Research
Micronutrients & recovery
Vegetarians may have lower muscle creatine and carnosine levels, but this does not negatively impact performance; however, vegetarians may respond more robustly to creatine supplementation.
If you are vegetarian, your muscle creatine levels may be lower, but this doesn't hurt your performance. You might actually benefit more from creatine supplementation than meat-eaters, so consider it if you do high-intensity training.
ModerateQualifiesMEDIUM confidence
Vegetarians generally present with lower total creatine levels. However, this difference appears to make them more receptive to creatine supplementation and its effects, as vegetarian participants receiving a creatine supplement exhibited greater increases in total creatine, phosphocreatine, lean body mass, and total work performed... compared to omnivores receiving creatine supplementation
Why this rating
Based on specific studies cited (Novakova 2016, Shomrat 2000, Baguet 2011) showing no performance difference despite lower levels.
Source
Plant-Based Diets: Considerations for Environmental Impact, Protein Quality, and Exercise Performance
Heidi Lynch et al. · Nutrients · 2018
DOI 10.3390/nu10121841
narrative_reviewCited 265×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
More from this paper
- Plant-based diets significantly reduce the risk of chronic diseases (cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, certain cancers) and have a lower environmental impact (greenhouse gas emissions, land/water use) compared to meat-containing diets.Good
- Plant-based diets (vegetarian or vegan) do not provide advantages for strength, anaerobic, or aerobic exercise performance compared to omnivorous diets, though they are viable for supporting athletic performance.Moderate
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