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Arnold Schwarzengger says there is no conflict of interested in the AMI / Weider deal July 15, 2005 - Ron's Opinion

• Why should Arnold give up his ties to Weider Publications, a group that he has been associated with since Joe Weider brought him from Austria, and helped to make him a superstar in the bodybuilding world. Arnold has been writing for Flex Magazine, and Muscle & Fitness for a long time now, so why all of the chaos and critisicm.

  Rob Stutzman, Arnold's Communucations Director said "These are deeply held beliefs that he's had a long time before he became governor, and these are publications that he has been associated with his entire adult life and will continue to be. There's not a direct link to the governor's activities and supplements. There may be an indirect one that can be suggested, but the governor is not out there selling advertising for the supplement industry."

  But lets go over a few things. Arnold refused to take the $175,000 annual salary has Governor of California, instead letting the state keep the money. The dietary bill that Arnold voted should have been voted as it represented a careless State Sen. Jackie Speier, who doesn't care at all about the dietary supplement industry in California. The people who don't understand why he vetoed it should try to make a point to understand the flaws of the bills, but they choose not to.

  That bill wanted to regulate supplements, including testosterone-boosters and muscle-builders, perhaps even ban them from schools and other places. The problem was what is defined as a muscle builder or performance enhancing supplement. Some people say protein is a muscle builder, as well as glutamine, creatine and many other supplements. In effect, she wanted to destroy an industry she doesn't believe it. Can you imagine it. Some bodybuilding contests take place at high school auditoriums, would these have to go too? That bill was very unclear. Any reasonable person would veto the bill, as Arnold did.

  In an interview, Arnold said "This has nothing to do with money. Of course, for me, it was a love for the sport. I always felt that if I could achieve all I could through the sport, there are millions of young kids that can use that sport as a way of building their body and gaining self confidence."

  "When they talk about performance-enhancing supplements, immediately someone thinks performance-enhancing is usually used as with drugs. They put a negative spin on it. It makes people believe that we are dealing with something dangerous. I want to do everything I can to get rid of drugs and steroids and other medications that are being used to enhance your performance, but I made it very clear that I would never sign a bill that would not allow food supplements to be sold in the schools even though someone puts a spin on it and says it's a performance-enhancing food supplement."

  "Everyone knows that eating is a third of your success in any sport, so I felt like there was no reason to outlaw food supplements. It's something I have lived off and been taking all my life since I was 15 years old and (has) benefited me tremendously and doesn't cause any harm to anything."