Advancements in sports science and training techniques make it challenging for high performance athletes to find the competitive edge. When an athlete turns to supplementation, they need to be absolutely certain that there are no banned substances. Otherwise, they risk a positive drug test and potential suspension, or even a ban from their sport.

What Are Supplements?

Nutritional supplements are chosen by people looking to fill a gap in their diet, or who seek to enhance their exercise and athletic performance. They include:



• vitamins
• minerals
• herbs 
• meal supplements
• sports nutrition products
• natural food supplements
• other similar products which boost the nutritional content of food

Supplements can be taken in pill, capsule, tablet, powder or liquid form and include everything from high-protein powders and protein bars, creatine and branched-chain amino acids (BCAAs), through to glucosamine and omegas. 

Awareness and Risk

Many people use supplements, but they do pose a huge risk to high performing sportspeople. Every year, multiple Australian athletes receive anti-doping bans because of supplement use. Therefore, awareness and risk assessment are imperative. 

Athletes from recreational to elite level must abide by anti-doping policies and can be targeted for testing. If you are a member of a national governing body, like Triathlon Australia which competes in a World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) sanctioned event such as an Ironman, you can be tested.

Unfortunately, the ingredient list on many supplements does not match the contents inside. Banned substances can be deliberately added during manufacturing, or they can be inadvertently contaminated. 

Athletes need to be as diligent and selective as possible when consuming supplements.

How Can Athletes Protect Themselves?

When an athlete is considering supplement use, there are three things they can do to protect themselves from the negative consequences:

Protect your sporting career and reputation by following the 3 A’s.

• understanding what constitutes a supplement
• learning about the risks and consequences of misuse
• investigating for peace-of-mind at a site like Sport Integrity or WADA. 
  

Analysis continues that research.

Ask yourself three key questions:

• Has it been tested?
• Is it safe?
• Is it effective (in enhancing performance) or necessary?
  

Avoid risk

If ‘No’ is the answer to any of the analysis questions, the athlete should avoid the supplement.

Sport Integrity advises,

“If you decide to take a supplement, the first question you should ask about a product is, ‘Has it been tested for banned substances?’”

before continuing to name the two major testers that operate in Australia – one of which is Informed Sport. 

What is Informed Sport?

Informed Sport is a global supplement testing and certification programme for sports and nutritional supplements. They screen products including protein powders, creatine powders, pre-workout, and recovery products. These supplement products are thoroughly tested for contamination in a world-class laboratory, using a step-by-step process to ensure the highest level of batch testing has taken place, before the Informed Sport label is marked on it.

Why is Informed Sport Important?

Sport Integrity Australia is our national organisation that provides advice and assistance to counter the use of prohibited substances and methods in sport. While they advise that no supplement is safe to use, they do,

“recognise that there may be circumstances where sports dieticians recommend supplements, or where you will take the risk and use supplements. In these circumstances, our advice is to only use supplements that have been screened for prohibited substances by an independent company (also known as ‘batch testing’), such as HASTA or Informed Sport.”¹

1 in 10 supplements could be contaminated with banned substances.

Finding a supplement you can trust is all about risk management. Informed Sport reduce that risk. Every batch of supplements bearing the Informed Sport logo has been tested for banned substances before going to market. They:

• have 55 years anti-doping experience 
• have certified 1000 products globally
• complete 20,000 tests annually
  

With Informed Sport you can be confident your reputation is in safe hands.

Do Everyday People Need to Consider This?

Let me ask you this … if the role of Sport Integrity and WADA is to ensure nutritional supplements are safe and effective for your use, why would you use anything other than an Informed Sport certified product?