State of Sports and Bodybuilding Supplements in India

 

If you are going regularly to gym or sports academy and are being advised or taking any supplements, please consider the following:

1. 60-70% of fitness supplements being used in gyms or fitness centres / sports academies in India are fake as per the ASSOCHAM & RNCOS survey of 2015 and the same has also been analysed in details in prestigious newspapers like The Times of India and Hindustan Times.
2. Further, most of the supplements especially used in Gyms are not actually Protein Supplements but are Mass Gainer Supplements, which contains very little amount of proteins and are full of carbs (60-70% carb content). This is used for bulking up or gaining weight faster and does not help in muscle mass development. Also, when you can very easily get high quality carbs in form of normal food items like Bananas, potatoes, sweet potatoes, rice, etc. at fraction of the cost and get even better results, why to waste money behind these supplements.
3. Almost all the supplements are imported or made from imported proteins. 80% of the proteins imported in India are from US and Europe. There are concerns in terms of usage of cattle-feed as well as rennet used in cheese manufacturing (of which, whey is a by-product) and it being 100% vegetarian as per Indian standards.
4. Apart from proteins, all supplements contain preservatives, additives, fillers, artificial flavours and chemicals. Many supplements also contain added sugars or sweeteners (for artificial sweetness) and some also use hormones.
5. For usage of proteins in Gym and bodybuilding, equally important to the amount of proteins is also its quality with respect to its Amino Acid profile, because the proportion of Branched-Chain Amino Acids (BCAA) and Essential Amino Acids (EAA) within these proteins determine its effectiveness in muscle development. None of the Gym supplements in India currently provide detailed Amino Acid profile on the pack.
6. Protein Supplements used in Gyms and bodybuilding are very costly and apart from that, comes in large sized packs starting from 2 Lbs to 10 Lbs and therefore a consumer is forced to fork out sizeable amount of money at one go.