A few days ago I argued that the likely result of the Manny Ramirez suspension would be more kids looking to get pumped up on steroids and other supplements. After all, Manny is just one more example of a perceived success story in terms of performance.
Of course the big problem is that most sports supplements (and other supplements for that matter) are not scrutinized by the FDA. We usually don’t hear anything from the FDA until, like with Hydroxycut, a few livers go up in smoke.
But even though folks have no deep understanding of what’s in the supplements or who is making the claims about their effectiveness, they sell like crazy, the the tune of about $20 billion a year.
[It’s] an industry that in three decades has grown from a niche business serving iron-heaving behemoths to a broad-based juggernaut with nearly $20 billion in U.S. sales in 2007, according to the Nutrition Business Journal. As more and more players are revealed to have taken performance-enhancing drugs—Dodgers slugger Manny Ramirez being only the latest example—potent products line the shelves of Wal-Mart, Rite-Aid and 7-Eleven, more than 5,400 GNC stores and Vitamin Shoppes, and independent stores like Just Add Muscle … Despite the move into the mainstream the industry remains fertile ground for kitchen chemists with little or no formal education in science or nutrition—and in some notorious cases former steroid users and dealers.
Sports Illustrated has an in-depth look at the supplement business in their article, What You Don’t Know Might Kill You.
