{"id":51470,"date":"2024-07-17T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-07-17T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/foodrevolution.org\/?p=51470"},"modified":"2026-09-14T06:30:26","modified_gmt":"2026-09-14T13:30:26","slug":"creatine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/foodrevolution.org\/blog\/creatine\/","title":{"rendered":"What Is Creatine & Do You Need to Supplement?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The world first met Popeye the Sailor in a comic strip on January 17, 1929. In those early days, he got his giant forearms and superhuman strength by rubbing the head of a lucky chicken. By 1933, spinach had replaced the fowl as the font of Popeye\u2019s fighting prowess, leading to a 33% increase<\/a> in consumption of the vegetable in the US.<\/p>\n

However, those who added spinach to their diets to gain Popeye\u2019s superhuman strength and ridiculously exaggerated muscles were probably disappointed. Despite being an awesome leafy green, spinach doesn\u2019t have the ability to increase muscle size or power.<\/p>\n

Nearly a century later, there\u2019s another substance touted in the health and fitness worlds for its potential to enhance exercise performance and muscle mass. It\u2019s often used by athletes and bodybuilders and is present<\/a> in the majority of sports supplements sold in the US.<\/p>\n

And not only that, but it also may have other health benefits that have nothing to do with lifting heavy weights and sculpting muscles.<\/p>\n

The substance in question is creatine (in case you skipped the headline of this article, and my attempt at building suspense is actually working).<\/p>\n

We make creatine in our bodies, and so do animals \u2014 which is why omnivores get additional creatine in their diets when they consume meat. Which begs several questions for plant-based eaters: \u201cAm I getting (or making) enough creatine? Should I supplement? Which are the best vegan sources of creatine? And is it safe?\u201d<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s flex our mental muscles and do a deep dive into the science of creatine.<\/p>\n

What Is Creatine?<\/h2>\n
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Creatine is a naturally occurring compound made up of amino acids. It\u2019s not one of the essential ones that you need to get from food because your body can and does synthesize it<\/a> from the amino acids arginine, glycine, and methionine.<\/strong> While arginine and glycine are produced naturally in the body, independent of your food intake, methionine does need to be obtained through food.<\/p>\n

Creatine is part of the family of guanidine phosphagens<\/a> (no relation to any characters from a science fiction movie), which specialize in storing high-energy phosphate bonds that your body can use when there\u2019s a sudden need for energy. It\u2019s used primarily by muscle and nerve tissues, which have high and fluctuating energy demands.<\/p>\n

Creatine is technically a \u201cnon-protein amino acid,\u201d which I had to look up because I hadn\u2019t seen the term before. Basically, it means that creatine doesn\u2019t take part in protein formation, but rather mostly works to support and boost the energy system. It also has a side hustle as an antioxidant<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Your body produces about one gram of creatine<\/a> each day<\/strong> \u2014 unless you have a rare creatine synthesis disorder<\/a>. It gets stored in your muscles as phosphocreatine and gets broken down into creatinine<\/i> with use.<\/p>\n

There are a lot of factors that can influence your serum creatinine levels, including gender, age, weight, lean body mass, and how much protein you consume. If you have elevated levels of creatinine<\/a> in your blood, that might indicate kidney disease since one of your kidneys\u2019 jobs is to remove creatinine and other waste products from your bloodstream.<\/p>\n

Omnivores typically have about 20\u201330% more<\/a> creatine in their body than vegans and vegetarians<\/strong> because, in addition to what their bodies make, they also consume some from animal sources such as meat and seafood.<\/p>\n

Creatine Benefits and Uses<\/h2>\n

Creatine is marketed<\/a> as a performance-enhancing supplement for athletes and people who want big muscles. This reputation can obscure the fact that creatine can also have potential benefits for people of all ages and sizes, and that it may, in fact, be especially helpful for elderly people and for plant-based eaters.<\/p>\n

Creatine and Exercise Performance<\/h3>\n
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Your muscles get most of their energy from a compound called adenosine triphosphate, which students of high school biology know by its hip nickname, ATP. When you exercise, your muscles use up ATP faster, which is one of the reasons you can\u2019t do an infinite number of push-ups.<\/p>\n

Studies show that creatine supplementation can speed up<\/a> your body\u2019s ability to make more ATP, especially between sets of high-intensity exercise.<\/strong> This can improve performance, particularly in activities with a relatively short time duration.<\/p>\n

For example, studies of soccer players who took creatine found that it improved<\/a> their sprinting, jumping, dribbling, and agility, but didn\u2019t affect their endurance.<\/p>\n

Creatine also can provide a competitive edge in short-duration sports<\/a> that include a sprint at the end of an event, such as rowing, kayaking, track cycling, and running races.<\/p>\n

Creatine not only improves performance during exertion, but it also helps people who do resistance training gain more muscle<\/a> from the same amount of exercise. You don\u2019t have to want to look like Mr. or Mrs. Olympia to benefit from increased muscle mass either. Sarcopenia (loss of skeletal muscle mass) is one of the most harmful side effects of aging, and is associated with<\/a> increased risk of injury, disability, and death.<\/p>\n

Combining weight training with creatine<\/a> may help prevent, lessen, and delay skeletal muscle loss.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Creatine and Heart Health<\/h3>\n

One of the risk factors for heart disease is elevated blood levels of an amino acid called homocysteine<\/a>, which has nothing to do with a certain famous Italian chapel. Elevated homocysteine levels can damage blood vessel linings, promote blood clots, and contribute to atherosclerosis, increasing the risk<\/a> of heart attack and stroke, among other nasty party tricks.<\/p>\n

Vegans may have an increased risk of elevated homocysteine if they don\u2019t supplement with vitamin B12, which helps break down the amino acid. A 2019 study found<\/a> that vegans given creatine supplements were able to lower their homocysteine levels due to creatine\u2019s role as a potential antioxidant<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

What\u2019s more, they improved an important marker of vascular health called microvascular vasodilation, which refers to the widening of small blood vessels (microvessels) such as arterioles and capillaries. Better vasodilation<\/a> improves blood flow, reduces blood pressure, and protects against ischemic conditions (where blood supply is restricted and can lead to a heart attack or stroke).<\/p>\n

There\u2019s also some evidence to suggest<\/a> that creatine supplementation could support heart metabolism and heart health, especially during ischemic challenges such as heart attack or stroke.<\/p>\n

Creatine and the Brain<\/h3>\n
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While most of the creatine in your body is stored in your muscles, about 5% of it lives in and gets used by the brain. Studies have shown that creatine supplementation can improve performance in a number of cognitive tasks<\/a><\/strong> that researchers like to measure in laboratories, including random number generation, forward and backward recall, long-term memory, visual reaction time, cognitive effort, and dynamic balance. It also enhanced the study participants\u2019 mood state.<\/p>\n

A 2020 study found<\/a> that creatine supplementation reduced mental fatigue in people asked to perform mentally tiring tasks such as the Stroop test.<\/p>\n

Fun tangent: This is where people are shown color words (RED, BLUE, YELLOW, etc.) printed in ink of a different color than the word, and they have to say, out loud, the color of the ink (and not the name of the word). It\u2019s surprisingly difficult. Here\u2019s an example<\/a> if you want to try it.<\/p>\n

A 2017 study also gave<\/a> a battery of cognitive assessments to people with bipolar disorder, some of whom were given supplemental creatine. Those taking creatine performed better on a test of verbal fluency.<\/p>\n

And finally, a 2022 meta-analysis of eight published studies found<\/a> that supplemental creatine improved memory \u2014 a bit \u2014 in older adults, in some cases in as few as five days. However, as researchers are fond of saying, \u201cMore research is needed,\u201d as several of the studies included in the meta-analysis weren\u2019t of the highest quality.<\/p>\n

Creatine and Immunity<\/h3>\n

There\u2019s evidence that creatine can support your immune system, too. So far, the research on humans has been limited<\/a> to looking at the production of certain substances and the expression of receptors that help detect infections. The more robust evidence comes from studies of rodents. (Our view on the use of animals in medical research is here<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

A 2022 mouse study found<\/a> that creatine supplementation can enhance the immune responses of a type of white blood cell (called neutrophils) that fights bacterial infections.<\/strong> The mice who had creatine had a better immune response, lower levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines, reduced bacterial colonization in their organs, and increased survival rates.<\/p>\n

A 2023 study that also used mice found<\/a> that creatine boosted the ability of macrophages to fight tumor growth. It did so by giving them more energy, via ATP.<\/p>\n

Creatine and Bone Health<\/h3>\n
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Creatine supplementation may also enhance<\/a> the health of your bones, especially as you age. In a 2015 study<\/a>, 47 postmenopausal women were put in a supervised resistance training program for a year. The group was divided randomly, with half of them taking creatine supplements while the other half took a placebo. In addition to getting stronger at the bench press, by the end of the 12-month study, the creatine-taking group was also found to have more bone mineral density and better bone bending strength.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Unfortunately, however, most of the studies on creatine and bone health have small sample sizes and suffer from other design flaws. So there is enough evidence to think that it could help \u2014 but we don\u2019t know for sure.<\/p>\n

In any case, improvements in bone health may not be an independent effect; rather, it might be a downstream outcome of creatine\u2019s ability to preserve muscle mass. That is, we know that building skeletal muscle through resistance training also improves bone density, so it\u2019s possible that improvements in bone density from creatine supplementation are a secondary effect.<\/p>\n

Can Plant-Based Eaters Get Enough?<\/h2>\n

Just like us, animals store creatine mostly in their muscles. And when humans eat animal muscle, they consume the creatine that it contains. Infants get their creatine from their mother\u2019s milk or from milk-based formula (but not from soy-based ones<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Since plant-based eaters who don\u2019t take a supplement and who completely avoid meat and fish only have the creatine their bodies produce, it\u2019s reasonable to wonder if they\u2019re getting enough.<\/p>\n

Indeed, studies show that vegetarians usually have lower plasma and muscle creatine levels<\/a> than omnivores \u2014 about 20\u201330% lower<\/a>, in fact.<\/p>\n

Interestingly, while plant-based eaters who don\u2019t consume creatine have lower plasma and blood levels of creatine, they have about the same brain levels<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

It appears that the brain depends on its own creatine synthesis, and doesn\u2019t take a chance on getting it from diet \u2014 which makes sense, considering how beneficial creatine is for cognitive health.<\/p>\n

So how much creatine do we need? Depending on diet, muscle mass, and physical activity levels, it\u2019s often recommended that an average-sized person should get 2\u20133 grams of creatine per day<\/a> in order to maintain optimal creatine stores and promote general health.<\/p>\n

Hmmm \u2014 let\u2019s do some math. Most of us need 2\u20133 grams per day, and our bodies make about 1 gram per day. I\u2019m no Isaac Newton, but according to my calculations, that means plant-based eaters might have only one-half to one-third of the recommended amount of creatine.<\/strong><\/p>\n

We don\u2019t know if this really is a problem. But given all we do know about the benefits of creatine, it might be a good idea for plant-based eaters \u2014 and possibly other folks, too \u2014 to consider supplementation.<\/p>\n

Creatine Supplements<\/h2>\n
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There are several forms of supplemental creatine<\/a>.<\/p>\n