What’s The Best Creatine For Vegans?

Out of all the gym juices, boosters and supplements, the one almost universally recommended is creatine.

It is one of the most studied supplements in sports nutrition. But with so many options on the market, how do you find the best one?

Creatine is mostly stored in your muscles. Your liver and kidneys make some of it, and the rest comes from meat and fish, so vegans and vegetarians tend to have lower muscle creatine stores.

The good news: supplemental creatine is made synthetically, not from animals, so most pure creatine powders are vegan.

But there is a key step to identifying REAL vegan creatine, because some "apparently" vegan friendly options actually contain animal products (!).

More on this in a bit...

Below, you will find the five best vegan creatine supplement products that you can trust.

Creatine is legal; no sports organization bans it, since it occurs naturally in food. In healthy people, research has found it safe at recommended doses.

There are several forms of vegan-friendly creatine, including creatine monohydrate and also creatine ethyl ester. Monohydrate has by far the most research, and studies have not shown ethyl ester works better.

Supplement makers produce creatine in a lab from non-animal raw materials.

Below you will find vegan creatine reviews so you can find the best creatine supplement to match your lifestyle.

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So now that you know about the options for your creatine intake, let’s have a quick look at what these products do for your body.

Where is it Found?

Creatine is made mainly in your liver and kidneys from the amino acids arginine and glycine, then stored in your muscles. It helps produce energy during lifting and other high-intensity efforts.

You need about 1 to 3 grams a day to maintain your stores. Roughly half normally comes from meat and fish, and your body makes the rest.

Vegetarians and vegans have lower muscle creatine stores, so they may see bigger gains from supplementing.

If you add some creatine supplement into your daily routine, you increase the stores of phosphocreatine. This is a stored version of creatine in your cells and helps produce high energy molecules called Adenosine Triphosphate (ATP).

ATP is the energy source your muscles use for short, intense bursts of exercise.

Source:Wikimedia

How Does Creatine Work?

Simply, additional creatine creates additional stores of phosphocreatine in your muscles, these can then be used to produce more ATP.

The effects of this include:

• Better Workload: Which allows you to increase your total work in a single training session.
• Increased Cell Hydration: Creatine draws water into muscle cells, and cell swelling is thought to signal an increase in protein building.
• Less Protein Breakdown: One short-term study found creatine reduced protein breakdown markers in men, though it didn’t increase muscle protein synthesis.
• Anaerobic Endurance: Creatine creates an energy buffer for your muscles in the form of phosphocreatine.
• Increased Strength: One scientific review of 22 studies found that creatine plus resistance training increased strength 8% more than training with a placebo (20% vs 12%).

Are All Creatine Plant-Based?

As a vegan, should you be taking creatine? Is there non-animal based creatine? Will it help improve your workouts? Does it impact vegans the same way as omnivores?

Omnivores get some creatine from meat and fish. A pound of uncooked beef or salmon contains only about 1 to 2 grams, so reaching a typical 3 to 5 gram supplement dose from food alone would take a lot of meat.

Vegans get essentially none from food, which is why many vegan lifters supplement. Vegan bodybuilder Brian Turner shares his view in the video below:

How Do You Check Your Creatine Is Vegan?

With creatine, the plain, unflavored powders are the easiest way to be sure you’re getting a vegan product.

Creatine itself in its pure form is vegan, however additives can potentially be from animals.

Capsules can throw off a consumer. While some individuals prefer to consume their creatine through capsule form, the material required to create this is generally animal based.

Most capsules are made from gelatin, which is a colorless and tasteless water-soluble protein. While an ideal substance to create capsules, unfortunately it is made from collagen which is the main structural protein found in skin and connective tissues in animals.

This means, even if the brand produces 100% vegan friendly creatine, the packaging could make the supplement non-vegan.

So look for the label to specify something along the lines of “vegetable sourced”, “vegetable cellulose,” or similar next to the capsule/gelatin ingredients listing to indicate the capsule is not an animal product.

How Much Vegan Creatine Should You Consume?

The standard dosage is 3 to 5 grams per day. Some experts, including an American College of Sports Medicine roundtable, note that 3 grams a day raises muscle creatine as much as high doses, given enough time.

If you want faster results, you can start with a loading phase. This creates a rapid increase in your muscle’s stores of creatine.

For this phase, you should take 20 grams per day for 5-7 days. This can be split into four 5-gram servings throughout the day.

After this initial period, take 3 to 5 grams per day to maintain your stores. If you skip the loading phase, it takes about 4 weeks to fill your stores.

If you have kidney disease or take medications that affect your kidneys, talk to your doctor before using creatine.

Summary

Many creatine supplements on the market are vegan, each with its own pros and cons.

And to conclude this review, our #1 choice is Bulk Supplements’ Creatine Monohydrate Powder. The high purity, micronized product comes at a low price point and you just can’t go wrong with it.

Creatine raises the energy stores in your muscles and, combined with training, helps build strength.

Many clinical studies support its safety in healthy people. Research on brain benefits is still emerging.

While creatine is typically found in animal products such as steak, the best vegan creatine supplements reviewed above provide a great non-animal based alternative.

Sources

• International Society of Sports Nutrition position stand: safety and efficacy of creatine supplementation in exercise, sport, and medicine, Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition (PMC)
• Effects of creatine supplementation and resistance training on muscle strength and weightlifting performance, Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research (PubMed)
• The physiological and health effects of oral creatine supplementation, American College of Sports Medicine roundtable, Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise (PubMed)