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It’s that time again: The Doping Authority warns once again about dietary supplements containing undisclosed “doping substances.” Noxpump, Blackbombs, and Lipo-Bolic could even pose a health risk.
“Waiter, there’s doping in my pre-workout!”
It would actually be surprising if no misconduct were ever found. After all, it seems like you’re getting screwed over in every industry. You think you’re buying a nice steak, but it turns out you’re eating horse instead of cow, sugars find their way into your bloodstream under pseudonyms, and cheese sold as “cheddar” is laughed at by real cheddar farmers [1].
These are just a few examples of situations where, as a consumer, you’re not critical enough (checking ingredients) or don’t have enough knowledge to be critical. If you order soup in an expensive restaurant and find a hair in it, you won’t hesitate to express your outrage to the waiter. That doesn’t belong there. However, in a pot of powder, it’s impossible to identify the various components without the intervention of a lab, so you just swallow that pulverized hair.
Over the past few years, I’ve written several articles about supplements that were “contaminated” (
Unstoppable, Craze, Iomax), and unfortunately, it seems like I’ll have to keep writing these kinds of articles in the coming years [2,3,4].
Doping Authority Warning
The reason for the current uproar is the warning issued by the Doping Authority and the Dutch Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority last Friday [5,6]:
The Doping Authority has conducted research into the presence of doping substances in sports nutrition supplements with an increased risk profile. These high-risk supplements are aimed at hormone regulation, muscle strengthening, weight loss/fat burning, or gaining more energy. In total, 66 products from 21 different brands were analyzed. The products were purchased via Dutch webshops.
Of these 66 high-risk sports nutrition supplements, 25 (38%) tested ‘positive’ and 30 (45%) ‘negative.’ Eight products (12%) contained doping substances in ‘concentrations below the established threshold value.’ These low concentrations may possibly be explained by chemical processes that can occur with plant-based ingredients. Because the detected concentrations are so low, this does not pose a risk to a top athlete in a potential doping control. Three of the 66 products (5%) were found to be ‘not (fully) analyzable.’
Of the 25 ‘positive’ products, three (5% total) contained doping substances in high concentrations. Use of these products can quickly lead to health complaints. In view of public health, these findings have therefore been reported to the Dutch Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority (NVWA). The NVWA has since issued a safety warning.
The full research report can be read on the Doping Authority’s website.
NZVT Advertising
When you read this kind of information from the Doping Authority, you always have to realize that two types of audiences are being addressed: professional athletes and amateur athletes. In some respects, the research almost seems like an advertisement for the Dutch Safety System for Sports Supplements (NZVT). An organization set up to provide athletes with “clean supplements” so you don’t unknowingly ingest doping and get suspended.
The research is almost a lament about the fact that so few athletes purchase their supplements through the NZVT. However, that’s not surprising. As an athlete, you have various options through the NZVT. You can check their database for your desired product, check for controls on certain batches, and then place your order through the listed supplier. In many cases, this supplier doesn’t have a webshop or you have to search for it. Quite cumbersome. You could also order many of the products on this list from
sportvitamins4u, but that site honestly looks quite amateurish, has a very limited range compared to other shops, and is very expensive. If professional athletes don’t find this appealing, then amateur athletes will quickly ignore that database and such a site.
Pre-workouts and Fat Burners
When I heard the initial reports on TV last Friday (“a third of supplements contain doping”), I actually assumed it would mainly be about pre-workouts and fat burners. Products in which amphetamines had been found before.
If we look at the numbers closely, some might say it’s much ado about nothing. In a third of the 25 cases of contamination, such as amphetamine-like substances or steroids, it turned out to be very low concentrations. So low that it could also come from natural ingredients. In three cases, the supplements contained the substance phenylethylamine, which is considered doping, but it was listed in the ingredients. Therefore, “excluded from investigation.” If you buy it, you “know” what you’re taking.
The Dutch Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority’s warning specifically targets three of the 66 products that pose increased health risks. In two of these cases, the supplements contained high concentrations of the amphetamine-like substance, methylphenethylamine. In a third case, it involved oxilofrine, the ephedrine-derived substance that gained its “fame” from the suspension of sprinters Asafa Powell and Tyson Gay in 2013 [7,8]. Both athletes attributed this at the time to the use of a supplement that did not list the substance on the label.
No products were found to contain high concentrations of steroids. As I thought, pre-workouts and fat burners are still the most suspicious. I’ll wonder if there’s as much protein in a jar of
protein or
creatine as stated, but I won’t quickly worry that there’s speed in it.
Dorian Yates
Much ado about nothing as the British would say. Speaking of Brits: Coincidentally, last year at the Bodypower Expo in Birmingham, I had an interview with Dorian Yates. A very enjoyable interview with a bodybuilding legend who gave me all the time for the interview. However, in hindsight, it’s a bit painful when I read it now:
Kenneth: “You have your own supplement line now, Dorian Yates Nutrition. How’s it going?”
Dorian: “Good! I’ve worked with other labels before, of course, but here I have full control. I’m also involved in the production process and therefore know exactly what the product is supposed to be. That makes it much easier to fully stand behind your product.”
There goes my idol. Two of the three products containing high concentrations of stimulants are actually from Dorian Yates’ brand, DY Nutrition. These products (
Blackbombs and
Noxpump) contain high concentrations of phenylethylamine (β-methylphenethylamine and N,β-dimethylphenethylamine).
Users of these products may experience palpitations, high blood pressure, restlessness, headaches, heart and liver damage, erectile dysfunction, psychoses, and paranoid delusions depending on the duration of use. An overdose can be fatal due to the stress on the heart. Consumers are advised not to use the products in question.
The Dutch Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority
“You Get What You Deserve”
On the other hand, this may be a “positive” sign of his personal involvement. If you were to ask me whose fault it is that producers do this, a large part of the answer would be: “The consumer.” Not because the consumer is unable to check the product for quality (not everyone has a lab in their backyard). No, the reason is that consumers demand impossible things from supplements. They want the results of steroids without using steroids, they want to lose weight without making the right adjustments to diet and activity. After writing about a supplement that turned out to contain amphetamine-like substances, I regularly receive emails from readers (mostly women) asking where they can still buy it. It’s precisely because it contains speed-like substances that people “feel the effects” as I so often hear expressed. “So it really works.” Fantastic for those people whose stock of ephedra-containing stackers has run out for a year.
One statement I make almost weekly when supplement use is discussed in the gym: “If you ‘feel it’ and therefore feel the effects of a pre-workout or fat burner, it’s usually either a placebo effect or there’s something in the pot that shouldn’t be there. An exception might be Beta-alanine in the sense that it gives you the familiar tingling sensation in your fingers, but it’s not like you suddenly bench press 140kg instead of 100kg.”
People simply expect too much from supplements, and manufacturers resort to these tricks to meet those expectations. People want to feel like Popeye after opening a can of spinach, so supplement producers feel compelled to put speed in the spinach. Perhaps a better comparison is the horsemeat scandal: It’s understandable that people are pissed off when horsemeat is sold as beef. However, it would be a different story if we all demanded beef with a horse flavor.
I’ll just continue making my own pre-workout [9]. No, I won’t “feel it” and no, I won’t hire a pro bodybuilder to pretend his physique is thanks to my product so I can sell it to others. If you, as a consumer, stay realistic, then a supplier won’t sell you nonsense.
References
- npo.nl/keuringsdienst-van-waarde/05-11-2015/KN_1673131
- fitsociety.nl/bodybuilding/drug-en-anabolen-in-supplementen/
- fitsociety.nl/pre-workout/unstoppable-van-dedicated-nutrition-verboden/
- fitsociety.nl/fatburners/speed-aangetroffen-in-iomax/
- dopingautoriteit.nl/nieuws/algemeen/item/8075/Resultaten+onderzoek+sportvoedingssupplementen
- nvwa.nl/actueel/waarschuwingen/waarschuwing/2069541/belangrijke-veiligheidswaarschuwing-voedingssupplementen-noxpump-dorian-yates
- theguardian.com/sport/2013/jul/15/tyson-gay-asafa-powell-oxilofrine
- theguardian.com/sport/2014/jan/13/asafa-powell-doping-hearing-jamaica
- fitsociety.nl/gezonde-voeding/welke-supplementen-heb-ik-nodig/
