Dietary Supplement Use among Elite Young German Athletes

Abstract

Little is known about the prevalence and motives of supplement use among elite young athletes who compete on national and international levels. Therefore, the current survey was performed to assess information regarding the past and present use of dietary supplements among 164 elite young athletes (16.6 +/- 3.0 years of age). A 5-page questionnaire was designed to assess their past and present (last 4 weeks) use of vitamins, minerals, carbohydrate, protein, and fat supplements; sport drinks; and other ergogenic aids. Furthermore, information about motives, sources of advice, supplement sources, and supplement contamination was assessed. Eighty percent of all athletes reported using at least 1 supplement, and the prevalence of use was significantly higher in older athletes (p < .05). Among supplement users, minerals, vitamins, sport drinks, energy drinks, and carbohydrates were most frequently consumed. Only a minority of the athletes declared that they used protein/amino acids, creatine, or other ergogenic aids. Major motives for supplement use were health related, whereas performance enhancement and recommendations by others were less frequently reported. Supplements were mainly obtained from parents or by athletes themselves and were mostly purchased in pharmacies, supermarkets, and health-food stores. Among all athletes, only 36% were aware of the problem of supplement contamination. The survey shows that supplement use is common and widespread among German elite young athletes. This stands in strong contrast to recommendations by leading sport organizations against supplement use by underage athletes.

Use of dietary supplements among Brazilian athletes

“…The results obtained in present study differ from many others that have found that vitamins, minerals, and/or multivitamin/minerals were the most frequently consumed supplements among athletes [2, 5,6,8,17]. Although 17.5% and 23.3% of the athletes investigated consumed minerals and vitamins, respectively, these supplements were not included in the list of the four most frequently used supplements.…”

“…The most frequently mentioned reasons given by athletes for the use of dietary supplements include increase in energy and strength, improvement in performance, maintenance or enhancement of overall health and the immune system, prevention of nutritional deficiencies, and also to speed injury recovery [4][5][6][7]. Aiming at obtaining these results, the most commonly consumed dietary supplements by this population are sports drinks, multivitamins and minerals, proteins, and amino acids [8].…”

“…Although there are several studies on the prevalence of dietary supplement use among athletes from different sports [2, 5,8], there are few data regarding its use by Brazilian athletes [19,20]. National studies have investigated dietary supplementation practices among gym users [21], which may be different from the use patterns of athletes.…”

Characterisation of vitamin and mineral supplement users differentiated according to their motives for using supplements: results of the German National Nutrition Monitoring (NEMONIT)

“…The uncontrolled use of supplements in the general population may represent a health risk as there is increasing evidence that high intakes of some dietary supplements, such as vitamin E or vitamin A, may be more harmful than beneficial (3)(4)(5) . One common finding among studies on supplement use in Europe is that the major motives for supplement use are related to health (6)(7)(8)(9)(10) . Furthermore, it has been reported that supplement use is more frequent in women than in men (1,11,12) , in older people than in younger people (1,12) and in people with higher levels of education compared with those with lower levels of education (13,14) .…”

Vitamin C Supplementation Reduces Exercise-Induced Oxidative Stress and Increases Peak Muscular Force

“…muscular force inhibition and fatigue. This has led to a trend of antioxidant supplementation, with vitamin C being one of the more popular choices [13] [14]. Vitamin C's role in sport and exercise was examined as early as the 1930's [15] [16] and has since been a spotlight.…”