Teen Sports Faces a Nutritional-Supplement Debate

Concern is growing in the world of high school sports about nutritional supplement companies’ increasingly aggressive marketing of their products to teen athletes. Among the tactics: One company sponsors a national high school sports association and another a 16-year-old swimmer.

Sports-nutrition supplements, sold online or over the counter and including everything from protein shakes to capsules promising bigger muscles, represent a growing market. They have $6.7 billion in annual sales in the U.S., says Chris Schmidt, senior consumer health analyst for market-research firm Euromonitor. Many athletes, including Olympians, take nutritional supplements to help them fuel or recover from grueling workouts.

Some doctors, school districts and athletic organizations have concerns about marketing nutritional supplements to young athletes because there is little scientific research on how supplements affect growing bodies. Supplement makers don’t need approval from the Food and Drug Administration.

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