Well, many would say it's about time, others unfortunately perhaps, say, "what's the big deal.".

FDA has announced a warning to consumers not to consume products marketed as supplements, said to contain steroid-like components. It's time, they would say, because most, if not all of these products contain the latest greatest designer compounds engineered specifically for performance enhancement and to 'mimic' the actions of steroids. If it acts like one, looks like on, smells like one...well, you get the point. And FDA has identified what the 'good' side of this industry has known for a long time - these are not supplements in any way shape or form.

This recent announcement is good news in efforts to define exactly what is and is not, a supplement. It also gives a fundamental answer to the gross stupidity we have seen in the athletic community - now there's an FDA notice to fall back upon. These are intended to be performance enhancing, are not supplements, are illegal - so stop blaming this industry for foolish consumption of illegal products.

The direct FDA quote from the press release is "Products marketed for body building and claiming to contain steroids or steroid-like substances are illegal and potentially quite dangerous," said the agency's commissioner, Dr. Margaret Hamburg, "The FDA is taking enforcement action today to protect the public."

Obviosuly there's an agenda involved and the picture of an active FDA keeps getting reinforced every day. Yet there is a key critical message that industry should note here. These are not supplements.

The agency said "many of the products are sold as dietary substances, but are actually unapproved and misbranded drugs." This statement is signficant, especially as we need to be more proactive in defininfg our industry, even if it comes to defining what our industry is not.

Of course this is not the entirety of the solution, just a simple partial answer that supports what industry has been saying and doing for some time.

It remains to be seen what impact, if any, this has on the extremely vocal, and agile, sports products community, or even industry relations with the elite sports community (recently fragile to say the least).