Nowadays, under the supervision of the Cornhuskers’ sports nutrition staff, the junior running back can account for every calorie and carb that goes into his body. Those midnight burgers are out, and Burkhead said he’s never felt, or played, better.

Can a winning diet lead to wins on the football field?

The Collegiate & Professional Sports Dietitians Association said 13 schools in the preseason Top 25 poll employ at least one full-time sports registered dietitian and five of those schools have two. The group said there are only 13 full-time sports RDs spread across the other 95 members of the Football Bowl Subdivision.

The CPSDA said schools serious about competing at the highest level need people to oversee what, when and how much their football players are eating.

“I take a lot of pride in feeling like our guys are going to be the best-fueled team out there,” Nebraska director of sports nutrition Josh Hingst said. “When it comes to the third and fourth quarters, our guys aren’t going to be dragging. We’re going to fuel them to perform, and nutrition isn’t an aspect where we’re going to drop the ball.”

Long gone are the days of the old-school training table, usually a partitioned dormitory dining hall where steak was served once a week and the athletes could go back for second helpings where it wasn’t allowed for other students.

Nebraska will spend more than $1 million this year on specially prepared foods for its athletes, and that doesn’t include more than $200,000 for supplements or Hingst’s $74,000 salary.

Nebraska, however, is one of the few athletic departments that operate in the black. Cost-conscious athletic directors have been slow to commit resources to sports nutrition, CPSDA president Dave Ellis said. Typically, he said, an outside consultant or someone from a university’s student health department will give a talk to athletes about healthy eating and then provide no follow-up.

Tom Osborne, Nebraska’s Hall of Fame coach and now the athletic director, was among the first to buy in to the value of sports nutrition. Nebraska built a premier training table complex with the money it received for appearing in the 1983 Kickoff Classic, and the school hired Ellis as its first sports nutritionist in 1994.

“It’s a student-welfare argument more than a keep-up-with-the-Joneses argument,” Ellis said. “How can you assume these are part-time athletes? They may only practice a set number of hours in season and in offseason workouts. The damage done takes longer than 24-hour cycles. It’s a very important thing to know we’re in the recovery business, and these athletes are always in a state of damage and recovery that requires quality rest and quality intervention with diet.”

Alabama’s Amy Bragg said she and other sports RDs must break their charges’ bad habits when they arrive on campus. Like many Americans, she said, most freshmen eat too much fast food and not enough fruits and vegetables.

Eating right — and at the right time — promotes faster muscle recovery and deters athletes from seeking shortcuts.

Bragg said sports RDs can also assess supplements and are on the lookout for the use of substances that are banned by the NCAA.

“Let’s feed them right so they don’t have to do the other things,” Bragg said.

At Nebraska, each football player is analyzed at the start of his freshman year to determine, among other things, whether he needs to gain or lose weight and how many calories he requires to perform at his highest level. Each gets a laminated meal card that he can refer to when he goes to the training table and for snacking tips.

Burkhead adheres to a 4,500-calorie-a-day diet that allows him to maintain his 210 pounds and 6.5 percent body fat. Offensive linemen, on the other hand, might require 5,000 calories a day to stay at 300 pounds and have 20 percent to 25 percent body fat.

The average male requires about 2,000 calories a day to maintain his weight.

Ellis founded an easy-to-follow 1-2-3 plan for players to follow. Fruits and vegetables are “1,” carbohydrates are “2,” and lean proteins are “3.”

At lunch and dinner Burkhead ladles up a predetermined number of servings of each. He visits an area in the football complex known as “the landing” throughout the day to snacks on fruits, trail mix and sports drink. He has a glass of milk at bedtime.

Players stop by the “fueling table” on their way in and out of practices to pick up approved supplements and other items that help them recover quickly from the wear and tear on their bodies.

Players are monitored through weekly weigh-ins, with Hingst tweaking their meal plans accordingly.

Hingst also offers cooking classes to players so they can prepare their own meals when the training table is closed, and nutrition staffers clip newspaper ads pointing players to the best grocery buys around Lincoln.

Burkhead said a football player can’t help but eat right at Nebraska — though he does admit to sneaking some ice cream from time to time.

“I thought I knew a lot about nutrition before I got here,” he said, “but I didn’t know nearly as much as I know now.”

Hingst said the dietitian’s role is as important as those of the strength coach and athletic trainer in college football.

“We’re trying to look at every single area of nutrition and do the best job we can and make sure it isn’t the limiting factor, the weak link in the chain,” he said.

‘When given the chance, many if not most sports dietitians will leverage the knowledge and relationships they have to save their athletic departments more than their salary and benefits cost the school. Once we establish that we can achieve that, and we will, sports dietitians will be in great demand.” –Dave Ellis, RD, CSCS

Q: Why have higher education institutions taken this long to get wise to sports nutrition?
A: Traditionally, athletic departments could get somebody to pop in from somewhere else — campus food service or student health — and kind of subcontract him or her on the cheap. The reality is, it’s a full-time job managing the athlete feeding that occurs at home and on the road. And sports dietitians can pay for themselves just managing those expenditures. But schools have been slow to do it. They’ve been slow to empower somebody to be not only a good manager, but an impactful and engaging educator who is really up on topics specific to athletics.

Q: What are some athletics-specific nutritional challenges?
A: The more you’re around athletics, the better you learn how to deal with the very diverse cultures that exist. So we’ve been trying to make aspiring sports RDs a little more savvy about what it takes to work in power sports versus endurance sports, with males versus females, with young and maturing athletes versus fully mature athletes. It’s a real art to know how to message in each of these unique environments. You have to be savvy about what time of the year you’re going to talk about accruing muscle or losing fat, and there are maintenance phases where you don’t broach those subjects.

Q: Is there one thing all athletes should avoid in their diets?
A: The number-one thing we’re worried about in sports is the athlete who shows up under-rested and defaults to stimulant use to solve his or her energy and focus issues. Whether it’s just a bunch of caffeine or it’s more advanced sources of stimulants in energy drinksor pharmaceutical materials, all these things when used chronically can raise blood pressure, and that kills endurance in the short term. Long term, it enlarges the heart, and then you risk a potentially fatal acute cardiac event. You add undiagnosed sickle cell trait or asthma to the mix, and you’ve really got a problem.

Q: Where do you stand on the use of dietary supplements?
A: Anybody who has ever worked around Olympic and professional athletes knows that these people got tired of pills and powders a long time ago. They get it done with food. We put our energy into not only managing food and writing menus, but managing the labyrinth of dietary supplement issues that are out there in terms of permissibility and safety. That’s what sports dietitians do. We jump into all that stuff, and we stay ahead of the curve.

Don

Recent studies have shown pumping too much iron could be linked to a psychological disorder called muscle dysmorphia.

Southern Cross University PHD candidate, Johanna Nieuwoudt, said the condition occurred when people believed they were not muscly enough and subsequently body-built to a point that could affect their physical and mental health.

The Lismore-based student has conducted several studies on muscle dysmorphia and she said it was similar to eating disorders, such as anorexia. Ms Nieuwoudt claimed it was even regularly referred to as “manorexia”.

“The condition can be harmful, especially when combined with steroid abuse,” she said. “There can be musculo-skeletal injuries and people with the condition are more likely to train when they are injured or ill. Their social life suffers and the quest to get bigger can become obsessive, with their relationship with their body overcoming all else.”

Ms Nieuwoudt said those with symptoms often didn’t believe they had a problem because they felt as though they were living a healthy lifestyle.

During her studies Ms Nieuwoudt has interviewed 116 men and measured muscles in gyms around Northern NSW. She found about 10% of weight-lifting men showed symptoms of muscle dysmorphia and she said younger men with large biceps were most at risk.

“What I did find is people who had bigger biceps did have higher scores on the muscle dysmorphia test,” Ms Nieuwoudt said.

“You can hide your tummy or your legs underneath clothes but the bicep is pretty much in view. That’s why it’s related to body image disorders.”

Since the first study on muscle dysmorphia was published in 1993 the science community has debated whether it is a psychological disorder.

“There is a lot of discussion and many researchers cannot agree whether muscle dysmorphia should be categorised as a body dysmorphic disorder or an eating disorder,” Ms Nieuwoudt said.

“Even eating disorders in males is quite new.”

Ms Nieuwoudt recently submitted a study on muscle dysmorphia to the Psychology of Sport and Exercise Journal and is currently working on another.

“Now we know it is in Australia and we need to focus on it. Once you know about it you can have prevention programs,” she said

I was ignorantly unaware of what is seemingly an epidemic among gay men. In fact, a recent study revealed that 1 in 7 gay gym-going men admitted to steroid use. Some estimate that the actual number may be closer to 50%.

There is no no doubt that many people associate being gay with a certain gym and muscle culture. And while that gym culture doesn’t define a community as diverse as the gay community, it certainly is present and pervasive. Gay muscle culture is often traced back to another epidemic: AIDS. Physicians often prescribed steroids to people living with AIDS as a way to increase muscle mass on their otherwise frail frames. Moreover, pumped-up bodies became a symbol of healthiness.

Today, muscle culture is alive and well – and many gay men feel intense pressure to obtain lean, muscular builds. Under such pressure, taking steroids can seem like an easier shortcut than hard work and exercise. And there’s no doubt that steroids yield results. Unfortunately, steroids are plagued by tremendously dangerous and/or undesirable side-effects including:

• Acne
• Shrunken testicles – which leads to temporary (and possibly permanent) sterility
• High blood pressure
• High cholesterol
• Liver malfunction
• Enlarged prostate and prostate cancer
• Balding
• Aggression
• Liver failure
• Stunted growth
• Weight problems
• Neurological issues

STEROID abuse by everyday gym users is skyrocketing with thousands of people caught trying to import the drugs each year.

The amount of steroids being smuggled into the country at airports and through the postal system has more than doubled in the past five years, according to Customs figures, reported The Daily Telegraph.

Customs made 2695 seizures of steroids and growth hormones in the year to July 2010, a 155 per cent increase on the 1054 seizures made in 2004-05.

An explosion of websites selling the drugs with claims of “discrete (sic) shipping” and “no customs” is behind the rise as amateur body builders seek to exploit countries with lax drug regulations.

“The majority of performance-enhancing drugs are detected at the international mail gateways and are generally from internet sites located in overseas jurisdictions which do not exercise the same controls as Australia,” a Customs spokesperson said.

Most of the drugs seized are being imported from the US, Thailand, Hong Kong, Bulgaria, China and the UK, Customs said.

The revelation comes after the death of 22-year-old Australian bodybuilder and online celebrity Aziz “Zyzz” Sergeyevich Shavershian, who died of an undiagnosed heart defect in a Thai sauna last week.

His brother Said, 25, was found in possession of an anabolic steroid during a police raid last month. The Fitness First personal trainer pleaded guilty and was fined $479.

Zyzz denied using steroids despite talking about riding “bicycles” – gym slang for using a cycle of steroids – on Facebook.

St Vincent’s Hospital hormone expert Katherine Samaras said a dangerous culture had formed in the past decade in which more and more young men felt the need to have the perfect body.

“Many men don’t have that body and feel quite pressured to use anabolic steroids to achieve that look which is just not possible without them,” Ms Samaras said.

Men are doing irreversible damage to their bodies by using steroids, with some even injecting veterinary steroids and fertility drugs to increase their testosterone levels, she said.

“A lot of men are also using saunas and diuretics to lose weight ,” she said. “This can lead to blood mineral disorders which can lead to fatal heart arrhythmia.”She said websites promoting steroid use were preying on the insecurities of young men.

The agent said several soldiers under Shields’ command at Joint Base Lewis-McChord had admitted to illegal use of steroids. One of the suspected users was a battalion captain.

Shields, who led the 4th Battalion, 23rd Infantry Regiment, was skeptical. He questioned whether Army investigators might have mistaken legal dietary supplements for steroids.

But in the days that followed, the captain, as well as a lieutenant, first sergeant and nine other soldiers, admitted using steroids, according to investigative documents that offer a rare look at illegal use of those drugs in the military.

 Steroid use in the Army has been on the rise amid a prolonged period of warfare. To prepare for — and perform — on combat tours of duty, some soldiers told investigators they turned to steroids to boost their brawn.

 The latest Defense Department survey — conducted in 2008 — found that 2.5 percent of Army personnel had illegally used steroids within the past 12 months, a jump from three years earlier, when 1.5 percent said they had used these drugs illegally.

The percentage of infantry soldiers taking steroids may be higher than for the overall Army.

Several soldiers from the 4/23 Battalion, who confessed to using steroids, estimated that more than half the unit of some 700 soldiers had sampled steroids, according to investigative documents obtained by The Seattle Times under the federal Freedom of Information Act. One soldier had a scheme for continuing steroid use in Afghanistan through the receipt of mail-order packages that would disguise the drugs in lotion packets.

Anabolic steroids can increase muscle mass and strength.

But to achieve these effects, the steroids are typically taken at much higher levels then those prescribed by doctors. These drugs can raise the risk of high blood pressure, heart and liver disease, and side effects can include mood swings, irritability and increased aggression, which can be a volatile attribute for soldiers headed off to battle.

“The use of steroids is a short-term gain for long-term problems that individuals are going to have, and we cannot tolerate them in any way, shape or form,” said Gen. Peter Chiarelli, the Army’s vice chief of staff, who has taken a leadership role in Army efforts to reduce drug use among soldiers.

Costly testing limited

Soldiers may be tested for steroids when a commander has probable cause to suspect abuse.

But since 2008, only about 300 soldiers have been tested for steroids, according to Army statistics provided by Chiarelli. In contrast, the Army conducts random testing of more than 450,000 soldiers each year for use of marijuana, cocaine, heroin and other narcotics.

Army officials say the steroid analysis is too expensive to be included in the random drug testing. The Army cost for a steroid urinalysis ranges from $240 to $365 per sample, which compares with a cost as low as $8 per sample for marijuana, according to Army statistics.

Seattle police tip

At Joint Base Lewis-McChord, steroid use in Shields’ battalion might have gone undetected if not for a tip in June 2009 from the Seattle Police Department. While investigating illegal gambling, a Seattle undercover detective encountered a battalion soldier who talked about steroid use and distribution. The Seattle police tipped off the Army Criminal Investigative Command, which had agents interview soldiers.

In the documents released to The Seattle Times, the names of battalion soldiers who admitted to using steroids were blacked out because none of the soldiers were convicted of any crimes. The soldiers were subject to other disciplinary actions, including an Article 15 punishment slapped on the captain, who was subject to pay forfeiture and up to 30-day confinement to his quarters.

Shields, the battalion commander, declined to be interviewed for this story.

But Maj. Kathleen Turner, a Joint Base Lewis-McChord spokeswoman, said the captain, first lieutenant and first sergeant who used steroids were subject to disciplinary actions and did not deploy to Afghanistan.

Usage an open secret

In the nine years since the 9/11 attacks, Joint Base Lewis-McChord has sent tens of thousands of troops to Iraq and Afghanistan.

In Iraq, some soldiers say steroid use was no secret.

“No one really hid this,” said Seth Manzel, an Army veteran who served from 2004-05 in Mosul, Iraq, with the 1st Brigade, 25th Infantry Division. “I walked into a squad leader’s room one time, and he was with another soldier who had his pants down around his ankle. He had a needle and was injecting that soldier.”

http://www.military.com/news/article/steroid-use-in-the-army-on-the-rise-.html

The swift unraveling of actor Scott Siegel’s life began on Feb. 18, 2009, when the movie “The Wrestler” was still in theaters. Siegel played a steroid dealer in the award-winning film, a small but important role that earned him kudos from Mickey Rourke and audition offers from Hollywood power brokers.

But his career was derailed that winter night when Siegel walked up to a Honda Civic parked suspiciously outside his parents’ house in Eastchester. The car had the darkest tinted windows he had ever seen – so dark that he had to cup his hands around his eyes and press his face against the glass to look inside.

What he saw, looking straight back at him, was another pair of eyes. Siegel jumped back from the car, cursing. No one got out of the car. Siegel walked around the vehicle and then walked away, having figured out that he was under police surveillance.

In the Honda were law-enforcement officers with the Drug Enforcement Administration’s Westchester County Task Force. They had been watching Siegel for years, since almost immediately after his release from a 2 1/2 year prison stint for selling Ecstasy. The agents suspected he had been supplementing his acting income by dealing steroids. In fact, the 285-pound Siegel had been using anabolics his entire adult life, starting as a 15-year-old kid with body-image insecurities, all the way up through his career as an actor in commercials, television shows and movies.

Today, Siegel, 35, sits in a cell in the Westchester County Jail in Valhalla, awaiting relocation to a federal penitentiary. Last year, he pleaded guilty to a drug charge and two counts of assaulting, impeding and interfering with officers in the performance of their official duties. Last month, he was sentenced to 63 months in prison.

It’s a steep fall for a self-described nice boy from the suburbs who just months before the incident was attending film festivals and hanging out with Rourke and Marissa Tomei.

It’s also a testament to the seductive – and destructive – power of performance-enhancing drugs.

“I’m a Jewish kid who grew up in Eastchester,” says Siegel as he sits in a tiny jail visiting room, as perspiration beads on his shaved head and stains his orange prison V-neck shirt. “I don’t fit the normal criteria. A lot of times I sit in my cell and say, ‘Why am I here?’ ”

http://articles.nydailynews.com/2010-05-08/sports/27063841_1_steroid-dealer-scott-siegel-drugs