Research Paper
Supplements: important or harmful?
Supplements were used since time in immemorial. For example, ancient athletes used
herbal concoction and tonics to enhance their strength, prowess, and stamina (Dalby A. 2008).
Supplements can be defined as a substance that is used to remedy the weak points of one’s diet.
Nowadays, it is commonly used by great number of people, especially athletes and bodybuilders.
According to Consumer Reports (McGinn, November 7th 2010) the industry of supplements
annually gains in United States $2.7 billion (US).However, The New York Times (December 14,
2013) announced that “the US FDA reports 50,000 health problems a year due to dietary
supplements”. In addition, most of those cases involves bodybuilding supplements (FDA,
December 17th 2010). With these statistics, people may wonder if supplements benefit our body
or harm it. Although supplements are considered by some harmful because of the chemicals and
unlisted ingredient that are used, and the effects are temporary disappear after stopping using the
product. I argue that supplements are essential to athletes and also to normal person’s life
because it can provide essential nutrition, and for having stronger muscles. The purpose of the
research paper is to acknowledge the public opinion regarding this issue.
Supplements has a vast variation including vitamin supplements, protein, branched-chain amino
acids (BCAA), glutamine, essential fatty acids, meal replacement products, creatine, weight loss
products and testosterone boosters. Athletes and bodybuilders take protein shake before and
immediately after exercising to support muscle growth and regeneration. Some heath critics
argue that protein shakes are unnecessary because most people harvest enough protein in a
normal varied diet with enough calories (Nutrition Working Group of the International Olympic
Committee 2003). However, that is not the case when we compare people who exercise without
supplement like protein shakes and the ones who exercise with using protein shakes. We notice
Research Paper
Supplements: important or harmful?
that they who use protein shakes endure harder training for a long time. Moreover, their muscle
percentage is higher than the people who did not use supplements.
Some might argue that supplements contain a large quantity of chemicals that are harmful
to the liver. In addition, some products contain unlisted ingredients such as steroids. Since
supplement companies are not required to have an approval from the U.S. Food and Drug
Administration (FDA) before they were marketed. In case of chemicals and unlisted ingredient,
Dr. Victor Navarro, the chairman of the hepatology division at Einstein Healthcare Network in
Philadelphia, argues that "while liver injuries linked to supplements were alarming, he believed
that a majority of supplements were generally safe” (The New York Times, December 21st
2013). One must understand that the supplement industry is vast and still growing, so few
dysfunctional products would exist. However, most popular products are safe and a lot of stores
would not sell products that are not proven to be safe and effective. The second argument that
people may have against supplements is one might lose weight and muscles if the person stops
using the supplement. Some facts state that it is not the supplements fault that one losses gains
and weight when s/he stops using supplements. Instead, it is the fault of one’s diet. Personally,
my diet used to contain more than 200 grams protein, 15 grams of BCAA, 20 grams of fiber, and
a medium amount of carbohydrates. However, when I was travelling to The United States, I
could not keep the same diet there even some days I ate only a meal per day since I was too busy
to sit down and eat. Therefore, I have started suffering from hair lost and I lost more than 5
kilograms of my weight, also my skin and nails got weaker because of the drastic changes in my
diet. Even now, the conditions are still showing but I started to use multivitamin and protein
supplements again. However, this time I started to take larger quantities of supplements since I
Research Paper
Supplements: important or harmful?
could not have the same quality of food I used to have in my country. After a while I started to
gain my healthy body back. Therefore, if a person can consume the same amount of nutrition the
supplements gave. S/he would not lose weight nor muscles.
One of the benefits of supplements is can provide essential nutrition when lacking
because of allergy or extinctive exercise. Moreover, meal replacement products are essential
when a person’s traveling or running a marathon. Because it contains all the nutrition one’s need
in one meal. Thus, making it popular with runners and cross-fit players. One of the most used
supplements by people who may suffer from an allergy that does not allow them to have the
essential nutrition they need is multivitamin (Grace, October 3rd 2013).
Another essential use of supplements is for gaining bigger muscles. Supplements are
more effective than whole foods when it comes to muscle gain as it takes less time to digest
whey protein (about 30 minutes). Whole food does not give the high amount of protein that a
bodybuilder needs to build muscles and it does not give the feeling of pumping blood and the
release of intensive energy and explosive power like what Niacin and Folic Acid does. Taking
protein shakes first thing in the morning, before and after training would help to build muscles
without complication or injuries from lacking of protein (Journal of Sports Sciences, 2004).
The participants were largely from an intensive English communication program in a wellknown United State university in spring 2015 and the others were interviewed online from
famous websites. The data that was collected were to acknowledge the public opinion regarding
if supplements are essential for all people especially athletes. The participants were 20 persons
total; 10 of them exercised more often, while the other 10 rarely did. The participant belonged to
Research Paper
Supplements: important or harmful?
the following age groups: 10 of the represented 18-21 age group, the other represented 22-45 age
group.
Initial
Age
Exercising
Ag
22-45
Yes
Mh
18-21
Yes
Al
18-21
No
Ha
22-45
Yes
Si
22-45
No
Am
18-21
No
Je
22-45
No
Mg
22-45
Yes
Yi
22-45
Yes
Aq
18-21
No
Jo
22-45
Yes
Na
22-45
Yes
Ra
22-45
No
Fi
18-21
No
Sa
18-21
Yes
Ma
18-21
Yes
Ja
18-21
No
Ah
18-21
No
Kh
22-45
Yes
Mj
18-21
No
Research Paper
Supplements: important or harmful?
The survey was conducted in a university building in the United State as well as online.
When collecting the researcher approached the participant quietly, politely explained the purpose
of the research, and asked them few details about their life. The researcher the contacted people
online and few participant answered the question with details. The researcher knows most of the
participants and the participants were chosen because they were available at that time. The online
site were used are Reddit and Whatsapp because they were popular and accessible.
The responses showing if the participants agree or disagree with the statement presented
in the survey. Moreover, the result would be summarized in the form of a bar graph chart. The
reasons of the participants’ choices were analyzed qualitatively.
The first question in the survey was asking whether the participants agree or disagree
with the following statement: supplements are essential for all people especially athletes. The
responses are summarized in the bar graph below.
Research Paper
Supplements: important or harmful?
Chart Title
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
age group 18-21
Strongly agree
Agree
age group 22-45
I don't know
Disagree
Strongly disagree
The bar graph shows us the number of people who strongly agree, agree, do not know,
disagree or strongly disagree with the statement. As we can see, the majority of the participant
agreed with the statement, while the minority strongly disagreed. The number of people who
were undecided was significant in the 22-45 age group. Moreover, the number of people who
disagreed with the statement in 18-21 group is higher than 22-45 group. The results indicate that
almost the same number from the both group agreed with the statement and less people from 2245 age group disagreed with the statement compared to 18-21 group. Some possible explanation
is the different time management between the two groups or more people nowadays started to
use a form of supplements.
In conclusion, a summary of the study whether supplements are essential for all people
especially athletes. The results indicate that more people agree than disagree, so the public
Research Paper
Supplements: important or harmful?
opinion is supportive for the statement. This might be due to the fact that people nowadays uses a
form of supplements and the researcher is a charismatic and a seductive person. There were some
limitation such as the number of participant and it is not conducted worldwide. For future
research it should be conducted in most of the world developed countries.