Universal Nutrition CREATINE CHEWS – Review

Let’s review Animal Creatine Chews. We’re going to go over the ingredients so you know what you’re putting in your body and what they do.

First, these are chewables. This was a fruit punch flavor, and just so you know, the flavor was great. I don’t have any left, so I was loving this. I was, literally humming a little while I was chewing them before training. I train fasted so I popped four of these in my mouth because that’s the dosage. It actually tasted fulfilling in the stomach, so it kind of felt like food going down because it was more solid than just taking a liquid form of creatine. They did a good job on this. The flavor was great; it was right on. There’s no Ace-K in this. There is some dextrose and maltodextrin in this for flavoring, 4 grams of sugar, 4 carbohydrates. Let’s talk about the creatine and why I think creatine is probably one of the healthiest things that anybody that is concerned about fitness, methyl donors in your body, and stuff like that, should be taking it.

Jumping right into the ingredient label. We’ve got, right at the top, four chewables at 30 servings. Calories: 16. Carbohydrates: 4 grams (that’s for flavoring). Then we have some sodium at 10 milligrams, great for hydration and other functions in the body, contraction capability, sodium ions for signaling across neurons. Creatine Monohydrate: 5 grams, a good dose. Comes with some AstraGin, 25 milligrams, to help with the absorption of creatine. AstraGin is great for gut inflammation, but it also helps with amino acid absorption or digestion. It’s been shown to actually promote that by a decent amount. Creatine actually is a bond of three different amino acids: L-Arginine, Glycine, and Methionine. I like AstraGin as far as amino acid products go. They did a really good job there. Then we’ve got some sea salt, 25 milligrams. They chose sea salt over pink salt; not a bad choice. It has minerals in it as well, so it’s not bad for you. 25 milligrams is pretty low; it’s not going to affect you either way, but it’s going to give us that extra sodium, and it’s probably cheaper than pink salt.

Jumping right into Animal Creatine Chews, Let’s discuss creatine. Creatine is an osmolyte, so it draws water into the cells. It’s very safe if you do not abuse it, just like anything else. When it draws water into cells, it creates a cell-swelling effect. This cell swelling effect creates an anabolic state on a cellular level and also helps decrease protein breakdown. As far as for training, creatine is a fantastic ingredient. Also, with that cell swelling, it’s going to draw in some glycogen, which will help remove some glucose out of the bloodstream, also drawing into the cell for some extra ATP production. Great as far as that goes.

The other thing that creatine does is it bonds with a phosphate when it enters the mitochondria of the cell. It’s there to donate that phosphate when ATP is broken down into ADP, and it has to be converted back into ATP because ADP needs that phosphate to return to ATP form. So it’s constantly producing energy. We have mitochondria all over our bodies. ATP production is super important just for living. If we lost all our ATP, we would just drop dead because it powers everything in our body.

Another thing creatine does is it spares SAMe. SAMe is super important in the body for homocysteine levels. It helps with fatty liver by the body naturally producing it, and it’s the main methyl donor in the body. When the body naturally produces creatine, it needs a methyl donor to do that, and it takes it from SAMe, depleting SAMe levels. When we supplement with creatine, it actually makes the body stop producing as much creatine, or feeling the need to produce as much, so it saves methyl donors in the body which are used for all kinds of different functions. Health-wise, for those that know about anti-aging and mitochondria dysfunction, methyl donors are super important. So that’s a plus for creatine.

And just so you know, if you’re not taking creatine and you want something that’s going to give you some methylation in your body, some methyl donors, then you’ll want to supplement with some betaine anhydrous, 2.5 grams to 3 grams a day. You can go up to six grams of betaine anhydrous. So when I’m not taking creatine, I supplement with a higher level of betaine anhydrous for that methylation or methyl donor effect in the body, so I can keep my body functioning properly. It’s always being donated all over the body to create different processes. It’s on a health level and an energy production level that you need those methyl donors.

The other thing that creatine does is it can protect cells from neurotoxicity from glutamate. I’ve talked about glutamate in the brain, and glutamate is an excitatory neurotransmitter. Too much of it can create damage to neurons in the brain. Creatine lessens the glutamate produced, and if glutamate becomes too high on a cellular level, it can increase calcium levels within the mitochondria. Creatine helps balance that out, so we can properly produce enough ATP.

For those of you, including parents, who are worried about your children or even your elders taking creatine, creatine has some fantastic benefits in the body, and I believe it’s something that should be considered for those who are healthy. I am a type 1 diabetic, so I watch out for my kidneys. If anyone has kidney problems, you’ve got to be cautious. But if you’re a healthy individual, creatine is a super healthy supplement to take. Whether you’re training hard or lightly, always drink your body weight in ounces, or a gallon to a gallon and a half a day, just to be safe. Always flush those kidneys out. If you’re truly concerned, remember, water is super important. We often talk about macros, but water is usually not included in that discussion, yet it’s vital. Hydration is crucial.

In conclusion, Animal Creatine Chews have a fantastic flavor. I’m going to miss these. I really am.

If you enjoyed this review you can check out more reviews and content on my YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/@missiontomuscle