Group A Supplements

Approved or recommended for use by AIS athletes. This group includes supplements or sports foods which:

• provide a useful and timely source of energy and nutrients in the athlete's diet, or
• have been shown in scientific trials to provide a performance benefit, when used according to a specific protocol in a specific situation in sport

• making these supplements available and accessible to the AIS athletes who will benefit from their appropriate use. In particular, to provide these supplements at limited cost to AIS sports programs, through systems managed by appropriate Athlete and Coach Services (A&CS) departments
• providing education to athletes and coaches about the beneficial uses of these supplements/sports foods and their appropriate use, with the emphasis on 'state of the art' sports nutrition

We also aim to ensure that supplements/sports foods used by AIS athletes carry a minimal risk of doping safety problems.
 

Available to all AIS sports as appropriate and practical

• Supplies of Isosport (sports drink) and Sustagen Sport (liquid meal supplement) are available for appropriate use by all AIS sports, funding or product permitting.  Sustagen Sport will be available until mid year when it will be replaced by Power Bar Protein Plus Drink from Nestlé.

Supplement Fact Sheets have been produced for these supplements to summarise suitable uses. The AIS dietitians are available to undertake special activities or prepare specific supplement fact sheets to educate AIS athletes about the appropriate use of these supplements.
 

Available to appropriate Canberra based sports. Dietitians from the Department of Sports Nutrition work with various AIS sports to organise a recovery bar. A refrigerator is placed in a designated area to allow athletes to obtain a post-training or post-game recovery snack. A specific system is organised to stock the refrigerator with appropriate supplements/sports foods, including:

Isosport
Cereal bars
PowerBar Protein Plus Drink or Sustagen Sport
PowerBars
Low-fat fruit yoghurt
Low-fat milk
Fruit
Flavoured milk

Appropriate staff members from Athlete and Coach Services (eg dietitians, doctors, physiologists) are able to organise a specific supplement program for appropriate athletes (or groups of athletes), for some of the following products:

 Group B Supplements

Considered for provision to AIS athletes only under a research protocol. Group B supplements are products for which there is no substantial proof of health or performance benefits at the current time, but which:

• remain of interest to the AIS because of the background interest of our athletes and coaches
• are too new to have received adequate scientific attention, or have preliminary data which hints at possible benefits

• Supervised study or trial involving placebo/control groups and adequate monitoring of performance or health benefits so that better decisions can be made. Approval has been sought from AIS Ethics committee to allow immediate set-up of such studies, and the committee should be notified of all projects in progress
• Clinical management plan overseen by AIS doctor, including the provision of the supplement to the athlete and adequate monitoring
• Payment for the supplement may need to come from the budget of the sport, if it cannot be covered within the cost of the research project or from a grant from the manufacturer.

     2. A goal of these programs is to collect further data to allow Category B supplements to be moved into categories A or C.
 

 Group C Supplements

• This category contains the majority of supplements and sports products promoted to athletes
• These supplements, despite enjoying a cyclical pattern of popularity and widespread use, have not been proven to enhance sports performance or health
• In some cases these supplements have been shown to impair sports performance or health, with a clear mechanism to explain these results

• In the absence of proof of benefits, these supplements will not be provided to AIS athletes from ASC/AIS program budgets or other sources funded by AIS/ASC
• If an individual athlete or coach wishes to use a supplement from this category, they may do so providing:
  • they are responsible for payment for this supplement
  • any sponsorship arrangements are acknowledged to AIS marketing
  • the supplement brand has been assessed for doping safety and placed on the 'low risk' category
  • the coach reports their use to the AIS Department of Medicine, and
  • the athlete records their use in their supplement and medication diary.

Branched chain amino acids and other free-form amino acids (* note that these can be provided by foods or some group A supplements)
Ginseng
Garlic
Cordyceps
Ginkgo Biloba
Inosine
Coenzyme Q10
Cytochrome C
Carnitine
Bee Pollen
Gamma-Oryzanol and Ferulic Acid
Chromium Picolinate
Vitamin B12 injections
Oral vitamin B12
Intravenous Iron
All network marketing supplements including: Neways, Nuskin (IDN), Usana, Mannatech, Herbalife, Juice Plus, Noni Juice

 Group D Supplements

These supplements should not be used by AIS athletes

• These supplements are directly banned by the IOC doping rules or provide a high risk of producing a positive doping outcome

Androstenedione
DHEA
19-norandrostenedione and 19-norandrostenediol
Tribulus terrestris and other herbal testosterone supplements
Ephedra
Strychnine

Caffeine: The use of caffeine and caffeine-containing supplements (i.e. guarana) are banned when urinary caffeine levels are detected above 12 µg/ml. Please refer to the Position on Caffeine Use at the AIS.