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With the successive development of junior high school graduation physical education examinations across the country, a kind of sports supplement named "physical examination artifact" has quietly become popular in the market.
These products are advertised to significantly improve students' athletic performance, helping them to "run faster" and perform better on exams. They are widely sold through online platforms, and some items are even sold in the tens of thousands.
But do these sports supplements really work?
There is indeed a "sports nutrition food"
In the current media reports on sports supplements for physical examinations, they are generally judged by the standard of whether they are drugs or health products, and once it is found that they do not have the quasi-brand name of Chinese medicine, or lack the unique "blue hat" logo of health food, they are considered problematic and "fraud".
This is actually biased. Because in addition to medicines or health products, there is indeed such a food on the market, called "sports nutrition food".
Sports nutrition food is a type of food specially designed and manufactured to meet the special nutritional needs of sports people during high-intensity training, competitive competition or recovery. These foods take into account the special requirements of certain nutrients in the sports population, and are designed to optimize the physiological and metabolic status of exercisers, improve exercise capacity and promote rapid recovery.
Continental has launched a national standard for sports nutrition food, namely GB 24154 "National Food Safety Standard General Principles for Sports Nutrition Food (Draft)". Although the state has not formulated the detailed rules for the review of sports nutrition food, Guangdong Province, Fujian Province, Jiangsu Province, Jiangxi Province, Hebei Province and Shaanxi Province have actually successively issued detailed rules for the review of sports nutrition food production licenses.
According to national standards, sports nutrition food refers to foods specially processed to meet the physiological metabolic state, exercise capacity and special needs for certain nutrients of the sports population (referring to the people who participate in physical exercise 3 times or more a week, the duration of each exercise is 30min or more, and the intensity of each exercise reaches medium or above). If classified according to sports items, sports nutrition foods can include speed, strength, endurance, and post-exercise recovery
The ingredients that must be added are different for different types of sports. For example, creatine must be added to speed and strength sports nutrition foods, because creatine binds to phosphoric acid in muscles to form phosphocreatine, which is a fast form of energy reserve.
In high-intensity, short-term exercise, such as weightlifting, sprinting, etc., ATP (adenosine triphosphate, the body's direct energy substance) is rapidly depleted, at this time, phosphocreatine can be quickly decomposed and regenerated into ATP, providing immediate energy for muscles, thereby improving exercise performance and muscle strength and speed.
The must-add ingredients for endurance sports nutrition foods are taurine and vitamin B1. Taurine increases the heart's ability to contract and increase stroke volume, which in turn enhances blood circulation and the efficiency of oxygen delivery to muscles, which is particularly beneficial for endurance exercise performance.
Vitamin B1, as a coenzyme component in carbohydrate metabolism, is involved in the work of the pyruvate dehydrogenase complex, which helps the body convert carbohydrates into energy (ATP) more efficiently, helping to improve energy supply and endurance during exercise.
In the current market, many sports and fitness people are familiar with the nitrogen pump (English name Pre-workout, literally translated as pre-training supplement), is a common nutritional supplement to improve sports performance, the main ingredients generally include creatine, caffeine, alanine, etc.
Therefore, sports nutrition food itself is not an IQ tax, and there are indeed such foods that help users increase energy, improve concentration, enhance muscle pumping, and prolong endurance.
The problem now is that many of the so-called sports nutrition supplements or "physical examination artifacts" on the market do not follow the national standards for sports nutrition foods, and they may only follow the general Food Safety Law. It's safe to eat, but whether it's really helpful for exercise requires a question mark.
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Don't blindly believe in the "physical examination artifact"
There are indeed sports nutrition foods on the market, but this does not mean that parents should buy sports supplements for their children before the physical examination.
There are at least three misconceptions here.
First, although many sports supplements are advertised as helping to improve sports performance, they are not produced in accordance with national standards for sports nutrition foods, and either some of the necessary added ingredients are missing, or some of the added ingredients are too large in doses, and their effectiveness is questionable.
For example, some so-called use supplements, from the nutritional content list, do not have the necessary or optional additives stipulated in the "National Food Safety Standard General Principles for Sports Nutrition Food (Draft)", and many of them are essentially sugar water drinks.
For example, according to the national standard, the daily use of caffeine in sports nutrition food is 20-100mg, which is not high, because sports nutrition products often have a variety of added ingredients that promote vasodilation and stimulate nerves.
However, some nitrogen pump products on the market already contain caffeine, alanine, arginine, creatine and other added ingredients, and the amount of each ingredient is very large, for example, the amount of caffeine added to a product is 180mg per vial (60ml), the dose is too large, and it is not suitable for teenagers to eat.
Second, although some foods are sports nutrition foods, they belong to the sports recovery type (the active ingredient is peptides) to help physical recovery or bone and joint recovery.
Obviously, if you want to improve your athletic performance, you should mainly consume speed, strength or endurance sports nutrition foods before exercising, and only consume sports recovery foods after exercising. However, some sports supplements sold on current e-commerce platforms are ambiguous in terms of functional descriptions, and consumers can easily be misled if they cannot identify the ingredients.
Third, even if sports nutrition foods do exist to improve sports performance, are they really suitable for teenagers? Can it really improve athletic performance immediately?
In fact, the national standard has made it very clear for the applicable people of sports nutrition food - the exercise population who participates in physical exercise 3 times or more per week, the duration of each exercise is 30min or more, and the intensity of each exercise reaches medium or above. It is necessary for fitness people or professional athletes who have been exercising at high intensity for a long time to consume some sports supplements, and the amount of exercise for ordinary people cannot reach such a level.
Blind consumption is likely to backfire, after all, everyone reacts differently to nutritional supplements, and there is no obvious effect, even if there is discomfort with some added ingredients, it will really affect sports performance.
For example, in media reports, some teenagers have symptoms such as rapid heartbeat, chest tightness, and sweating after taking sports supplements such as "physical examination artifact", which affects their performance in the exam.
The purpose of the physical examination is to encourage students to actively participate in sports activities, enhance their physical fitness, improve their physical fitness, and lay a solid foundation for students' long-term health. Don't usually don't let your child do enough exercise training, and want to rely on some "artifact" to break through before the physical test.
There are currently no empirical studies to suggest that exercise supplements can improve physical performance.
Parents' love for their children is understandable, but cramming before the exam and letting children take various nutritional supplements is not a substitute for daily sports training. Especially at an important time such as the high school entrance examination, safety comes first, and it is not recommended to try any products with questionable safety and effectiveness.
This is most likely an "IQ tax", and it may be an "IQ tax" that is harmful to children.
Chen Zifei
Editor-in-charge: Liu Yunshan