When I first began my fitness journey I couldn’t tell you how lost I was, I was so overwhelmed with all these different approaches and a ton of information in an industry That I didn’t understand.
Most of you know that I started my personal journey as a way of coping with clinical depression and rising above it. Once I got off my feet, I began feeling like a brand new person. became so interested in health, wellness, and overall fitness, that it transformed me into a whole new person.
This new career path was a total surprise to me and I’ve never felt more passionate about my job. Things fell right into my place, from the moment I decided to get serious about where I was headed. The more information I found, the more I wanted to know. I began studying and educating myself to be the best trainer and health advocate I could potentially be.
My success in social media and other platforms in my career has been very organic and I couldn’t be any more grateful. Over the past few years we’ve grown from a single person to what we can now call a #Ma30day movement. With this sudden success came tons of company’s proposals with potential sponsorships related to the “fitness industry”. I was just in awe to find out that the industry wasn’t so healthy after all. Many of these companies were out for strictly profits, at the expense of ingredients and the consumers health.
The industry, which I fell in love with, truly disappointed me. It had more secrets than I could imagine, told more lies than I could take. The deeper I dug, the more I’d learn.
I came to realize that many consumers are being put at risk with false advertisement, magical trends, shortcuts, and products that claim to give INSTANT results. Another concern I had was the bad example this was leading, for those of you whom are just getting started in your own journey. I was frustrated that these brands didn’t highlight what health and wellness is really about.
Waist trainers, detox teas, miracle fat burners, wraps, pre-workout drinks, and diet pills, all fads to me. They weren’t providing an education on how to really achieve whichever health goals we set, safely and without sacrificing long term health for results now.
Supplements can do a lot to help us live healthier lives, assist us in recovery from workouts and get more out of our efforts, but the sad truth is that often times in our quest to get healthier we end up taking products that actually rob us of our health and hurt us. After a string of bad reactions last year to a few different popular proteins and pre-workouts I have been researching thoroughly over the past 12 months to learn more about what works and what doesn’t, but most importantly, what ingredients go into these products and how they could potentially affect the body.
In my research this is what I have learned:
- Not all products are as sanitary as you may imagine. Some brands manufacture and package supplements in factory’s that don’t pass some of the most basic quality standards. All to save money!
- There’s no current governing body to ensure the labels match the products contents! Example: A label may claim 20g of protein, however, in actuality there is only 10g’s of actual protein. This false labeling can be applied to BCAA’s, vitamins, and ANY OTHER active ingredient!
- Products may also be “amino spiked” to present false claims and mislead consumers. This amino spiking is used to boost up the protein claims of the label. This is the process by which companies short the product of up to 50% of it’s declared protein content and replace it with cheap, ineffective bulk amino acids such as glycine. (the smallest of the 20 amino acids commonly found in proteins, and indeed it is the cheapest amino acid possible, to falsely raise the protein label claim. )
- To determine the validity of a product, in depth tests have to be made. The “free versus bound amino acid test” shows that up to half of the product is not real protein, making it ineffective and useless in your body and a complete rip off for you wallet
- They use illegal adulterants (undeclared ingredients) that are not on the label.
- Companies put drugs like amphetamine compounds in their fat burners and pre workouts to make the user “feel” more effects; all the while hurting our bodies and damaging our hearts, adrenal glands, and livers.
- They use artificial flavors, colors, sweeteners, fillers, and gelatin capsules with synthetic dyes to lower the cost of their products
Case in Point:
This past year, USP labs executives have been hit with CRIMINAL CHARGES for knowingly and purposefully HURTING people with their products to make money. This is ONE OF THE LARGEST companies in the sports nutrition industry, makers of the enourmously popular products OxyElite® and Jack3D®
https://www.fda.gov/ICECI/CriminalInvestigations/ucm473481.htm
I want to do everything I can to educate you, and help bring all of this information to light. We should all know what we are putting in our body, and it all starts with education.
Stay tuned as I dig deeper. Health is wealth, and we all should be rich.
