted 2001 study commissioned by the International Olympic Committee, nearly 15 percent of sports supplements (634 products from 215 suppliers in 13 countries) tested positive for undeclared prohibited substances (anabolic agents or stimulants). Such findings have led to a policy of “supplement avoidance” among many people in the endurance community – even when scientific evidence clearly supports the use of some types of dietary supplements for promoting wellness, enhancing recovery, and generally helping athletes maintain a high state of mental and physical performance. Taking a “just say no” approach to supplements is simply unrealistic for some endurance athletes, however. We need to explore every option that can help keep us going amidst the demands of work, family, and other aspects of our life outside of our endurance training.
None of us, elite or amateur, wants our supplements to contain any “undeclared” ingredients, especially if they’re prohibited by the rules of our sport. If your electrolyte powder has a smidge of testosterone in it, you probably won’t have to give back the Maillot Jaune, but you want your nutrition products to contain what they’re supposed to and nothing else. This is where good quality control comes in.
Contamination and Quality Control
Most manufacturers of dietary supplements are responsible and ethical, and they have no desire to market contaminated products. But even while many companies will tell you that their products are “formulated without banned substances” or that their products are “manufactured in a facility which contains no banned substances”, you never really know that the products you’re ingesting are clean unless those products are specifically analyzed to confirm the absence of prohibited substances.
Testing products for banned substances is an extremely intricate area of analytical chemistry. The credibility of a banned substance screen really comes down to the sensitivity (or the “limits of detection”—the smallest amount of a substance that can be detected) of a particular analytical method, because even a minute “trace” amount of a banned substance present in a nutrition product could result in a positive doping result. Many labs can analyze substances down to microgram levels of sensitivity (mcg), but banned substances present at nanogram-levels (ng = 100 times lower than most labs can detect) could cause a positive doping result.
I have personally been involved in several projects where doping risks have been associated with dietary supplements used by elite athletes. In two instances, we were able to trace contaminated herbal extracts (containing undeclared ephedrine in one case and intentionally spiked with sildenifil, the active ingredient in Viagra, in another) back to their origin (China in both cases). In another instance, the individual raw materials checked out clean but the finished product tested positive for testosterone precursors (DHEA and androstenedione) – with contamination eventually traced to an improperly cleaned encapsulating machine that had been used months before to manufacture bodybuilding supplements.
Endurance athletes also need to understand that some dietary supplement ingredients (and medications) that are perfectly legal in the United States may also be considered prohibited by WADA for use in sport (training and competition). DHEA, a precursor for testosterone synthesis used for anti-aging benefits, and sildenifil (Viagra), used for other types of “performance enhancement”, are two examples of substances that are perfectly legal for the market, but banned for athletes.
You could take one of several positions on the issue of dietary supplements and the risk of consuming banned substances:
1. I’m an elite athlete who can’t afford to take the risk with supplements, so I’ll just say no, even if that means I’m giving up a legal performance edge to my competition by forgoing the all supplements).
2. Who cares? I’m an age-grouper doing this for fun and a challenge. I’ll take the risk of taking supplements so I can gain any edge that can help me train harder and go faster.
3. I want the benefits of the right supplements, but I don’t want to break the rules, and I want to know what I’m putting into my body.
No matter which group you fall into, you ought to be concerned that your nutrition products are produced under Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP), which are mandated and overseen by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and that they contain only those ingredients that are disclosed on the label (which is mandated by U.S. law). There are a handful of organizations that can analyze dietary supplements for the presence of prohibited substances (primarily anabolic agents like steroids and stimulants like ephedrine and amphetamines). They include Banned Substances Control Group (BSCG), HFL Sports Science, NSF International (which certifies supplements for Major League baseball and the National Football League), ConsumerLab, and the National Products Association. Be aware that the limits of detection and the compounds they analyze differ between the organizations.
Buyer Beware
As you’ll read in coming editions of the “Performance in a Pill?” series, there are certainly some dietary supplements that are of potential value to endurance athletes—but the responsibility for choosing and using the right supplements (and avoiding the “wrong” ones) comes back to the individual athlete. Only through self-education and asking the right questions can you make an informed decision about which supplements are right for you.
####
About the Author: Shawn Talbott is multiple Ironman and ultramarathon finisher and a sports nutrition expert with a Ph.D. in nutritional biochemistry and a master’s degree in exercise science. He lives in Salt Lake City. For more information visit www.ShawnTalbott.com
Performance in a Pill (2) - Supplement Use Among Endurance Athletes
How do your supplement habits compare to other endurance athletes?
Written by: Shawn Talbott, PhD
Surveys on dietary supplement use among the general population suggest that 50-75 percent of adult Americans are “regular users” of dietary supplements, primarily multi-vitamin/multi-mineral supplements. Supplement usage rates among athletes are less clear, with some reports indicating 100 percent usage of dietary supplement among bodybuilders, and other estimates indicating 30-50 percent usage among elite and non-elite endurance athletes.
It is generally accepted that bodybuilders and weight-training enthusiasts consume dietary supplements at a significantly greater level compared to endurance athletes (runners, triathletes, cyclists, etc), but the reasons for this disparity are not well understood. Differences in supplement effects, marketing, and mode of education (e.g. where/how athletes get their information) may account for some of the differences in supplement usage between strength and endurance athletes.
My research group, SupplementWatch, conducted a study entitled “Dietary Supplement Use Among Endurance Athletes” that was presented at the International Society for Sports Nutrition (ISSN). Our overall conclusions were:
Triathletes at both Olympic and Ironman distances are avid users of dietary supplements (almost 100 percent in some cases).
Primary sources of information about supplements are the Internet (95%), friends and training partners (89%), and coaches (83%).
Longer-distance triathletes appear to take more supplements for recovery and endurance and also tend to report greater supplement usage after exercise, as compared to shorter-distance triathletes.
In our study, we recruited 326 triathletes from events in California, Texas, and Oklahoma (174 were Iron-distance triathletes with 103 men and 71 women, and 152 were Olympic-distance with 89 men and 63 women). Triathletes reported that, on average, they consumed dietary supplements five days per week and spent $51/month on their supplements (range $15 to $140).
Interestingly, we also found that despite the widespread use of supplements among triathletes, they also felt that they needed more information about supplements (90 percent) and they had difficulty in finding accurate/unbiased information (90 percent).
When we asked triathletes why they took supplements, 89 percent indicated that they felt they were not able to get the nutrients they needed from foods alone. Other reasons for taking supplements included:
Overall, we found that triathletes are avid consumers of a wide range of dietary supplements for reasons including endurance enhancement, general health, post-exercise recovery, and other benefits – but that they were in search of more information about supplements. While we did not survey runners, considering the wide degree of overlap between the two sports we would expect to obtain similar findings.
Future installments in this “Performance in a Pill?” series will attempt to give you the information you need to make informed decisions about the pros and cons of choosing and using dietary supplements as an endurance athlete.
####
Shawn Talbott, PhD, is a multiple Ironman and ultramarathon finisher and nutritional biochemist based in Salt Lake City. For more information visit www.ShawnTalbott.com
Written by: Shawn Talbott, PhD
Surveys on dietary supplement use among the general population suggest that 50-75 percent of adult Americans are “regular users” of dietary supplements, primarily multi-vitamin/multi-mineral supplements. Supplement usage rates among athletes are less clear, with some reports indicating 100 percent usage of dietary supplement among bodybuilders, and other estimates indicating 30-50 percent usage among elite and non-elite endurance athletes.
It is generally accepted that bodybuilders and weight-training enthusiasts consume dietary supplements at a significantly greater level compared to endurance athletes (runners, triathletes, cyclists, etc), but the reasons for this disparity are not well understood. Differences in supplement effects, marketing, and mode of education (e.g. where/how athletes get their information) may account for some of the differences in supplement usage between strength and endurance athletes.
My research group, SupplementWatch, conducted a study entitled “Dietary Supplement Use Among Endurance Athletes” that was presented at the International Society for Sports Nutrition (ISSN). Our overall conclusions were:
Triathletes at both Olympic and Ironman distances are avid users of dietary supplements (almost 100 percent in some cases).
Primary sources of information about supplements are the Internet (95%), friends and training partners (89%), and coaches (83%).
Longer-distance triathletes appear to take more supplements for recovery and endurance and also tend to report greater supplement usage after exercise, as compared to shorter-distance triathletes.
In our study, we recruited 326 triathletes from events in California, Texas, and Oklahoma (174 were Iron-distance triathletes with 103 men and 71 women, and 152 were Olympic-distance with 89 men and 63 women). Triathletes reported that, on average, they consumed dietary supplements five days per week and spent $51/month on their supplements (range $15 to $140).
Interestingly, we also found that despite the widespread use of supplements among triathletes, they also felt that they needed more information about supplements (90 percent) and they had difficulty in finding accurate/unbiased information (90 percent).
When we asked triathletes why they took supplements, 89 percent indicated that they felt they were not able to get the nutrients they needed from foods alone. Other reasons for taking supplements included:
- They give me energy (82%)
- To perform better (73%)
- General health (62%)
- To help me recover (61%)
- To lose body fat (41%)
- To prevent disease (28%)
- Carbohydrate (beverage) = 98%
- Multi-vitamin = 93%
- Electrolyte (beverage) = 90%
- Carbohydrate (gel) = 78%
- Fish oil = 60%
- Antioxidant = 56%
- Recovery = 56%
- Endurance = 52%
- Fat Loss = 42%
Overall, we found that triathletes are avid consumers of a wide range of dietary supplements for reasons including endurance enhancement, general health, post-exercise recovery, and other benefits – but that they were in search of more information about supplements. While we did not survey runners, considering the wide degree of overlap between the two sports we would expect to obtain similar findings.
Future installments in this “Performance in a Pill?” series will attempt to give you the information you need to make informed decisions about the pros and cons of choosing and using dietary supplements as an endurance athlete.
####
Shawn Talbott, PhD, is a multiple Ironman and ultramarathon finisher and nutritional biochemist based in Salt Lake City. For more information visit www.ShawnTalbott.com
Performance in a Pill (1) - Intro to Dietary Supplements
See original version at http://triathlon.competitor.com/2010/10/nutrition/performance-in-a-pill-introduction-to-dietary-supplements_15479
In this first installment of a new series, one of the top sports supplements experts invites you to learn everything you need to know about safe and effective nutritional supplementation for endurance.
Written by: Shawn Talbott, Ph.D.
Nearly 2,500 years ago, Hippocrates, the “father of modern medicine”, embraced the concept, “Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food.” Although we know that diet plays a role in five of the 10 leading causes of death (including coronary heart disease, stroke, certain cancers, Type II diabetes, and atherosclerosis), the advent of modern pharmaceutical therapy in the 19th century caused the “food as medicine” philosophy to fall into relative obscurity as a “quaint” concept among many healthcare professionals.
As endurance athletes, we’re concerned as much about health as we are about performance, so this “food first” approach is certainly something that we should be taking to heart. We know that diet is at least as important for optimal physical and mental performance as exercise training—but too few of us pay as much attention to our diets as we pay to choosing our next pair of running shoes.
Many of the athletes that I work with are looking for ways to “fix” the nutrition side of their performance, or looking to tweak their nutrition for a performance “edge” over their competition. This article is the first in a series, “Performance in a Pill?”, where I’ll explore the evidence for/against certain dietary supplements: some that might help us as endurance athletes, some that might not help, and others that might be downright dangerous or illegal (or both).
Herbal preparations have been used as medicinal agents and performance enhancers since time immemorial in all cultures the world over. Since 1994, however, with the passage of the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act (DSHEA), millions of American consumers have readily and avidly embraced the use of food, dietary supplements, and herbal extracts for more than just basic nutrition. The past decade has seen the dietary supplement industry grow in size from almost zero to almost $25 billion in annual domestic sales with more $100 million in worldwide sales. Although estimates vary, approximately 50-60 percent of adults in the United States identify themselves as consumers of dietary supplements (close to 200 million Americans consume supplements, according to the FDA). Among endurance athletes, some studies suggest that as many as 90 percent of elite-level athletes are regular users of dietary supplements (and close to 100 percent of power athletes use supplements).
When considering any dietary supplement, we all face the often-daunting challenge of trying to determine whether or not a particular product meets our needs (or lives up to its claims). The broad definition of dietary supplements permits the use of a wide variety of plant constituents (roots, leaves, stems, etc.), vitamins, minerals, amino acids, and other ingredients that can have essential or nonessential bioactive constituents with associated health benefits (or risks). Endurance athletes tend to use dietary supplements either as preventive nutrition, where, for example, a daily multivitamin supplement is intended to provide nutritional “insurance”, or as ergogenic aids, or performance enhancers. For example, cordyceps and rhodiola are intended to improve oxygen utilization and boost endurance performance. Of course, consumers also use dietary supplements in myriad other ways to promote weight loss, to increase energy levels, and to treat specific diseases.
The Food and Drug Administration regulates dietary supplements in many of the same ways that it regulates conventional foods—but supplement products are required to carry the disclaimer, “This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.” Like foods, but unlike drugs, dietary supplements do not require pre-marketing approval by the FDA, but the FDA has the authority to restrict sales and remove specific supplements from the market if they are shown to pose a public health risk. Because the scientific and medical evidence for the efficacy and safety of dietary supplements is highly variable in terms of both quantity and quality, it is very much a situation of “buyer beware” when it comes to choosing and using dietary supplements. However, by understanding the risks and benefits associated with use of these products, we can make an educated decision about which supplements are worth their cost to help with endurance, recovery, or general nutrition—and (perhaps more importantly) which others are best avoided.
This series of articles is intended to provide endurance athletes with a basis and background on which to make educated decisions about the appropriate use (or avoidance) of specific dietary supplements. The most important thing to realize is that dietary supplements are not panaceas or magic bullets that can counteract poor health habits; rather, they are supplements to a comprehensive lifestyle approach that also includes a balanced diet, regular physical training, stress management, adequate sleep, and other positive health practices.
Research studies of dietary supplements are often difficult to evaluate because of differences in the ingredients from study to study, incomplete description and analysis of the active ingredients, and variations in the dosing, duration, and population studied. Considering the large number of dietary supplements on the market, this series will focus on the supplements that are most likely to be of interest to endurance athletes and those that have a sufficient body of clinical evidence to evaluate.
Each article in this series will cover 3 main areas:
1. Claimst/theory behind the supplement (What is it supposed to do and how?)
2. Science (What does independent research say about this supplement?)
3. Recommendations (How might this supplement benefit you, the endurance athlete?)
I am generally a fairly “pro-supplement” kind of person, but I am also a staunch advocate of the idea that food and fitness must come first—so I won’t be pushing any magical pills or potions to make up for poor diet or lack of training. Thanks for starting this journey with me. I look forward to exploring the world of endurance supplements with you in the coming weeks.
About the Author: Shawn Talbott is multiple Ironman and ultramarathon finisher and a sports nutrition expert with a Ph.D. in nutritional biochemistry and a master’s degree in exercise science. He lives in Salt Lake City. For more information visit www.ShawnTalbott.com
In this first installment of a new series, one of the top sports supplements experts invites you to learn everything you need to know about safe and effective nutritional supplementation for endurance.
Written by: Shawn Talbott, Ph.D.
Nearly 2,500 years ago, Hippocrates, the “father of modern medicine”, embraced the concept, “Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food.” Although we know that diet plays a role in five of the 10 leading causes of death (including coronary heart disease, stroke, certain cancers, Type II diabetes, and atherosclerosis), the advent of modern pharmaceutical therapy in the 19th century caused the “food as medicine” philosophy to fall into relative obscurity as a “quaint” concept among many healthcare professionals.
As endurance athletes, we’re concerned as much about health as we are about performance, so this “food first” approach is certainly something that we should be taking to heart. We know that diet is at least as important for optimal physical and mental performance as exercise training—but too few of us pay as much attention to our diets as we pay to choosing our next pair of running shoes.
Many of the athletes that I work with are looking for ways to “fix” the nutrition side of their performance, or looking to tweak their nutrition for a performance “edge” over their competition. This article is the first in a series, “Performance in a Pill?”, where I’ll explore the evidence for/against certain dietary supplements: some that might help us as endurance athletes, some that might not help, and others that might be downright dangerous or illegal (or both).
Herbal preparations have been used as medicinal agents and performance enhancers since time immemorial in all cultures the world over. Since 1994, however, with the passage of the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act (DSHEA), millions of American consumers have readily and avidly embraced the use of food, dietary supplements, and herbal extracts for more than just basic nutrition. The past decade has seen the dietary supplement industry grow in size from almost zero to almost $25 billion in annual domestic sales with more $100 million in worldwide sales. Although estimates vary, approximately 50-60 percent of adults in the United States identify themselves as consumers of dietary supplements (close to 200 million Americans consume supplements, according to the FDA). Among endurance athletes, some studies suggest that as many as 90 percent of elite-level athletes are regular users of dietary supplements (and close to 100 percent of power athletes use supplements).
When considering any dietary supplement, we all face the often-daunting challenge of trying to determine whether or not a particular product meets our needs (or lives up to its claims). The broad definition of dietary supplements permits the use of a wide variety of plant constituents (roots, leaves, stems, etc.), vitamins, minerals, amino acids, and other ingredients that can have essential or nonessential bioactive constituents with associated health benefits (or risks). Endurance athletes tend to use dietary supplements either as preventive nutrition, where, for example, a daily multivitamin supplement is intended to provide nutritional “insurance”, or as ergogenic aids, or performance enhancers. For example, cordyceps and rhodiola are intended to improve oxygen utilization and boost endurance performance. Of course, consumers also use dietary supplements in myriad other ways to promote weight loss, to increase energy levels, and to treat specific diseases.
The Food and Drug Administration regulates dietary supplements in many of the same ways that it regulates conventional foods—but supplement products are required to carry the disclaimer, “This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.” Like foods, but unlike drugs, dietary supplements do not require pre-marketing approval by the FDA, but the FDA has the authority to restrict sales and remove specific supplements from the market if they are shown to pose a public health risk. Because the scientific and medical evidence for the efficacy and safety of dietary supplements is highly variable in terms of both quantity and quality, it is very much a situation of “buyer beware” when it comes to choosing and using dietary supplements. However, by understanding the risks and benefits associated with use of these products, we can make an educated decision about which supplements are worth their cost to help with endurance, recovery, or general nutrition—and (perhaps more importantly) which others are best avoided.
This series of articles is intended to provide endurance athletes with a basis and background on which to make educated decisions about the appropriate use (or avoidance) of specific dietary supplements. The most important thing to realize is that dietary supplements are not panaceas or magic bullets that can counteract poor health habits; rather, they are supplements to a comprehensive lifestyle approach that also includes a balanced diet, regular physical training, stress management, adequate sleep, and other positive health practices.
Research studies of dietary supplements are often difficult to evaluate because of differences in the ingredients from study to study, incomplete description and analysis of the active ingredients, and variations in the dosing, duration, and population studied. Considering the large number of dietary supplements on the market, this series will focus on the supplements that are most likely to be of interest to endurance athletes and those that have a sufficient body of clinical evidence to evaluate.
Each article in this series will cover 3 main areas:
1. Claimst/theory behind the supplement (What is it supposed to do and how?)
2. Science (What does independent research say about this supplement?)
3. Recommendations (How might this supplement benefit you, the endurance athlete?)
I am generally a fairly “pro-supplement” kind of person, but I am also a staunch advocate of the idea that food and fitness must come first—so I won’t be pushing any magical pills or potions to make up for poor diet or lack of training. Thanks for starting this journey with me. I look forward to exploring the world of endurance supplements with you in the coming weeks.
About the Author: Shawn Talbott is multiple Ironman and ultramarathon finisher and a sports nutrition expert with a Ph.D. in nutritional biochemistry and a master’s degree in exercise science. He lives in Salt Lake City. For more information visit www.ShawnTalbott.com
Competitor Network Series
I have a new article series on the Competitor Network (http://running.competitor.com/) - these are the folks who bring you several excellent magazines dedicated to endurance sports, including VeloNews (http://velonews.competitor.com/), Singletrack (mountain biking at http://singletrack.competitor.com/), and Triathlete (http://triathlon.competitor.com/). If it matters to endurance athletes, you’ll read about it on the Competitor Network.
My first two articles for Competitor covered different aspects of Nutritional Recovery (what and when to eat to recover faster) - you can read the full articles at the links below...
The series will examine the pros and cons of choosing and using dietary supplements to improve performance - specifically endurance, recovery, and other aspects of performance in which an endurance athlete may be interested.
The links below will bring you to the most recent four articles in the “Performance in a Pill?” series - hope you like them!
Performance in a Pill Series:
Shawn M. Talbott, PhD
www.ShawnTalbott.com
My first two articles for Competitor covered different aspects of Nutritional Recovery (what and when to eat to recover faster) - you can read the full articles at the links below...
Nutritional Recovery (http://triathlon.competitor.com/2009/07/features/nutritional-recovery_3402)
- Now or Later? When to Eat Post-Exercise? (http://running.competitor.com/2010/05/features/now-or-later_10020)
The series will examine the pros and cons of choosing and using dietary supplements to improve performance - specifically endurance, recovery, and other aspects of performance in which an endurance athlete may be interested.
The links below will bring you to the most recent four articles in the “Performance in a Pill?” series - hope you like them!
Performance in a Pill Series:
1.Introduction to Dietary Supplements (http://triathlon.competitor.com/2010/10/nutrition/performance-in-a-pill-introduction-to-dietary-supplements_15479)
- 2.Supplement Use Among Endurance Athletes (http://triathlon.competitor.com/2010/11/nutrition/performance-in-a-pill-supplement-use-among-endurance-atheltes_16530)
- 3.Banned Substances – Buyer Beware (http://running.competitor.com/2010/11/nutrition/performance-in-a-pill-banned-substances-buyer-beware_16777)
- 4. Choosing and Using Dietary Supplements (http://running.competitor.com/2010/11/nutrition/performance-in-a-pill-choosing-and-using-supplements_18191)
Shawn M. Talbott, PhD
www.ShawnTalbott.com
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
