CHAPTER 4
SUPPLEMENTATION — A NO-NONSENSE
What To Eat
WHEN TO TAKE IT, AND WHY.
The goal of the Anabolic Diet is to get you maximum growth. Exercise and training are, of
course, the keys to opening the door to bodybuilding success. What the diet does is maximize
the production of lean body mass built through training, while minimizing muscle breakdown
and burning bodyfat. This is done by manipulating key hormones in the body to stimulate
maximum anabolic drive and minimize the catabolic effects of exercise. To do this fully and get
the optimum results, you’ll need nutritional supplements.
Many athletes realize that nutritional supplements can get them that extra edge they need
over the competition. Unfortunately, they often have some very strange ideas about what works
and what doesn’t. In many cases, the only information available to them comes from the people
who manufacture, distribute, and retail the supplements they buy and, guess what? They’re going
to do everything they can to get you to buy their product.
To do this, they’ll tell some tall tales. False and misleading information and claims abound
in the supplement industry. Sometimes you’ll find these claims made without any substantiation
or evidence at all. Other times they’ll take otherwise legitimate studies that really have nothing
to do with their product and use them to back up their claims.
For example, a study is used to trumpet the success of boron in increasing testosterone. The
actual findings of the study were that boron raised the testosterone levels in POSTMENO-
PAUSAL WOMEN. There was no evidence in the study that boron raised the testosterone level
in either female or male athletes. In fact there is evidence out there that it doesn’t. But the study
is used nonetheless and probably hooks more than a few bodybuilders on evidence that is total
fiction. This goes on all the time.
Even articles found in sports magazines, especially bodybuilding magazines, falsely advertise
the effectiveness of various supplements. You’d think there be a strong element of honesty here,
but there often isn’t. The authors may have a financial interest in the product. So may the editors.
Because of that, the truth is stretched or even ignored.
The so-called “anabolic steroid substitutes” are especially noteworthy here. You’ll see them
advertised all over bodybuilding, powerlifting, and other sport magazines, and they’ll tell you
that these substances are even more effective than anabolic steroids, possess no side effects, and
will change your life overnight. It’s all a bunch of baloney.
In fact, nearly all the claims you see made in connection with nutritional, herbal, homeopathic,
and glandular products are unsubstantiated by research. They may be safer than anabolic steroids
but they are also relatively, if not entirely, ineffective.
SUPPLEMENTATION 49