The plant-based creatine gap: Why protein still leaves you short (and how to fix it)
Creatine is trending for strength, brain fog and ageing.
But plant based eaters have a different question:
What does protein cover, what does it miss, and is creatine actually worth taking?
A good place to start is this:
Creatine is not protein.
Protein gives you amino acids to build and repair tissue. Creatine helps your muscles and brain recycle quick energy, especially during short bursts of effort.
That's why the conversation has moved beyond gym bros and into strenght, ageing, cognition, and women's health.
In this human training study, meat-free people who took creatine during weight training, had bigger increases in muscle creatine, lean tissue, and total work performance, compared to the non-creatine control group.
This is called the plant based creatine gap.
You can hit your protein target and still get almost no creatine from it.
It doesn't make your diet inadequate. It just means you need to work with it strategically:
