Burritogate All Comes Down to Corn

Bad Wigins wrote:

If a boar gets a hormonal boost from eating corn, what about people? Should people eat more corn?

The ancient Mesoamericans already are considered geniuses for breeding the stuff out of ordinary blades of grass. Were they even smarter than we thought?

Just to clarify and explain the science a little, male pigs don't increase their natural production of steroids by eating corn. It's just that there are various forms of Carbon, in the form of isotopes, that are retained more heavily in corn and similar plants ("C4 plants") as compared to other types of plants ("C3 plants) that lack certain features to help deal with high temperatures. It's similar to carbon-dating technology and allows a lab to partially figure out the diet of many creatures. Anyway, it turns out that pigs and wild boars alike adore corn, and will usually eat it if given the choice between that and other foodstuffs.

It is also true, but surely coincidental, that Americans also love corn and corn-fed foods. Towards the end of the study I cited in my original post, the author Hülsemann states this interesting tidbit:

"The fact of varying δ13C values of wild boar could also be problematic for people living in countries with a high consumption of C4-plants like the United States or Southern Africa. Human endogenous δ13C values in these countries are enriched in 13C compared with Germany, and for these, there is the possibility of adverse analytical findings after the consumption of the meat of 19-norsteroid producing C3-fed boars."

What I believe he's saying is that for Americans with corn-based diets, you will likely see a high level of Carbon-13 in the cells of their bodies, and if such a person were to eat a wild boar that had only been foraging in the woods for acorns and whatnot, the level of Carbon-13 from that boar would be low, and initially lead the lab investigator to think the substance came from outside the person's body and therefore be exogenous.

I personally don’t buy burrito-gate and am just waiting for the next BTC shoe (or shoes) to drop……heck I wonder if they already have other double secret appeals in process. The 1000 + word mind bending analyses stating Shelbo might be innocent are hilarious.

I still bust up laughing every time I remember Jerry stating he’d never even heard of nandrolone, ROFL.

65468546 wrote:

Far too many improbable things would need to line up for this to happen. Always go with the easiest explanation, the banned substance is there because the athlete knowing took the banned substance.

......... Until other evidence causes reasonable doubt. Otherwise things like the following occur:

The girl was raped

You were there with the girl at the party.

Therefore, you raped the girl.

It's the easiest explanation. Oh...until other reasonable evidence is allowed. Thankfully.

The truth is, none of us "Know" the truth here. We surmise and suspect and reason according to our own set of logical constructs. But that doesn't mean our conclusions are unassailable. It's not only wise to consider all of these other possibilities, it's the fair thing to do. That doesn't mean she's innocent. But it does mean that an arm-chair quarterback approach to judgment shouldn't be so easily accepted when accusing someone of being guilty.

I would say that when the full report comes out, if there is no appeal to Swiss court, that it will certainly appear like a concession on Shelby's part.

Another good example of a farmer dealing with possible boar taint in one of their hogs.

"In a letter to customers, I mentioned that one of the pigs we harvested had a hidden testicle. Why is this important?

In pigs, testicles frequently cause an off taste called “boar taint”. Boar taint is most evident when the meat is heated as in cooking. I had our butcher, Quality Meats in Foley, convert the entire hog into summer sausage for our family. Summer sausage is heavily seasoned, mixed with other meats (beef in our case) and served cold. The boar taint is avoided and we get a ton of excellent summer sausage."

Also, for a farmer that practices castration on all his piglets, this little statistic stands out, as well as being somewhat relevant to other athletic controversies:

"I harvest around 100 hogs and 100 beef each year. On average, I get one hog and one beef with mixed sex organs each year. This year I got two hogs and one beef. I may get zero next year; it is just a matter of chance. It seems that every biologically possible anomaly that can occur, does occur. Life is not that precise."

https://www.sfa-mn.org/animal-gender-and-the-taste-of-meat

But it's the other way around here.

The scientists from the Montreal lab have accused Shelby of doping based on her positive tests (January).

The AIU/WA agreed. and first banned her provisionally (also January), and then permanently (May).

Shelby went into arbitration, with one arbiter chosen by her, one by WA, and one by CAS.

CAS was unanimous in the final decision:

So the experts have concluded that she " committed an intentional ADRV".

It's some people here ("arm-chair quarterback") who argue with whatever motivation they may have that they all got it wrong (the lab, AIU/WA, and CAS) because of lex mitior and special Oregon corn and pharmacokinetics and uncastrated boar and Shelby's innocence and Jerry's character.

But, the ship has sailed.

You underestimate kind of have backward e a state Oregon can be in certain categories.

For instance Washington state's laws are very similar to California's laws, Oregon marches to the beat of its own drummer, and always has especially in regard to small farmers.

moultonk wrote:

What I believe he's saying is that for Americans with corn-based diets, you will likely see a high level of Carbon-13 in the cells of their bodies, and if such a person were to eat a wild boar that had only been foraging in the woods for acorns and whatnot, the level of Carbon-13 from that boar would be low, and initially lead the lab investigator to think the substance came from outside the person's body and therefore be exogenous.

So Houlihan needs to add to her story that she does NOT eat corn but rather lives in the woods eating acorn pancakes every day.

Really great research job.

Thank you.

moultonk wrote:

rekrunner wrote:

That was amazing. Well done.

+1000

Now that I've had a chance to get through it all, I completely agree with Rekrunner! Thank you Twoggle for getting all these arguments and references together in one handy place, which allowed me to learn a lot of new details. Believe it or not, I had never heard of the "Portlandia" show and that scene in the restaurant ("Colin the Chicken") is priceless (and not too far from reality, according to the comments)!

Thank you guys! So much new information posted. I really appreciate reading to comments and details!

Here Let me summarize this thesis for everyone.

“No Olympics for you Shelby. The story is an “awful” crock of BS.

track mr wrote:

Here Let me summarize this thesis for everyone.

“No Olympics for you Shelby. The story is an “awful” crock of BS.

BS = Boar skat?

tarckstar wrote:

Shelby was banned for four years for a reason. People smarter than nearly everyone on this board already spent months on this.

The question remains, were they the right reasons.

moultonk wrote:

rekrunner wrote:

That was amazing. Well done.

+1000

Now that I've had a chance to get through it all, I completely agree with Rekrunner! Thank you Twoggle for getting all these arguments and references together in one handy place, which allowed me to learn a lot of new details. Believe it or not, I had never heard of the "Portlandia" show and that scene in the restaurant ("Colin the Chicken") is priceless (and not too far from reality, according to the comments)!

It’s not fair that I didn’t recognize your extensive research and findings into the small pork industry.

I appreciate the extensive effort — it is a refreshing change from the typical reflexive responses in these doping threads.

twoggle wrote:

Hope there aren’t to many typos!

“too many”

moultonk wrote:

For me though, it's not even about Houlihan's case anymore. I just know there's a lot more uncastrated pork in the food systems of Europe, Africa, parts of America, and other countries than has been recognized by athletes, coaches, fans, and WADA, and that therefore, the chance of false positives is greater than has yet been accounted for.

Considering nandrolone is one of the more frequent sources of ADRVs, it would be tragic if a significant number of otherwise innocent athletes are collateral damage to a “guilty until proven innocent” adjudication system that requires sometimes very poor athletes to fund and prove and analyze a meal they ate a month earlier, tracing it back to the farmer.

In a recent WADA report on Kenyan doping, 35% (49 out of 138) of ADRVs were for nandrolone — by far the most common source of ADRVs, about 3x more than cortico-steroids and EPO.

casual obsever wrote:

So the experts have concluded that she " committed an intentional ADRV".

It's some people here ("arm-chair quarterback") who argue with whatever motivation they may have that they all got it wrong (the lab, AIU/WA, and CAS) because of lex mitior and special Oregon corn and pharmacokinetics and uncastrated boar and Shelby's innocence and Jerry's character.

Another argument is that the CAS interpreted the WADA code correctly, but it is the WADA code that is wrong and in need of reform. Not only armchair quarterbacks, but the head of USADA has argued for such reform.

Shelby’s team said the most likely source was the burrito. The question before CAS was whether the evidence before them rose to the level of “balance of probability”. No one offered a more likely source as an alternative, nor proved it to any legal standard. Because of the wording of the WADA code, Shelby was competing against a default presumption of guilt and intent, on the strength of the lab test results alone. Collecting the type of evidence required is not easy and not always possible. If you were in the same position, could you prove the content of a meal you ate last month, tracing it back to the meat provider, to the farmer, and testing the meat? What proof could there be that shows the food truck served the wrong burrito, or put extra ingredients in it?

track mr wrote:

Here Let me summarize this thesis for everyone.

“No Olympics for you Shelby. The story is an “awful” crock of BS.

Hogwash!

Lol...People twisting themselves into knots trying to explain away steroid injecting athletes.

Do they even believe their own bullchit?

runnerboy70 wrote:

Lol...People twisting themselves into knots trying to explain away steroid injecting athletes.

Do they even believe their own bullchit?

Who said she injected steroids?

We haven’t seen the detailed CAS report, but according to Houlihan’s and her lawyer’s announcement, the AIU was in agreement that steroids weren’t injected.

In any case, she wasn’t accused, nor convicted, of steroid injection by WADA, WA, AIU, or CAS.

This has only been alleged by pseudo-fans of the sport under anonymous handles — there is no need to explain away such uninformed allegations.