I recently got my March 2006 issue of Men’s Fitness, the first fitness magazine I ever bought as a much too skinny and gangly 14 year old hoping to someday be buff (btw, still working at it 15 years later). As I was flipping through the magazine picking which articles I want to go back later and read, as I always do, I was struck by the number of full page ads taken out by nutritional supplement companies. I felt bombarded by overly muscled men and unrealistic washboard abs telling me to take this pill or powder to give me additional strength, muscle mass and endurance. These nutritional supplements have been around for years with mixed reviews from athletes and consumers alike. But why are over 50% of the ad pages in Men’s Fitness being taken by these companies?
Here are the stats in March 2006 Men’s Fitness:
Total number of pages: 140
Total number of ad pages: 62
Total number of pages with nutritional supplement ads: 37
Total number of editorial pages: 78
The numbers speak for themselves. I feel like Men’s Fitness is endorsing these supplement companies and thereby failing their readership not fully considering their safety and health. Most of these supplements are not regulated by the FDA for ingredients, many aren’t even proven to work by unbiased research, and some have lead to the downfall of many professional athletes testing positive for certain banned supplements because of hidden ingredients not listed on the bottle.
With the Torino Olympics upon us, many news outlets will surely be bringing up nutritional supplements, the pros, the cons and whether certain athletes have used them. There are many young athletes who will look at these Olympic athletes and want to achieve a similar dream. Many will read magazines such as Men’s Fitness or Men’s Health or Fitness or Shape or Women’s Health and Fitness and will consider taking these supplements, but it might not end there. After an athlete plateaus with supplements, the next step is steroid use which has a slew of horrible health side effects. We have a responsibility to young athletes to guide them in the right direction. Yes, some supplements are safe and actually work and help athletes. But many do not, and it is the responsibility of Men’s Fitness and all fitness magazines to help their readers understand what is good and what is bad with supplements, how and when to take them, which brands to watch out for and which work. It is not okay for these magazines to only blindly take advertising dollars from supplement companies and not provide proper editorial on them; and this is something I don’t see enough of.
