Science of Supplements

Supplement use is a somewhat controversial issue with many religiously defending adding their favorite supplement to their training routines while chastising others for their choices. Or the purists, who self-righteously proclaim they don’t take supplements because supplements they get everything from their “superior” diets. A key focus of many of these arguments is “what the science says” but, since the majority of the population is not scientifically literate, this message gets convoluted very quickly. If you check our About Us page, you will discover that GSD Sports & Adventure is a spin off from GSD Research, GSD meaning Global Science Directive. We do speak science, and read it, engage in it, present in it, etc. So here, just for you, is what science ACTUALLY says about supplements.

Background:

If you do a literature review of any supplement, you will find that there really are studies that say that X supplement works, but there are just as many that say that it does not. This is due to several different reasons, of which we’ll discuss three.

Limited sample sizes. Many of these published studies have extremely low sample sizes or a sample size that is not very diverse. When studies are small, not enough information is collected to weed out the outliers and uncover a true average and standard deviation. When studies are not diverse enough, observed effects might very likely be specific to just that sample group. If the whole sample population is white, how can we realistically apply the statistic to a black population where the genetics are substantially different?
Poor experimental design. Designing an experiment is an art form and, unfortunately, many scientists are not artists and do not appropriately account for confounding variables in their experimental design. Confounding variables are elements of a design that may actually be responsible for the observed effect. For example, does adding red stripes to a car make it go faster? A study could say yes if they forgot to make sure that the striped car wasn’t also a faster model than the unstriped car. Or maybe both of the cars are identical but one has a fuel injector that is slightly faulty? Or maybe the injectors are fine but one car has balding tires? The point is, without investigating every minute detail of a design, confounding variables may result in false associations causing different experiments to produce different conclusions.
Experimental bias. If the people conducting the tests are also the people selling the product, there is a motive for having favorable results. Don’t misunderstand, all producers should be doing testing and most will endeavor to do so without conscious bias; what we’re saying is that bias could be unconscious which is why it is so imperative that experiments are repeated by other teams. Only when work is reproducible, can it be considered legitimate.

For these reasons, and many others, determining what is actually valid is not always as easy as a simple Google search. Fortunately, when it comes to supplements, we’ve done the research for you. So, here’s what science actually says.

Results:

Unfortunately, the self-righteous purists are correct, there is little to no science to support really any supplement except for one. The Daily Multivitamin. That is not to say that you shouldn’t use supplements, rather that most supplements will not do specific things like boost your immune system or make you smarter. Supplements, however, can be used to complement your nutrition in a broader sense:

The average American does not eat a well-balanced diet. So while a good diet will supply all the vitamins and minerals you need, most don’t get them in the quantity required, thus a Daily Multivitamin makes sense.
The average American does not get anywhere near enough fiber. So adding foods like oats or chia seeds to your diet is a good idea. If you don’t like those things, a fiber supplement makes sense.
The average American woman does not get enough protein. So adding more meat and cheese to your diet is a good idea. If you don’t like those things, a protein supplement makes sense (animal-based is better than plant-based).
Bodybuilders need more calories in general and it requires a lot of food (and money) to reach these caloric goals. As such, supplementing your meals with affordable protein shakes or essential fats is a solid idea.

Beta-hydroxy-beta-methylbutyric acid (HMB):

In addition to a Daily Multivitamin, there is some very promising research about beta-hydroxy-beta-methylbutyric acid (HMB) supplementation to stimulate muscle growth. It’s so promising, in fact, that many hospitals supplement their cafeteria food with HMB so that patients confined to bed lose less muscle from atrophy associated with prolonged inactivity.

HMB is a metabolite of the amino acid Lysine, which is arguably the most important amino acid for construction of muscle proteins. Lysine metabolizes to HMB in an effort to reach chemical equilibrium. By adding extra HMB to your diet, you force your body to retain extra Lysine to maintain this equilibrium due to a phenomenon known as Le Chatelier’s Principle (basically, if two sides are balanced, and you add something to one side, then you need to balance it out by adding more to the other side).

You may ask, then why not just take branched-chain amino acids (which includes Lysine) to keep your Lysine levels up that way? Good question. It’s not just about having high levels of Lysine, the HMB also acts on different metabolic pathways to stimulate muscle growth. Lysine is just the building blocks, HMB triggers the use of the building blocks.

Protein supplements:

Protein supplements are very helpful. Getting the amount of protein you need when bulking is difficult (and expensive) if you attempt to get it all from food sources. You really don’t want to overdo it on protein though, as you end up training your body to burn the protein for fuel as opposed to using it for building muscle. So it’s important to figure out how much protein you actually need per day and stay in that relative ballpark.

In terms of the best brand, the truth of the matter is that protein is protein, so unless you have a food sensitivity, your body really doesn’t know the difference: it’s still going to be dissolved in acid and broken down into amino acids by digestive enzymes. This means that, brand to brand, there isn’t much of a difference. Just get what tastes good and gives you a good protein:carb ratio that’s optimal for your workout. I like the Muscle Milk Pro series, Knockout Chocolate because it’s delicious and you can find it literally everywhere for cheap. Your body can’t absorb that much protein at once so only do half the recommended amount at a time and pair it with a good amount of fiber for optimal absorption. If you want to do the full amount, pair with a lot of fiber and water.

In terms of plant- vs animal-based protein powders, animal-based protein is just simply better. Why on Earth would a plant have a better amino acid profile for humans than an animal does? Obviously, animal muscle is more similar to ours than plant…I guess stoma? Animal proteins are also complete proteins, meaning they contain all of the essential and nonessential amino acids whereas plant proteins are rich in nonessential amino acids only. This makes sense. Animals have muscles, brains, and other organ systems like we have so of course they would have the amino acids required to maintain these in humans. Whey protein is the most common animal-based protein powder.

Other supplements:

There are so many supplements out there that are generally trendy for a while but die off because they don’t actually work. There’s a few that keep coming up all the time though, so we’re going to address a couple of the big ones.

Testofen. Testofen supposedly increases your testosterone levels naturally. This is nonsense. Studies show that Testofen MIGHT increase testosterone levels SLIGHTLY in CERTAIN individuals SOMETIMES. If you really want to increase your testosterone levels, just go get a prescription and get the good stuff. Testosterone has side effects, so any attempt at increasing your testosterone levels should be done under the care of a physician anyway. Besides, Testofen tastes disgusting.

Caffeine. Caffeine is proof that God loves us. But you shouldn’t be doing so much that your heart flutters. Preworkout is dumb. That much caffeine just simply isn’t fun and I would be amazed if it actually increases your number of reps.

Creatine. Creatine use is ubiquitous and supposedly it stimulates muscle growth, improves performance, and gives your muscles more energy to get in extra reps. There is some information to support this but results are inconsistent at best. Your body naturally uses phosphocreatine to regenerate ATP (the molecule used to store and transport energy to the muscles) in a 1 to 1 basis. For context, one molecule of glucose generates roughly 36 ATP molecules. So yes, creatine could maybe give you extra power for an extra rep but, realistically, the popularity and widespread claims of creatine’s incredible benefits are largely apocryphal.

BCAA (branched-chain amino acids). BCAA’s are essential amino acids so yes, they work, but any decent animal-based protein powder will do just as well.

Sorry everyone, unfortunately, there are no shortcuts. The best way to be healthy is diet and exercise. The best way to get stronger is more diet and exercise. The best way to perform better is more diet and exercise. Protein is protein, carbs are carbs, your body really doesn’t care (unless you have an actual food sensitivity), it’s just about giving your body the quantities it needs and the right balance of protein:carbs:fats. And water. Drink lots of water. No, alkaline water does not hydrate you better. That’s asinine.