The warm fuzzy feeling of high quality investigative reporting

Don't take too much protein, you'll end up like him. (World's Strongest Man Mariusz Pudzianowski 'Cross-training')

Protein, the supplement that has divided sport scientists for decades. Famously the source of Ben Johnson's, Dwain Chamber's and countless other athletes downfall. Side effects include mood-swings, gynaecomastia (man boobs), testicular atrophy (shrinking balls) and can be taken orally or injecting directly into the muscle group you want to see.....

Oh hang on, you said protein. It's just I read an article on BBC Radio One's equivalent to Newsnight 'Newsbeat' (Read said article here) laying out the dangers of this usually milk, yes milk, based supplement. 

It may help if you read the BBC article in full before reading on. My moan is that this kind of reporting is what made my mum flush £50 quid worth of maximuscle protein and creatine down the loo when I was 17, acting like she had found a kilogram of pure, uncut cocaine in my wardrobe. 

Firstly, let me say that food and supplement standards in the UK are amongst the highest in the world. In the US, the Food and Drug Administration, which is responsible for vetting and testing training supplements state-side, effectively lets anything on the market as long as you give the right congressmen the right campaign contribution. In the UK, the Food Standard Agency, UK Anti-Doping Authorities as well as regulation at the European Union level make it fairly unlikely (but not bulletproof admittedly) that anything too nasty will make it onto the market. 

Secondly, protein is a SUPPLEMENT to your diet. It should not be your diet. Recommended intake for those on a muscle building program varies from 1g to 2g per kilogram of bodyweight per day. So if an athlete weighs 100kg, they must take in a 100-200g of protein. At the top end of the scale, that equates to 6-7 chicken breasts a day. Now I LOVE chicken, but even that amount seems frivolous, not to mention bloody expensive. So occasionally you may take a protein supplement and eat other sources of protein like eggs and fish because you get a range of benefits and what's more, its cheaper. 

The case study they used of Richard from Chesterfield doesn't really support the angle of the piece either. He claims he was taking seven, yes SEVEN, protein shakes a day, which depending on the quality of the supplement he was using means he was getting 126 to 210g of protein a day. This was from supplements alone and off the back of this he wouldn't need any animal or dairy protein on top of what he was already taking. Some protein supplements contain artificial sweeteners and other additions which can have an impact on your digestive system and at those volumes, I'm not surprised his physical and as a result, psychological state, was affected. 

The clue is in the title, protein SUPPLEMENT, it is not the SLIM-FAST diet.

Time is still rolling on for what the long-term impact of Creatine may be, so I won't venture into that debate quite yet!

As with a lot of things, education about balanced diet is what is needed here rather than any tighter regulation of low volatility supplements. With reporting like this it's no wonder people are turning off from Radio 1. In the future I will look to Radio 4 and 5 for my investigative journalism, those and Kiss 100.