Imagination healthy at expo Supplements mostly hype, expert says
By Jeb Phillips THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
At one booth in the Arnold Fitness Expo - that massive hall of commerce and barely clothed models in the Greater Columbus Convention Center this weekend - people are promoting something called Muscle Milk.
It claims to be an " 'evolutionary' muscle formula promoting efficient fat burning, lean muscle growth and fast recovery from exercise.'' On Friday, a sports-nutrition expert walked up and scanned the ingredients.
"That's just cake batter,'' said Jenna Bell-Wilson, an assistant professor of medical dietetics at Ohio State University. There were samples of Muscle Milk on the counter. They did, in fact, taste like cake batter. A 1-pound container costs about $18 online. A box of Betty Crocker cake mix costs $2.50.
Since the federal government banned ephedra, there's no nutritional supplement being sold at the expo - part of the Arnold Sports Festival - that might help kill you, as far as Bell-Wilson could tell.
There are plenty, though, that won't help you at all, or have no research to prove their packaging's claims, or that you can buy far cheaper in the grocery store. Bell-Wilson spent two hours walking around the expo, checking out the nutritional supplements on display. She didn't see anything that would
cause any lasting harm - or much that would do any particular good.
Adam Schretenthaler, who works in product development with Cytosport, the makers of Muscle Milk, said he would "completely disagree'' that his product is cake batter. "It's a blend of different milk proteins and whatnot,'' he said. "It's a very healthy product.'' He pointed to the line of people waiting to taste it, and the video of endorsements playing overhead, to help prove his point.
If drinking cake batter makes you feel better and helps you feel that you are recovering from a workout, then drink it, Bell-Wilson said. But it's still cake batter. "You want to know why these people have big muscles?'' she asked. "It's because they work out a lot.'
There's no real innovative nutrition at the expo, just innovative marketing, Bell-Wilson said. The companies find something you should be eating, or are eating anyway, put a healthy or scientific-sounding name
on it, then jack up the price.
The Vital Choice Seafood booth is just pushing salmon. The supplement Endothil-CR, which bills itself as "musculogenic cell recruiter,'' is a pill made of fruit extract. "That is a good advertisement,'' Bell-Wilson said at the front of the booth with the Endothil samples. "It looks very doctorlike.''
Lots of the booths were selling jugs of whey protein. The protein is good for you, and it's become the standard protein source in nutritional supplements, Bell-Wilson said. It's highquality, has essential amino
acids and is easily digestible.
"Here's the kicker: It's milk. Or if you want it in powdered form, powdered milk,'' she said. (The international sales manager for Cytosport, Chris Maun, disagreed with that, too.)
Booth after booth had the same sorts of everyday products. Others made claims they couldn't back up. One promoted its product, with Ginko biloba, "for improving blood circulation, and enhancing oxygen and
glucose use.'' Ginko biloba hasn't been proved to do any of that, Bell-Wilson said.
In tiny print at the bottom of the booths' handouts is the disclaimer: "These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration.''
Bell-Wilson noticed something even sneakier at the Ab-ulous Meals booth. The fliers said the Super Lean Beef Chili is low-fat, though the box label said it has 11 grams of fat per serving. The FDA won't allow
anything with more than 3 grams of fat per serving to have "low-fat'' printed on the box, she said.
"Low-fat'' wasn't printed on the Abulous Meals box. It was just on the handouts, and on a sticker placed on the display boxes. The Super Lean Beef Chili costs $7 per meal at the expo. A small chili at Wendy's is 99 cents.
