Pellius, the issue is whether an aspiring bodybuilder needs supplements such as vitamins and minerals. To that I say they are not necessary and what you wrote above agrees with my view. It is another matter whether Pellius, who might not be living the ideal life re meals, etc., is getting enough nutrients. Your point is that if you suspect your diet is inadequate then you take the supplements. My view is still a bit controversial because I would claim you might not be missing anything important. Again, what is the test of whether you are getting all you need via what you eat? That is probably difficult to determine. If you are well read in nutrition then you might have a good idea of any inadequacies. What I have seen with bodybuilders is they absorb all manner of information that really isn't solid. For example, they will believe they need various nutrients in specific amounts when there is no universal support for those levels. I cite protein here and that continues to be a controversial subject and quite an expensive nutrient to buy. The supplement companies churn out volumes of information re what bodybuilders need but where is the support for their claims? There isn't much in the literature at all. Oh, if you dig around you can find some studies that support supplementation. I am not arguing that supplements don't assist bodybuilders. I am arguing that they are probably not necessary.
I think there is another issue here. Bodybuilders seems to want to do whatever is optimum re building muscles. Thus, whatever might enhance and support building muscles is embraced by musclemen.
I well remember my mate Dave Tremblay having those same concerns. He would visit my home and when invited to stay for dinner would decline and produce cannisters of foul smelling powders that were supposed to be good for him. He ended up having skin problems and not that much muscle size. I met Dave years later in Vancouver when he owned a gym. I was surprised to see that he was now a vegetarian and his skin problems had improved. Well, sometimes ageing improves the skin. However, his diet was vastly different and we laughed about the amount of protein he used to ingest. Plus, he was taking supplements like Brewer's yeast in large amounts. He would stir a dozen eggs in a container and add ingredients and that was a meal. Goodness me, but how did his system handle all those things? The truth is he overloaded his system with too much protein and other nutrients. So, the lesson here is not to saturate your system with nutrients just because you believe they are going to be good for you.
While we are on that subject, let me address the misconception junk food. My claim is there is probably no such thing as junk food. Either something is food and can be used by the body or it is junk and has no nutritional value at all. The only food that comes close to being junk is mushrooms. They have no calories and just a few minerals. This is a good thing to eat if you want to fill yourself up and not ingest too many calories. Hamburgers are foods that could sustain people for quite a while. No one could survive and be healthy if all they ate were French fries. So, it is possible to have a junk diet. That is what people are really talking about when they say things are junk food. It would be possible to set up a McDonald's experiment where people are locked up like the Big Brother show. These hapless subjects would be able to eat only so-called junk food. They would have a gym there and there could be an incentive for the person who gained the most lean mass. Naturally, no drugs or supplements would be allowed. The question is could a bodybuilder eat at McDonald's exclusively and be healthy and gain lean mass? I have no doubt about this at all. That show about Up Size Me or whatever it was called was a sham. The jerk stopped exercising and did everything he could to increase his chances for poor nutrition. Had he selected wiser and continued his activities such as walking he would have not ended up like he did. The amusing thing is that show helped McDonald's because they changed what they offered people re their menus. The bottom line is people have to be informed and then take responsibility for lifestyles and diets.
If Pellius wants to debate me then please be specific in your claims and counter what I post and we can discuss what we don't agree on. It is clear from what he writes that he is an educated person who is informed about bodybuilding and nutrition. Let us discuss those beliefs and ideas that he has.
