To avoid unpredictable consequences, athletes need to keep this in mind!

According to statistics from the Department of Sports and Physical Training, nearly 60% of the Vietnamese population over the age of 18 use dietary supplements. In rural areas, each person uses 2-4 types of dietary supplements, while in urban areas, the number is 4-6 types. The usage rate is even higher among middle-aged and elderly people. Meanwhile, most top athletes use about 3-5 types per day.

Some types of dietary supplements have the effect of helping to improve performance, increase metabolism and immunity, shorten recovery time as well as prevent some chronic and acute diseases that can occur in athletes. However, many types still have unclear scientific effects, and need to be studied to have enough evidence of their effects.

The use of incorrect types, dosages, and quality by athletes has led to negative consequences and, most importantly, contamination with banned substances (doping). However, the inspection and supervision of dietary supplements by authorities still has many shortcomings, leading to the overflow of dietary supplements that have negative effects on health.

Director of the Department of Sports and Physical Training Dang Ha Viet shared: "From the perspective of state management, the sports industry is gradually implementing and clearly separating what is in the nutritional supplements into the daily meals of athletes, thereby understanding what athletes need support and supplementation to improve their physical strength, contributing to having a comfortable spirit to achieve the best performance."

Để không phải gánh những hậu quả khôn lường, các VĐV cần lưu ý điều này!- Ảnh 1. — The workshop pointed out the unfortunate problems that Vietnamese athletes encountered due to improper use of dietary supplements and health supplements.

Mr. Dang Ha Viet also added that after the workshop, training centers will coordinate with nutrition experts to develop scientific diets for athletes to improve their performance. Vietnam Sports will also develop a process for using nutritional supplements for athletes in national teams.

Meanwhile, dietary supplements have also been used by many athletes recently. Mr. Dang Ha Viet pointed out that this is a problem that Vietnamese sports are facing. Athletes arbitrarily use and hide their use of drugs or dietary supplements while these products are widely sold on the market. This has led to very unfortunate penalties.

For top athletes training in national teams, especially those aiming for the ASIAD and Olympic arenas, nutrition before, during and after meals is very important. Therefore, dietary supplements and functional foods must be carefully notified and checked if they want to be used.

Để không phải gánh những hậu quả khôn lường, các VĐV cần lưu ý điều này!- Ảnh 2. — Sports training centers will coordinate with nutritionists to advise athletes on the best options.

Also attending the workshop was Deputy Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Hoang Dao Cuong. He hoped that athletes would pay special attention when using dietary supplements as well as nutritional supplements. He presented his opinion: “In recent years, Vietnamese sports have discovered a number of cases of athletes testing positive for banned substances (doping). This is an urgent issue that the sports industry needs to find a radical solution to. We see the problem arising due to lack of understanding about doping substances and more dangerously, athletes arbitrarily buy functional foods floating on the market without permission from doctors, coaches and sports training centers.

Besides the benefits of dietary supplements to enhance sports performance, the risk of violating the use of banned substances is not small. Therefore, we must be very careful and avoid unfortunate problems from happening."