Creatine: The Energy We Evolved With

Greetings, Primals!

In the summer of 1996 before my freshman year at Godwin High School, I was 135 pounds and living in the weight room, chasing the goal of benching my body weight before football season. Like most guys in the 90s, I walked into GNC and bought creatine monohydrate, taking it before and after workouts because we thought it would make us bigger, stronger, and look better on the field and at the Colonies pool!

Nearly 30 years later, after studying human physiology and ancestral living, I finally understand why creatine supports both physical performance and mental output. What we thought was a modern supplement is actually ancient energy the human body evolved to use.

In today’s issue:

WEEKLY DEEP DIVE

Creatine was first identified in the early 1800s and has been studied extensively ever since. Long before a synthetic version came in a white powder tub, creatine was part of the human diet through red meat consumption, the very fuel that helped shape our species! 

Creatine is a naturally occurring compound stored primarily in muscle and brain tissue, and it plays a critical role in cellular energy production. Inside the cell, energy is stored as ATP, adenosine triphosphate. When the body uses energy, whether sprinting, lifting, thinking, or reacting, ATP loses a phosphate group and becomes ADP. Now here is where creatine comes in! 

Creatine is stored in the cell as phosphocreatine, essentially a high energy phosphate reserve. Think of creatine like a mobile power bank in your cells. When ATP is depleted, phosphocreatine can rapidly donate its phosphate back to ADP, instantly regenerating ATP without having to restart the entire energy producing process like glycolysis.

This rapid recycling of ATP is what gives you that extra push at the end of a hard set, the ability to squeeze out one more rep, sprint a few seconds longer, or maintain power when fatigue would normally shut you down.

Creatine is so essential to human energy demands that your liver and kidneys synthesize (make) it endogenously (internally) from amino acids. The amount your body produces tends to reflect your lifestyle and energy needs.  If you live a sedentary life, you will notice little benefit from additional creatine. But if you train hard with strength training, sprinting, HIIT, or physically demanding work, your energy systems are constantly being taxed and creatine becomes far more valuable.  In simple terms, creatine benefits those who actually use energy at a high rate.

Creatine is stored and used in both muscle tissue and brain tissue. In muscle cells, it improves strength, power, and performance. In brain cells, it supports cognitive energy, mental clarity, and resistance to mental fatigue.  This is why creatine does not just enhance physical performance. It can also support learning, focus, and sustained mental output!

Red meat is one of the richest natural sources of creatine!  On average, sixteen ounces of red meat provides roughly two grams of creatine, though this varies by cut and preparation.  The supplemental form of creatine we buy today is synthetically produced and is chemically identical to the creatine found in red meat and produced internally by your own liver and kidneys.  Your body cannot tell the difference and recognizes the molecules and puts them to work!  Our ancestors would have consumed creatine through meat.  Supplementation allows us to increase creatine levels without having to eat pounds of meat every day!

The term monohydrate simply means that the creatine molecule is bound to one molecule of water. This water molecule stabilizes creatine, improves absorption, and makes it easy for the body to store and use inside muscle and brain cells. Creatine monohydrate is the most studied, most effective, and most affordable form of creatine available. It closely mirrors the way creatine naturally exists and functions inside the human body.

The Primal Takeaway

Our ancestors did not supplement with creatine monohydrate, but they consistently consumed creatine rich foods. Survival required explosive power, sustained effort, rapid decision making, and physical resilience. Creatine helped fuel those demands long before modern gyms or laboratories existed.

Today, we can honor that ancestral design by eating creatine rich foods like red meat, supporting high energy output lifestyles, and when appropriate, supplementing with simple, well studied creatine monohydrate. Creatine is a species appropriate support tool our bodies recognize, make internally, utilize efficiently, and have depended on for generations.