Healthy Supplementation: How to Make Use of the Tools Available to You

IntroThe supplement industry is a big-dollar industry. For anybody who has ever purchased a bodybuilding magazine, you’ll know what I mean. I subscribe to a magazine called “Muscular Development”. Of it’s 500-pages that they crank out every single month, at least one-half of those pages are devoted to advertising for supplements. That’s 250 pages of advertisements! The same holds true of pretty much every other health and fitness magazine.

If publications aren’t persuasive, turn to the television. There has been a recent rash of advertisements for products that will help you to get in shape and lose fat for the first time of your life. You know what I’m talking about– “Cortislim”, “TrimSpa”, “Smartburn”, “Hydrocut” (you know, the commercial with the guy in a lab coat who looks like a doctor, then they show him ripped and running down the beach?). The commercials are abundant.

Or take a look around on the street corners nowadays. I remember 10 years ago, seeing a GNC was fairly rare. I went to the GNC website the other day and counted 120 different locations in the state of Maryland alone! This is in addition to all of the other fast-growing companies and stores that carry health and fitness supplements.

I couldn’t find any specific hard facts as to how much money the supplement industry rakes in every year, but suffice it to say, it’s a multi-billion dollar industry, and it’s going to grow much larger before it shrinks.

Yet, the obesity rate of this country is growing faster and faster. With these GNCs popping up all over the place, and all of these TV ads helping us to get trim, why are we all getting progressively fatter?

I don’t want to use this talk as a means to lambaste and degrade the supplement industry. Plenty of people within the health and fitness industry are already doing that. Rather, I want to make the point that supplements are precisely that– supplements! What exactly is meant by that? It means that a dietary supplement is a means to make life a little bit easier; it’s a way to supplement a diet that is already fairly healthy, and to supplement an exercise program that is already aimed at achieving your goals. There is no magic pill that is going to get your to your physique goals. And once you understand a bit more about supplements, you’ll understand why.

One of the most important things to understand right off the bat is the difference between supplements and drugs. In the United States of America, we have the Food and Drug Agency, or the FDA, which helps to regulate the safety and efficacy of various foods and drugs. Not everybody knows that the FDA regulates drugs, but in general, does not regulate supplements. As such, health supplements generally do not need to be proven effective in order to be sold.

According to the FDA’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (CFSAN), the “FDA regulates dietary supplements under a different set of regulations than those covering ‘conventional’ foods and drug products (prescription and Over-the-Counter). Under the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994 (DSHEA), the dietary supplement manufacturer is responsible for ensuring that a dietary supplement is safe before it is marketed. FDA is responsible for taking action against any unsafe dietary supplement product after it reaches the market. Generally, manufacturers do not need to register their products with FDA nor get FDA approval before producing or selling dietary supplements.^* Manufacturers must make sure that product label information is truthful and not misleading.” (http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/~dms/supplmnt.html) Because of this, supplement manufacturers can make some fairly wild claims without any substantial backing or evidence, and so long as their product is not positively hurting people, they are completely within their legal rights to claim as much.

Now don’t take this the wrong way– I am not saying that all supplement manufacturers are bad and are out to rip off the general public. Rather, my point is that you have to be careful about what you’re getting yourself into. Many of the larger supplement manufacturers who’ve been around for a while perform independent testing on their products to make sure that they provide the effects claimed. If the company was simply making false claims left and right, there’s a very good chance it would have gone out of business long ago. There are many places online that independently test the validity of various manufacturer’s claims, such as www.supplementwatch.com.

But there’s another important point to be garnered from the above: by and large, supplements are not as powerful as drugs! The pharmaceutical and drug industry is, to date, much larger and more powerful than the supplement industry. If a given supplement really did provide as strong a benefit as many manufacturers claim, chances are that either 1) that supplement would also have strong side effect, and as such, the FDA would step in to regulate it, or 2) the pharmaceutical industry would do everything in its power to see that supplement regulated, so as to maximize profits with drugs that can be patented (such as the recent orlistat, or alli).

What does all of the above mean? It means that the average American needs to stop turning to supplements to meet their health and fitness needs. If supplements are used properly– as a supplement to a health diet and exercise routine– then they can help to enhance results a bit. However, they will never take the place of healthy diet and exercise. The problem is, GNC and other such stores are not growing at the same rate as McDonalds and the like, and as such, our country is still walking down the road to obesity.

There’s no one way to split supplements into their various classifications. The way I most prefer is how they do it at wikipedia.com, namely “dietary supplements” or “food supplements”, vs. “bodybuilding supplements”. As stated on the wikipedia website, “…a distinction is sometimes drawn between dietary and exercise supplements, while this method of classification is not followed by all those who use supplements. If a distinction does exist, dietary supplements are often defined as those supplements that aim to give the body more of the nutrients that it ought to get from diet, but isn’t for whatever reason. Protein, meal replacement and amino acid (in smaller quantities) based supplements are usually considered to be dietary supplements. Exercise supplements, however, involve raising a particular nutrient level far beyond what is typically consumed by a human for the explicit purpose of experiencing a positive side effect when combined with weight training. Creatine is a good example of an exercise supplement in that, while it is found in the body naturally, users typically ingest far more than is usually needed in order to saturate their muscles and achieve a much greater muscle gaining benefit.” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bodybuilding_supplement)

So the first important category here is what we’re going to call simply a dietary supplement. These are going to consist of simple items that people should be getting from a healthy diet and, for whatever reason (time restrictions, eating restrictions, etc.), they are not able to do so. The first item to mention here would be a good multi vitamin/multi mineral. Simply stated, most people’s diets are not thorough enough to get in all of the vitamins and minerals needed for general health, and as such, a good multi is recommended by most in the health and fitness industry. Next on the list would be various items aimed at allowing one to eat in a nutritious manner, namely, different types of shakes and bars. These items, used appropriately, can make it easier to eat properly. For instance, for somebody with a really hectic job who doesn’t have time to eat breakfast in the morning, it would be preferable to grab a meal replacement bar on the way out the door and eat it on the train, rather than skipping breakfast. When you use meal replacement items appropriately, they can help you with your weight management and fitness goals.

Before we get to bodybuilding supplements, there is an important grouping of items that could be considered halfway between basic food-based dietary supplements and performance-enhancing supplements. Good examples would be joint-health supplements (such as a glucosamine/chondroiton complex). Extra omega-3 in the diet, via a fish-oil supplement or a flax supplement, would also fall in this category.

Finally, we can get to the “bodybuilding supplements”. These are going to consist of micronutrients and/or herbs that can somehow enhance performance, or theoretically get somebody to his or her goal more quickly than simply eating a healthy diet.

The first, and most obvious, would be creatine. Creatine was one of the first well-studied sports supplements. Creatine is a substance naturally found in certain foods, particularly red meat. In a nutshell, it helps to store extra energy in the cell so that one can work out harder when trying to build muscle. Another quickly-rising supplement in this regard is called beta-alanine, which works much the same way that creatine does. Glutamine is another popular supplement used by weight lifters. Many studies indicate that glutamine will help broken-down tissues to heal faster, thus helping the individual to recuperate between workouts so they can work out again sooner. One of the most popular types of workout supplements being used nowadays is variations of nitric oxide, or NO. Many of the drinks we sell in the café cooler contain NO. Nitric oxide basically allows for the smooth muscle surrounding blood vessels to relax, which leads to increased blood flow to the muscles of the body. At least in theory, this leads to a better “pump”, and with increased blood flow to muscles, you have increased nutrient and hormone levels arriving at the target muscles you are training, and thus a better training response.

The final broad category of supplements used more in a “bodybuilding” context would be thermogenics, or fat-loss aids. This is probably the category of supplements that the average American is most likely to invest in. Ironically, it also appears to be the category of supplements that many recreational bodybuilders are most rapidly moving away from using. A thermogenic is a substance that artificially stimulates the body’s natural metabolism, typically by stimulating the adrenaline response of the body. Basically, by taking a thermogenic, you are putting your body into “fight or flight” mode throughout the day. This increased adrenaline, which increases heat production and metabolism, and thus you burn more calories throughout the day. They also tend to suppress appetite, since the last thing the body is worried about when in danger mode is food. The major problem with thermogenics in the long run is that your body becomes adapted to them in a fairly short time span. Many believe that your natural metabolism will fall as a result of artificially stimulating it, and thus, in the long run (since you can’t take thermogenic products forever), you are doing yourself more harm than good by taking them. The most popular item in this category, traditionally, was the ephedra-caffeine-aspirin stack, which is no longer legal. Most thermogenic products have replaced the ephedra with other items claiming to boost metabolism, such as hoodia, EGCG (found in green tea), bitter orange, or other such naturally-found herbs. I personally am of the opinion that it’s reasonable to use a small amount of thermogenics for short-term results, but more for energy than anything else, particularly when exercising. For the sake of fat-loss, I think they do very little compared to healthy diet and exercise.

Your supplement regimen should be unique not only to your goals, but to your health as well. What types of injuries do you have– joint problems? Do you train with weights several times a week, or once a week? Are you actively trying to become significantly more muscular, or are you looking simply to “tone up”?

The first stop for most people will be a multi-vitamin, multi-mineral. This will complement pretty much everybody’s lifestyle.

Next would be to secure your daily eating habits. If you are not eating 100% properly, with a minimum of 4-6 small meals throughout the day, are you at least using meal replacement bars and/or shakes to meet your quota? If not, you’re short-changing your metabolism and you’re probably not going to see the results you had hoped to see.

Next up for most should be supplements aimed at general health. If you have joint problems, invest in a glucosamine/chondroiton complex. Also, invest in a good omega-3 fatty acid supplement. (Many people now believe this is the supplement of the future, and will lead to a huge decrease in cardiovascular disease, if utilized properly.) If you are working out hard several times a week and you seem to have a hard time recovering, glutamine might help you get through healing more efficiently.

Next up would be investing in the supplements that can help you improve your performance. If you are serious about packing on some muscle, creatine would probably be the first stop, followed by either a nitric-oxide product or beta-alanine. Believe it or not, lots of studies have shown that simple caffeine can often improve workout performance immensely. Just remember, you quickly build a tolerance to it, and will not be able to reap the benefits indefinitely. And finally, if you feel it’s appropriate for you, you could look into various fat-loss supplements, whether thermogenics, or something a bit fancier like conjugated-linoleic acid (CLA).

-the supplement industry is growing exponentially, right alongside the obesity epidemic in America

-turning to supplements will not solve all health and fitness problems, nor will it make a huge difference in achieving your goals, though judicious use of the proper supplements can help a bit

-the supplement industry is not regulated, so effects and benefits of supplements are usually fairly minimal compared to the effect that can be achieved via proper diet and exercise

-supplements are there to help supplement a healthy diet and workout routine

-we can classify supplements as either “dietary” in nature, which are intended to help reach baseline levels of health, or “bodybuilding/performance” in nature, which are intended to surpass baseline levels of performance and/or health in certain regards

-one’s supplement regimen should be unique to the individual and his/her goals