Anabolic Steroids in "Diet Pills"

Washington Post reports (Furled copy) today on additional products that have been found to contain anabolic steroids.  

[...] The supplement, which is sold under the name Halodrol-50, contains a steroid that closely resembles Oral-Turinabol, the principal steroid used to fuel East Germany's secret, systematic sports doping program, according to Don Catlin of the UCLA Olympic Analytical Laboratory.

Catlin said it also contains DMT, or madol, a steroid federal authorities say was developed for Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative (BALCO), the California nutritional supplement company at the center of a scheme to provide prominent professional athletes with undetectable performance-enhancing drugs. [...]

Some may wonder why we should be worried about anabolic steroids.  Fortunately, Alan Alda explained it all.  A copy of his report has been provided here:

What Every Woman Should Know About Men
by Alan Alda, printed in Ms. Magazine

Everyone knows that testosterone, the so-called male hormone, is found in both men and women. What is not so well known, is that men have an overdose.

Until now it has been thought that the level of testosterone in men is normal simply because they have it. But if you consider how abnormal their behavior is, then you are led to the hypothesis that almost all men are suffering from testosterone poisoning.

The symptoms are easy to spot. Sufferers are reported to show an early preference (while still in the crib) for geometric shapes. Later, they become obsessed with machinery and objects to the exclusion of human values. They have an intense need to rank everything, and are obsessed with size. [...]

Seriously, anabolic steroids are no laughing matter.  In the case of Halodrol-50, the substances were detected when the Washington Post paid to have diet products analyzed.  Now that the banned substances have been found, the FDA is investigating.  While it is good that the FDA is investigating, it bothers me that we have to depend on a newspaper to find out about this kind of thing.  People need to know that the FDA does not routinely perform studies on products sold as "nutritional supplements."