HRE #4: Nutrition for Athletes & Supplementation

This project focused on nutrition and supplementation - specifically for the athlete. Below are the excerpts from this student's research:

"Athletes live very different lives then regular people athletes and to follow strict diets and rigorous training and are always being evaluated. Athletes have different nutritional requirements to a non athletic person, an athlete might need more protein in there diet or overall calories just to maintain body weight there are many different nutritional guide lines an athlete would have to follow for different sports."

"Some common reasons why athletes turn to supplements to gain better performance are to maybe recover faster, gain weight faster, loss weight faster, have more endurance etc."

This student recommends 5 ways to evaluate supplements for is safety and efficacy:
1. What it is or what its classified as or what supplement family is it under an example would be if an athlete was going to decided to take L-arginine before work outs they would want to know that its an amino acid.

2. Side effects of the supplement read the entire label and do your on research on the internet or ask a dr.

3. Read and research the ingredients know exactly what everything that’s in the pill or powder is and what its going to do.

4. How long they should be on the product and how long they can stay on the product and exact amounts of how much they can consume a day.

5. Look into is the statements from the products are actually true there are a lot of scams out there and does this company really have a sold product or is it all just advertising.

When asked his thoughts on if supplementation should be more restricted, he stated the following opinion:
"Yes and no some products are ok like some protein powders but others should be banned to until the age of 21, half of the legal hard core supplements are available to anyone that’s 18 and a lot of 18 year olds are in high school and buy these products and does god knows what to there bodies....work hard the harder your train the better the results, the second thing I would be is eat healthier and eat more get add quit calories so he could recover and grow at a faster rate the last thing I would say is never give up it might seem like a losing battle at first but in the end you will win the war of growth."

In the expedition part of this project, the student was asked to go to a health store (GNC, Hi-Health, etc) and learn how advertising played the promotion of supplements.

"In my store we make sure and put the best selling products on display or the most popuar at the time. For instance we have a big cut out of a body builder holding a bottle of Hydrocut hardcore and it says “GET RIPED GET DEFINED GET NOTICED!’ when people see this sign they always ask to see the product anther sign we have in our bodybuilding section is the sign that reads “ HARDCORE? PROVE IT!” this sign drawls wall the men, it seems to make the customers feel as if they have to prove there hardcore by buying something form the section, like they feel challenged by there man hood in a way. One thing I’ve noticed since I’ve been working a supplement store is how everyone is looking for the “quick fix” the one pill that will burn all there fat the powder that will grow muscle beyond there wildest dreams. The truth is these products don’t exists."

Below is the public service announcement the student created in order to bring awareness about supplements.