Powders that pump you up

It sounds like something from a fairy tale: powders that can make you stronger. Between constant ads in men's magazines and spam e-mails promising bigger bodies, protein supplements seem like the easy way to grow from a scrawny freshman lightweight to a bulked up senior within a shorter period than four years. For sure, these supplements are popular, but how effective are they?

Junior Luke Snyder attributes his gain in muscle and increase in strength to the addition of protein supplements to his exercise routine. "It definitely helped me gain muscle mass," he said.

Snyder explains that a change in lifestyle provoked him to look into the dietary supplements. "I was pretty fat for awhile, and I decided to lose weight and get in shape," Snyder said. "I didn't know much about protein. I was eating a normal diet [and working out]... eventually I lost 70 lbs., but I lost a lot of muscle tissue -- at that point I wanted to gain back muscle. So I looked on the internet and found out [about] protein supplements."

Snyder uses two kinds of supplements: whey protein, a fast absorbing type that he takes right before and after working out, and calcium caseinate, made from milk, which is slower to digest.

Sndyer is just one of many male students who take protein supplements that they've found on the Internet. And finding them on the Internet is easy: according to the Whey Protein institute, there are at least 73 different manufacturer websites for whey protein alone.

Snyder purchases his supplements for five to six dollars a pound, but they can cost almost 23 dollars for a 2.1 lbs. canister, according to www.netrition.com, where Snyder purchases his powders. The powders last a while and are easy to use, says Snyder, who adds his chocolate or vanilla flavored protein powders to milk or water. "It actually tastes good," he added.

Freshman Peter Orth added protein supplements in the form of powders or energy bars to his regimen before and during wrestling season in high school.

"I started off like maxing at 160 [lbs.] bench pressing, [then was able to do] 200, and gained five pounds of muscle," Orth said. "It definitely worked. I got a lot stronger on it."

As a member of the Tufts cross-country team, Orth no longer takes protein because he does not want to gain more weight and does not lift enough to necessitate taking extra protein. He does, however, see the value of protein supplements.

"If you really want to get bigger, lift hard, [then] do more heavier weight, more repetitions, and [take] a lot of protein. The protein is really necessary if you want to gain muscles," Orth said.

Both Snyder and Orth do not see any major risks in taking the supplements. "If you aren't dehydrated, it shouldn't be a problem," Snyder said. "As long as you are relatively careful and don't hurt yourself with weights, I don't think [protein supplements] are a problem on their own."

The University's Health Services Nutritionist Patti Engel, MRSD, would strongly disagree. Engel says that protein should be made a part of each meal or snack, not taken as a powder, which may not provide the same nutritional value as would eating a variety of foods.

"Putting whey powder in a shake, its just whey protein; it's not the same thing as having a piece of meat," Engel said. "There's no iron [for example], unless the powder is supplemented with other minerals."

According to Engel, the heavy marketing of protein supplements is responsible for their popularity. That popularity, however, does not mean that protein supplements are essential to a good diet or exercise routine.

In fact, Engel says that protein supplements can cause undesired weight gain. A healthy diet is comprised of a certain percentage of protein, carbohydrates, and fats. Protein should never make up more than 20-25 percent of a diet, Engel says. Unless a person lifts more to make up for it, increasing any one of those percentages will cause extra weight gain that will be stored as fat, she explained.

Protein has four calories per gram, which is the same amount as carbohydrates except that the sources are different; carbohydrates are broken into glucose, proteins into amino acid.

Student success from taking supplements is really due to a more rigorous fitness regimen, says Engel. She warns students not to equate taking powder to bulking up. "What's helping them getting more muscular is the work they're doing, lifting weights," she said.

Engel does admit that protein powders are highly convenient, which for many students is part of their appeal. Snyder takes slower absorbing protein powder when he can't find a meat he likes at the dining hall. For him, the powder is a cheap and easy alternative to other protein sources.

As far as health risks, taking protein supplements has not been proven to be dangerous. According to Engel, it is hard to say what the negative effects to protein supplements are, but "you can reach a level where it is too high when kidneys aren't able to get rid of the byproducts of protein metabolism as well," she said, adding that it is very individualized, so it is difficult to discern what a dangerous level of protein would be.

Director of the Center on Nutrition Communication Jeanne Goldberg, Ph.D., says that although the issue has been studied at length it is still undetermined whether an excess of protein will wear out the kidney.

"The evidence has been inconsistent," she said. "I think the real issue here is that they really don't need them, the only benefit is psychological."

According to Goldberg, research from the Longitudinal Health Study and diaries from undergraduate students in Nutrition classes indicate that protein intake for college males is very high. Goldberg said that in a typical college diet, male students receive enough protein: "As a generalization, they do not need protein supplements," she said.

More serious health risks have been reported in the usage of the muscle enhancer creatine, a synthetic protein, and the diet pill Xenadrine (containing caffeine and ephedra). Studies have shown that ephedra may have damaging side effects that include insomnia, high blood pressure, and heart attacks. Neither Snyder nor Orth have used those enhancers because of those health concerns.

Engel suggests examining one's diet before taking any kind of dietary supplement. "My recommendations would be... look to see if there's balance in your diet, what your carbohydrate sources are, your fat sources, your protein sources, if you're maintaining your needs and maintaining your weight... then it might not be necessary to take protein powders," she said. "You might be getting everything you need."

Other students remain skeptical about adding protein supplements to their diets. As an athlete, junior cross-country runner Mike Don doesn't believe in taking supplements. "I don't take anything, ingest anything, that enhances performance, by rule of thumb," Don said.

Don echoes Engel in explaining his reasoning: "One, you can gain enough muscle and have enough energy in a well balanced diet, it's the most natural way to be healthy. And two, I don't really trust them... I don't feel like I can use them to replace natural food," he said. "I just stay away from that stuff."