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Athletes now have good reason to avoid eating liver
Joe Marchilena
Staff Photo by Grant Morris
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There is no doubt that 2012 will be a big year, one reason being the return of the Summer Olympics.
Maybe it’s because I’m not a fan of cold weather sports, but I’ve always had a preference for the summer games, and this time around, they aren’t taking place on the other side of the world. The Games of the XXX Olympiad will take place in London, only half a world away.
Of course, one of the big, unfortunate stories when it comes to Olympic sports is doping. The United Kingdom Anti-Doping Association and the Food Standard Agency – Britain’s version of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration – are already warning athletes of things to stay away from.
The most recent substance to receive a red flag is actually a food: liver.
Now, when I first read that Olympic athletes were being warned against eating liver, I thought that sounded like a good idea. The last time I ate liver, I couldn’t have been much older than 8 or 9, and I hated it. Thankfully, when my parents started cutting back on things that are high in cholesterol, liver was one of the foods to go.
But both agencies aren’t warning athletes because of the taste or the cholesterol; they’re giving it a red flag because of clenbuterol.
In the U.S. and most of Europe, clenbuterol is used as a decongestant. People who suffer from asthma use it as a bronchodilator whenever they have trouble breathing.
In other countries, they also give it to horses who have breathing problems, and in other livestock to make the meat leaner. Both the U.S. and Europe ban its use in food-producing animals.
Liver may not be the only meat athletes want to watch out for if they’re worried about clenbuterol. Tong Wen, a Chinese weightlifter who won a gold medal in 2008, was banned for two years in 2009 after testing positive for clenbuterol.
Her explanation? Bad pork chops.
It’s possible. In 2006, over 300 people in Shanghai got sick after eating contaminated pork. What had the animals been fed too much of? Clenbuterol.
Alberto Contador, the Spanish cyclist who tested positive for clenbuterol at the 2010 Tour de France, claimed his was from eating a contaminated steak.
Steak and pork chops aside, I would consider this a good thing.
It’s one more reason to get out of eating liver.
Joe Marchilena
Staff Photo by Grant Morris
Enlarge Purchase Photo
There is no doubt that 2012 will be a big year, one reason being the return of the Summer Olympics.
Maybe it’s because I’m not a fan of cold weather sports, but I’ve always had a preference for the summer games, and this time around, they aren’t taking place on the other side of the world. The Games of the XXX Olympiad will take place in London, only half a world away.
Of course, one of the big, unfortunate stories when it comes to Olympic sports is doping. The United Kingdom Anti-Doping Association and the Food Standard Agency – Britain’s version of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration – are already warning athletes of things to stay away from.
The most recent substance to receive a red flag is actually a food: liver.
Now, when I first read that Olympic athletes were being warned against eating liver, I thought that sounded like a good idea. The last time I ate liver, I couldn’t have been much older than 8 or 9, and I hated it. Thankfully, when my parents started cutting back on things that are high in cholesterol, liver was one of the foods to go.
But both agencies aren’t warning athletes because of the taste or the cholesterol; they’re giving it a red flag because of clenbuterol.
In the U.S. and most of Europe, clenbuterol is used as a decongestant. People who suffer from asthma use it as a bronchodilator whenever they have trouble breathing.
In other countries, they also give it to horses who have breathing problems, and in other livestock to make the meat leaner. Both the U.S. and Europe ban its use in food-producing animals.
Liver may not be the only meat athletes want to watch out for if they’re worried about clenbuterol. Tong Wen, a Chinese weightlifter who won a gold medal in 2008, was banned for two years in 2009 after testing positive for clenbuterol.
Her explanation? Bad pork chops.
It’s possible. In 2006, over 300 people in Shanghai got sick after eating contaminated pork. What had the animals been fed too much of? Clenbuterol.
Alberto Contador, the Spanish cyclist who tested positive for clenbuterol at the 2010 Tour de France, claimed his was from eating a contaminated steak.
Steak and pork chops aside, I would consider this a good thing.
It’s one more reason to get out of eating liver.
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