The Weekly Supplement BS Report

The Weekly Supplement BS Report
September 10th, 2009 Volume I Issue 1

I read a lot. In fact, on average every month, I’ll read 3-4 fitness retail magazines, along with 2-3 fitness trade magazines, and usually a book or two that’s related to nutrition or strength training. I’m also an active member on 6 fitness message boards, as well as a subscriber to 7 fitness blogs. Did I also mention I spend usually an hour a day skimming through pubmed.org for new research articles? What can I say? I lead one boring life.

So why do I do it? Because supplements work, and some of them work extremely well. Not only have I seen it in the research, but I’ve personally experienced it as well as seen tremendous results from others. However, I’d be willing to bet that 80% of what I read is pure, unadulterated BS (closer to 95% if you just limit it to dietary supplements). To get to the really good stuff, I have to wade through a lot of crap.

And with all of the reading and researching I’ve done over the years, I’ve yet to find a reliable, honest, knowledgeable, straight-shooting newsletter, website, or blog about supplements. It seems as though everyone has an agenda, and a lot of the recommendations/opinions are heavily persuaded by the almighty dollar (sometimes very discreetly). Even some of the strength coaches that I highly respect occasionally sprinkle their articles with supplement propaganda. So last weekend, I decided enough is enough. Muscle Geeks will have the first newsletter dedicated to calling out the BS in the supplement industry.

Remember the “mystery” experiments in chemistry lab? You’d set up your Bunson burner, test tubes, funnels, and filters. You’d start the experiment with a huge beaker of some chemical mixture dissolved in a solution, and it was your job to determine what the main chemical was. Three hours and $200 worth of broken test tubes later, you’d have one small grain of some kind of purified substance left to run a test on. In a sense, that’s what this newsletter will be: a science experiment that separates the good from the bad, the pure from the BS, and the science from the marketing.

So, starting this Sunday, the first “Weekly Supplement BS Report” will be published.

-Doc