Whey Protein Powder and Drug Worries

norrie rugger

I never post here and I looked for a similar thread but I could not find one, so bear with me if it has been asked before.

There was a documentary, on RTÉ, recently about the athletes preparation for the Olympic Games.
It focused on the different methods that people utilise now days, to increase their chances. It ranged from simulated high altitude living to whey protein.

There was a huge segment regarding the danger of drug contamination, in suppliments, and of people caught with positive samples blaming their food supliments. There seemed to be an agreement, in the show, by their experts that this is a possibility. The companies producing the foods now even have to drug test each batch to combat this idea.

This seems crazy to me. Whey protein is a by-product of the dairy industry and is a food source, so, where would the contamination come from?
I mean do drugs such as steroids and EPO magically appear in the container?
If there really is a threat, with these products, should athletes not drink milk or eat butter/cheese/yoghurt? It all comes from the same source and is just seperated during production and packaged differently.


I imagine that you can take from the tone of my post that I do not believe for a second that there is a way for drugs to get into the food supliments, without some malicious intent/cheating or plain deception from the athletes trying to shift blame away from themselves.

I am asking the question out of genuine curiosity and would love to get an answer either way but if someone is going to say that the foods are a danger, as far as drug contamination is concerned, I would really appreciate some evidence to back it up.

Nervous Wreck

Scaremongering.

Hanley

Well... there is a chance, just a small one, that the athletes are up to their eyeballs and looking for any excuse they can get to justify it.

There are some stimulants and other things that can occur in OTC meds that could cause a positive test. But legit anabolic steroids in protein powder? Not a ****ing hope.

How does cross contamination occur unless the same factory is also making steroids.

It's one of the most flawed arguments ever and kudos for having the ability to spot how dumb it is!

Doug Cartel

What is and isn't legal varies form country to country, and so if a company is preparing different products for different markets, there is the possibility that cross contamination could occur.

I've also heard stories of companies putting PEDs in early batches of some new product to make it seem more effective than it really is, and generate some hype. I'm not sure how much I believe that though.

Hanley

Doug Cartel wrote: »

What is and isn't legal varies form country to country, and so if a company is preparing different products for different markets, there is the possibility that cross contamination could occur.

I've also heard stories of companies putting PEDs in early batches of some new product to make it seem more effective than it really is, and generate some hype. I'm not sure how much I believe that though.

What's "legal" in different countries change, but the WADA banned list doesn't.

BigBraveBear

So some athletes are caught doping and they blame it on contaminated food supplements, sounds legit.

Doug Cartel

Hanley wrote: »

What's "legal" in different countries change, but the WADA banned list doesn't.

Doesn't that list change all the time? What happens when something gets added to it, does everyone producing supplements torch their facilities and start fresh?

Hanley

Doug Cartel wrote: »

Doesn't that list change all the time? What happens when something gets added to it, does everyone producing supplements torch their facilities and start fresh?

It might have small changes year to year, but it seems to mostly be stimulant related. There's no way in hell that there's significant enough changes year to account for contaminated supplements in any way, shape or form.

You can't get popped for a messed up T:E ratio or excess nandrolone levels and blame it on some factory that used to produce testorific protein powder.

It's a bullsh*t cop out which is used to play on peoples ignorance and sympathy and preserve and athletes credibility.

Doug Cartel

Hanley wrote: »

It might have small changes year to year, but it seems to mostly be stimulant related.

Which, if I remember correctly, is what the program was talking about.

Hanley

Doug Cartel wrote: »

Which, if I remember correctly, is what the program was talking about.

...which is what I expressly qualified my earlier posts to include.

And since the OP was talking about steroids and not just stimulants, it would be appropriate to discuss that too, no?

norrie rugger

Cheers guys.
In relation to stimulants, what would be the issue there?

The argument that they were making is that, because these are not pharmaceutical grade companies, that they would have contamination. I really found this to be grasping at straws. The level of dilution that would occur from 1 multi thousand litre vessle having one drop of the previous batch would be miniscule. Not one drop of a stimulant or EPD but a drop of the previous mixture that already have diluted anything there.

What stimulants would be added to whey protein anyway?
Why would a legitimate company risk their revenue source by tampering with their food product?

Doug Cartel

norrie rugger wrote: »

What stimulants would be added to whey protein anyway?
Why would a legitimate company risk their revenue source by tampering with their food product?

For most of these companies their main customers are not high performance athletes, but guys who do curls in the squat rack, and need the extra pump of some kind of powder that comes in a grenade shaped container to really max out their gains. The stimulants vary, but typically you'd be talking about ephedrine or some analogue of that.

The market for protein powders is fairly saturated, and as it's a fairly simple product there's not much to really differentiate the different brands. Because of this companies will mix extra rubbish in with their basic protein to produce some kind of all in one stack which can be more easily marketed. If they're not careful about this there is a chance of cross contamination.

ray jay

BigBraveBear wrote: »

So some athletes are caught doping and they blame it on contaminated food supplements, sounds legit.

You think that's bad, you should hear the excuses some athletes spout.

Michael 09

She should be let off for being so creative with an excuse...

Marty_McFly

Well... there is a chance, just a small one, that the athletes are up to their eyeballs and looking for any excuse they can get to justify it.

This ^^

The Guvnor

Co's do not have to drug test their products - some sign up to have random batches tested but this is more to prove that they are contaminant free and is not a legal requirement.

If no nandralone is used by the company making the products then one wonders how it could turn up in a product and certainly wonder how if it did turn up how it would be at a level high enough to fail a test,

In the past athletes used supplement co's as an excuse.

Not totally relevant but a good article on doping at the high end of sport:
http://www.muscleweek.com/is-usain-bolt-on-steroids

I should say that I posted the article just to highlight what can go on at the top level and it's unfortunate they push the article based on just one athlete.

nice_guy80

factories are used to produce different products
some companies produce bodybuilding products with prohibited substances in them

so if the machinery wasn't cleaned and sanitised properly then of course there is a way for a batch of protein to be tainted.

I would also add, that most top elite athletes (athletics and non power sports) would be very big into their wholefoods approach to eating and so wouldn't use much protein powder

drdeadlift

nice_guy80 wrote: »

factories are used to produce different products
some companies produce bodybuilding products with prohibited substances in them

so if the machinery wasn't cleaned and sanitised properly then of course there is a way for a batch of protein to be tainted.

I would also add, that most top elite athletes (athletics and non power sports) would be very big into their wholefoods approach to eating and so wouldn't use much protein powder

Its mad to think both the fastest man on water and the fastest man on land both smoke weed regularly.

Antisocialiser

drdeadlift wrote: »

Its mad to think both the fastest man on water and the fastest man on land both smoke weed regularly.

:cool:

Source?

laoch na mona

scaremongering nothing less

TommyKnocker

laoch na mona wrote: »

scaremongering nothing less

Not necessarily. Didn't Jodie Marsh recently make the papers for promoting a brand of supplements named after herself which tested positive for ingredients which would cause a user to fail a sports drug test?

IIRC she came out in the papers and admitted that she could not use her own brand of supplements as she competes in drug free bodybuilding competitions.

Doug Cartel

There's a part in the film Bigger, Stronger Faster (I think) where they set up their own supplement brand. It's fairly shocking how little regulations they have to comply with.

discus

Doug Cartel wrote: »

There's a part in the film Bigger, Stronger Faster (I think) where they set up their own supplement brand. It's fairly shocking how little regulations they have to comply with.

Yes, but supplements are only food at the end of the day. Setting up a supplement brand is as easy as setting up a bakery.

The Guvnor

Doug Cartel wrote: »

There's a part in the film Bigger, Stronger Faster (I think) where they set up their own supplement brand. It's fairly shocking how little regulations they have to comply with.

That was all for show (no surprise there) - not quite as easy and definitely not easy if you want to be successful - USA is more relaxed than EU on what can and cannot be sold however!

Hanley

discus wrote: »

Yes, but supplements are only food at the end of the day. Setting up a supplement brand is as easy as setting up a bakery.

Maybe I'll close RevFit and open "The PED Bakery"!

Gummy Panda

laoch na mona wrote: »

scaremongering nothing less

Not true.

MyProtein's BCAA+ is made by a contract manufacturer and they had to report that their testing had found it was contaminated by DMAA.

http://www.ukad.org.uk/news/article/official-myprotein-statement

The Guvnor

Hanley wrote: »

Maybe I'll close RevFit and open "The PED Bakery"!

Everybody knows the real easy one is setting up a gym!:rolleyes::D