When it comes to supplements, consistency matters most if you want to reap the full health benefits, and that's especially true with creatine. One of the easiest ways to consistently take your daily dose is to stack it with a current habit, and for many, that might look like stirring a scoop of creatine into their usual morning cup of coffee. But it raises a valid question: should you mix creatine into coffee, or does the heat and caffeine reduce its effectiveness?
"The short answer is yes, you can put creatine in your coffee," says Jordan Glenn, Ph.D., Head of Science at SuppCo. "Creatine powder is tough. Like, really tough. Left dry, it can sit for literally years without breaking down."
One of the biggest misconceptions is that hot coffee immediately destroys creatine, but that's not actually the case. Creatine begins to slowly break down once it's dissolved in liquid, where it gradually converts into creatinine, an inactive byproduct that your body flushes out. While both acidity and time speed up that process, temperature isn't the main concern with creatine.
Coffee is mildly acidic, but the amount of creatine that degrades during the time it takes to drink a cup is minimal. In other words, mixing creatine into a fresh cup of coffee and drinking it within 15 to 30 minutes wouldn't give you any issues.
"This mostly is about time, not heat," Glenn says. "Mix it, drink it, done. You're fine. The only mistake is mixing it in the morning and sipping it out of a thermos all weekend. So final answer? This is less of a coffee problem, as opposed to a 'you let it sit too long' problem."
Another common concern is whether caffeine itself interferes with creatine's performance benefits. But in one 2017 study, researchers compared participants taking creatine alone, creatine with caffeine, and creatine with coffee over a five-day loading phase. They found no evidence that coffee or caffeine reduced creatine's effects on strength or repeated sprint performance. Additionally, participants who took creatine with coffee performed similarly to those taking creatine alone, suggesting the two can peacefully coexist.
Related: The Way You Brew Your Morning Coffee Could Be Raising Your LDL Cholesterol
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