I should be more precise. Take Mr. Cielo, for instance, who says that he was using a "caffeine supplement." I use a caffeine supplement every day. It is called Breakfast Blend. Like many of my friends and competitors, I often top off before races. Other caffeine supplements on the market include No Doz and Jolt Gum. What does a "sports supplement" of caffeine offer that No Doz doesn't, aside from either the placebo effect or the occasional dash of something even more metabolically stimulating than caffeine?
Your intuition is correct here. Caffeine is most likely the thing that works in a supplement containing caffeine. Everything else is packaging and marketing. Things more stimulating than caffeine do exist, but I'm pretty sure they are all banned by WADA, and some of them are very dangerous.
Same with the nutritional supplements, like vitamins or amino acids or whatever. You can buy vitamin supplements and nutritious food in any supermarket. What could a special sports powder offer, aside from the reassurance of a ripped athlete on the label, or for some (un)lucky users the training boost of clenbuterol or methyltestosterone?
Again, correct. Protein and creatine can be very good supplements, but they don't need "special ingredients" added. Also, a lot of those supplements just have a bunch of sugar added. That's a severe waste of money.
Every "contaminated" supplement story I have ever read has involved products marketed expressly to athletes. I would be pretty surprised if a study showed that No Doz or Centrum or Enriched Malt-O-Meal were "contaminated" with PEDs. But I am not surprised at all that metabolically identical products marketed to athletes are.
You're just speculating, and I don't see a difference in marketing. Most supplements are marketed to obsessive health freaks and bodybuilders. I don't think I've ever seen the athlete-oriented things you're talking about. Also, there have been a few cases recently of clenbuterol in meat. So I wouldn't necessarily trust anything just because it's a "mainstream" product. What confuses me is why these guys are so confident that their caffeine was contaminated. How would one go about deducing that?
I should be more precise. Take Mr. Cielo, for instance, who says that he was using a "caffeine supplement." I use a caffeine supplement every day. It is called Breakfast Blend. Like many of my friends and competitors, I often top off before races. Other caffeine supplements on the market include No Doz and Jolt Gum. What does a "sports supplement" of caffeine offer that No Doz doesn't, aside from either the placebo effect or the occasional dash of something even more metabolically stimulating than caffeine?
Your intuition is correct here. Caffeine is most likely the thing that works in a supplement containing caffeine. Everything else is packaging and marketing. Things more stimulating than caffeine do exist, but I'm pretty sure they are all banned by WADA, and some of them are very dangerous.
Same with the nutritional supplements, like vitamins or amino acids or whatever. You can buy vitamin supplements and nutritious food in any supermarket. What could a special sports powder offer, aside from the reassurance of a ripped athlete on the label, or for some (un)lucky users the training boost of clenbuterol or methyltestosterone?
Again, correct. Protein and creatine can be very good supplements, but they don't need "special ingredients" added. Also, a lot of those supplements just have a bunch of sugar added. That's a severe waste of money.
Every "contaminated" supplement story I have ever read has involved products marketed expressly to athletes. I would be pretty surprised if a study showed that No Doz or Centrum or Enriched Malt-O-Meal were "contaminated" with PEDs. But I am not surprised at all that metabolically identical products marketed to athletes are.
You're just speculating, and I don't see a difference in marketing. Most supplements are marketed to obsessive health freaks and bodybuilders. I don't think I've ever seen the athlete-oriented things you're talking about. Also, there have been a few cases recently of clenbuterol in meat. So I wouldn't necessarily trust anything just because it's a "mainstream" product. What confuses me is why these guys are so confident that their caffeine was contaminated. How would one go about deducing that?
