Things are livening up here in The Forest Gym and we have lots to report this month.    Problems with an invasion of travellers; more members committing themselves to competing this year; report on the EFBB South Coast Show; news of increasing memberships; Big H getting more bodybuilders training under his supervision.   A really busy time at The Forest Gym.

Although bodybuilders in the USA are getting a lot of stick from the investigations of steroid use instigated by President Bush’s State of the Union address last year, we are seeing increasing interest in Bodybuilding over here and after a couple of quiet years, it looks like The Forest Gym will be back to making a big impression on the UK Bodybuilding and Powerlifting scenes in 2005.

Bush’s War on Steroids

We have been taking a close interest in the Steroid investigations in the USA led by a number of Congressmen whose knowledge of the subject is about as comprehensive as that of a dead gerbil.   Although various atheletes, baseball players and other sportsmen have been implicated in the Balco affair, the only ones being imprisoned are bodybuilders — no one cares about them.  However, some people are starting to question the need for these investigations.   James Poniewozik writing in Time Magazine contrasts the obsessive anti-steroid attitude with various other medical techniques and dangerous practices.  Think of all those males and females in show biz who have had some kind of physical augmentation in the form of breast implants, hair implants, fat removal, plastic surgery in general; then there are techniques using HGH therapy to make kids grow, hormone replacement therapy for women [and men], Viagra prescriptions, etc.  Bodybuilders use steroids to grow muscle — so, chuck ‘em in gaol.   Many jockeys use extreme measures to lose weight; sportsmen use pain killing cortisone injections to allow them to play when they should be resting.

It is all being done, they tell us, to ensure that sport is played on a level playing field.   But such does not exist and never did exist.   The richest countries win the most prizes — just like the three richest football teams in the Premiership are way out at the top of the league. And why is it that using altitude chambers to improve the oxygen carrying capacity of the blood is OK but using EPO to do the same thing is not.

But steroids are dangerous, they tell us.  Norm Fost, Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Wisconsin Medical School says that, even after 20 years of study he can find no evidence that a single person has died as a result of steroid use.  On the other hand, an American footballer who plays in the NFL for 3 seasons stands a 90% chance of suffering a permanent injury.   “Steroids are way down the list,” he says, “when it comes to assessing risks in any sport.”

Many others in respected publications, as well as in the police and DEA are starting to ask questions about the point of this witch hunt.  Read the report in this section about Dave Palumbo.

It will be a long time yet before the politicians start to back off.  Such people never let a knowledge of the facts throw them off the track — as long as they think that there a few votes to be had.  Such is democracy.

Some Facts for the European Commission

News Pages

May 2005

Directive 2002/46/EC

European Food Supplements Directive Hits The Buffers

We have been telling you for months about the new European Directive on Food Supplements 2002/46/EC, which was due to come into force on 1st August 2005.  This was planned to be just Phase 1 of a whole series of directives on every kind of food supplement, herbal product, protein powder, meal replacement formula, etc. Last week, Leendert Geelhoed, an Advocate General at the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg ruled that the Directive was illegal. The health food rules were, he said, seriously deficient and broke basic legal principles.  The criticism was hailed as a great victory by British based Alliance for Natural Health Food.      Mr. Geelhoed went further, saying the directive infringed European “principles of legal protection, legal certainty and of sound administration.”

The advice of the Advocate General has always been accepted when his rulings have gone before the full court.  

The directive was widely opposed in Britain, with more than 1,000,000 people signing petitions in protest and over 300 doctors and health practitioners writing to the PM, Tony Blair.

Of our political parties, only the Tories have opposed this legislation as needless European interference. The Labour and Liberal Democrats have gone along with the dictates of their European masters.   They would have us all jump of Beachy Head if that was Euro Policy.

The alleged reason for our needing this directive was that food supplements are manufactured to different standards in different countries in the EU and this may have “an impact on the internal market” and “may impede the free movement” of products in member states.    “In order to ensure a high level of protection for consumers and facilitate their choice” the products must be safe and of good quality and correctly labelled.

This was nothing more than pure Euro babblespeak.  But the document goes on to say that the scientific community takes the view that an adequate diet can be obtained from normal foods and it can be dangerous to health to have excessive amounts of some vitamins and minerals.   Only substances on an official list could be used in food supplements.   Any new products or any existing product not on the list would have to be submitted for testing and approval.  Latest estimate is that this could cost anything up to £250,000 per substance.

This legislation is entirely unnecessary.   The fact is that the EU bureaucrats and politicians have been got at by the big international food and drug companies. These companies have been finding it harder and harder to develop new successful drugs and they have been attracted to the lucrative and low risk food supplement industry.   They have influence with the politicians and law makers who run the bloody European Union while the small companies who make food supplements are just busy getting on with running their businesses.

This is not the end of the matter.   The Euro politicians do not like being opposed and, as is their wont, they will come back again and again until everyone does as he is told — just as they do with any referendum that says “NO!”  Well, we will have to keep on saying “NO!” until the bastards give up.  This is what European democracy is all about.