Creatine's Role in Human Evolution & Ancient Civilizations

It’s staggering to think about how little information was known about nutrition in general — and about creatine in particular — prior to the 19th century. This doesn’t mean human beings were totally in the dark about how food operated. 

In a general sense, the macronutrient value of food could be gleaned from the sense of satisfaction and fullness that was felt after consuming it. Moreover, even the micronutrient contents of food could be extrapolated from extended observation, giving rise to centuries worth of folk science, much of which was later proven to be rooted in fact through scientific testing.

Within this era when the science behind digestion remained mysterious, creatine was an unseen, unidentified agent acting behind the scenes in several physiological processes, and which was only understood with respect to observations of individuals, cultures, and societies. Despite centuries of invisibility, creatine was still performing its valuable work, and societies tended to prioritize the acquisition of  foods that contained creatine even when they didn’t realize it was present, or precisely what it was doing for them.

Who acquired the most creatine?

In modern times, it is broadly understood that sources of animal protein are the most abundant wellsprings of creatine. In practice, this means that individuals or families that regularly consume animal protein in large quantities have the most plentiful natural deposits of creatine stored in their bodies. 

Because of these findings, it can be presumed that these people generally experience the benefits of having higher baseline levels of creatine in their bodies than people who don’t regularly consume meat. These include more rapid muscle repair, a higher reserve of energy for muscle contraction and longevity in sprint-based exercises, and also more ATP in their brains, contributing to cognitive stability, memory retention, and lower incidence of depressive symptoms.

According to the official position stand of the International Society of Sports Nutrition, creatine has also shown promise in several other areas, like injury prevention, thermoregulation, rehabilitation, and concussion protection, with additional studies presently exploring the potential for creatine to mitigate the symptoms of neurodegenerative diseases and other common maladies. [1]

Even though the specific nutrients that promoted the health benefits of meat were invisible for all practical purposes, or at least difficult to quantify, it is apparent that they were grasped in the collective consciousness of communities and tribes. Hunter-gatherer societies sent out organized hunting parties, prioritized and celebrated the acquisition of meat as a special benefit to the community, and often celebrated the hunters as a superior class of laborers whose strength was rightly allocated to an important duty… which in this case was meat procurement.

In these settings, it would have been impossible to separate creatine from its adjacent protein content, and one of the earliest studies of creatine suggests that the human body actually has a preference for consuming protein and creatine together. Researchers found that the body’s ability to retain 5 grams of creatine was amplified by the simultaneous intake of 50 grams of protein. [2] This was in comparison to consuming creatine only alongside different quantities of carbohydrates.

Taking everything into consideration, human understanding of meat’s benefits would have been produced by the combined satisfaction felt from consuming complete protein sources that contained creatine, and which were also packed with vitamins like B12, and minerals like zinc and iron.

Creatine Fuels the Hunt

In a practical sense, successful hunters who had the most frequent access to meat would have been rewarded with thorough muscle repair, providing them with the enhanced strength and stamina that would be required for repeat success. This is established through creatine’s well known capacity to accelerate recovery while supplying the body with a reservoir of energy.

Research reveals how even a single successful hunting expedition could possibly cause a domino effect leading to future successes. In sleep-deprived populations, a single dose of supplemental creatine was able to improve cognitive performance and induce changes in cerebral high-energy phosphates. [3]

In essence, even if the exogenous creatine contained within the meat was insufficient to contribute to lasting muscle recovery, its boost to brain health could conceivably raise the mental sharpness of a hunting party, increasing their chances of future success.

The Societal Benefits of Creatine

Beyond this, on a societal level, provided what we now know about creatine’s unique contribution to female reproductive health, tribes that shared meat resources with their women were likely to have more favorable reproductive outcomes. 

Contemporary reproductive health studies have revealed how energy intensive the female reproductive system is, as well as the likely contribution that creatine makes toward female fertility. [4] Similarly, creatine supplementation also appears to be highly effective at preserving the brain health of the fetus during the gestation period. This underscores the importance of a successful hunt in enabling the women to successfully conceive children and carry them to term.

Moreover, studies have conclusively shown how creatine helps to preserve the muscle mass and bone mass of post-menopausal women. [5] In ancient societies, this would have extended the ability of women to contribute productively to their communities in areas like resource acquisition, food preparation, communal parenting, and several others. Therefore, it’s reasonable to extrapolate that the nutrients contained in meat were able to build strong communities on multiple fronts because of how rejuvenating and healthful they are.

Then there’s the matter of raising healthy children. In a study of more than 4,000 children under the age of 19 years old, it was discovered that creatine intake correlated strongly with the development of a healthy height, weight, and BMI, with the average daily creatine intake sitting at 1.07 grams per day. The study highlighted the finding that every additional 0.1 grams of creatine consumed per day increased the height of the child by 0.3 to 0.6 cm. [6] 

Therefore, when evaluating the development of human societies retroactively, communities that were able to supply children with ample quantities of creatine would have been more likely to produce successive generations that were tall, strong, and healthy.

In light of these modern research findings, it stands to reason that tribes which successfully collected meat (including organ meat) in quantities sufficient to feed everyone in the community would have been rewarded with more favorable comprehensive health outcomes throughout the colony.

The Communal Consequences of Low Protein

Research would later conclude that communities contending with a shortage of meat were forced to contend with a threefold problem linked to the accumulation of sufficient creatine. 

In specific studies of vegetarians conducted centuries later, it was determined that they were already dealing with the downside of failing to consume creatine from exogenous sources. These problems were rapidly remediated once vegetarian study participants were provided supplemental levels of creatine.

It a meta-analysis of studies exploring the benefits of creatine on vegetarians, creatine supplementation by vegetarians “increased total creatine, creatine, and phosphocreatine concentrations in vastus lateralis and gastrocnemius muscle, plasma, and red blood cells, often to levels greater than omnivores.” [7] This resulted in increases to lean muscle mass, insulin-like growth factor-1, muscular strength, muscular endurance, mean power output, and brain function in the study’s vegetarian participants. [7]

Whether intentionally or unintentionally, those who don’t consume meat have lower creatine on average than those who do. Furthermore, the absence of protein from animal-sources often contributed to a critical lack of amino acids present in animal proteins — like methionine — that are required for the body to synthesize its own creatine.  [7]

Already, groups incapable of acquiring meat would have been more prone to the limitations imposed by a lack of certain vitamins and minerals that are often more plentiful in animal sources, like vitamin B, calcium, zinc, and iron. 

In an era prior to the creation of special vegan protein blends specifically crafted to address the shortages of the precise amino acids that are vital for muscle building — like leucine, lysine, methionine, and threonine — unsuccessful hunters would have experienced lower levels of muscle recovery. 

In essence, failing to gather enough meat to feed a community deprived the population of the most plentiful sources of creatine and protein, along with the amino acids necessary for the body to synthesize its own creatine. Therefore, failing to gather meat could result in a ripple effect that would spread throughout a civilization.

Creatine From Other Sources

For what it’s worth, the gathering side of the hunter-gatherer equation had the capacity to acquire a substantial amount of nutrient resources that could have been naturally converted into creatine within the body. However, without the knowledge of which amino acids were contained within what foods, and what ratios they were required in, it would have been a total crapshoot as far as consuming the proper ratio of food required to craft creatine is concerned.

The specific formula required for naturally creating creatine is glycine, arginine, and methionine. Glycine can be acquired from leafy greens and seeds, arginine can be gathered from nuts, seeds, legumes, and whole grains, and methionine can likewise be ingested through seeds, beans, lentils, and whole grains.

Contemporary vegan protein blends have helped to solve some of these problems. Test subjects who have consumed modern protein blends that seek to replicate the amino acid balance naturally found in animal protein sources have experienced similar increases to strength and lean muscle mass as the groups who received animal protein. [8]

Again, as simple as it sounds to gather all of these nutrient resources in a modern supermarket, nomadic cultures would have had difficulty consistently acquiring all of the food sources necessary to synthesize creatine. Consequently, the meat supplied through hunting would have served as a comprehensive source of necessary creatine, along with the protein consumed through the same source.

Evaluating these practices through modern eyes, it makes sense that human groups that were successful in acquiring meat on a regular basis, and distributing it throughout their families were far more likely to have future hunting success, along with better reproductive outcomes, and possibly better collective cognitive function.

Invisible and Effective

With a contemporary, research-backed understanding of how creatine functions — especially when combined with protein — it’s evident why community access to meat could act as a propellant toward future success by boosting the productivity of the hunting specialists, and also improving health outcomes throughout the society when meat was able to be apportioned to community members of all ages and genders.

In short, creatine was one of several ingredients that could sustain the productivity of adults as they performed crucial tasks, while reinforcing the reproductive success potential of women, and amplifying the physical and mental development potential of children. This is all the more reason to ensure your own consumption of creatine now that its role as an amplifier of holistic health has been revealed, with new benefits discovered in each passing year.

Sources

1. Kreider, R. B., Kalman, D. S., Antonio, J., Ziegenfuss, T. N., Wildman, R., Collins, R., … Lopez, H. L. (2017). International Society of Sports Nutrition position stand: safety and efficacy of creatine supplementation in exercise, sport, and medicine. Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition, 14(1).

2. Steenge GR, Simpson EJ, Greenhaff PL. Protein- and carbohydrate-induced augmentation of whole body creatine retention in humans. J Appl Physiol (1985). 2000 Sep;89(3):1165-71. doi: 10.1152/jappl.2000.89.3.1165. PMID: 10956365.

3. Gordji-Nejad, A., Matusch, A., Kleedörfer, S. et al. Single dose creatine improves cognitive performance and induces changes in cerebral high energy phosphates during sleep deprivation. Sci Rep 14, 4937 (2024).

4. Muccini AM, Tran NT, de Guingand DL, Philip M, Della Gatta PA, Galinsky R, Sherman LS, Kelleher MA, Palmer KR, Berry MJ, Walker DW, Snow RJ, Ellery SJ. Creatine Metabolism in Female Reproduction, Pregnancy and Newborn Health. Nutrients. 2021 Feb 2;13(2):490. doi: 10.3390/nu13020490. PMID: 33540766; PMCID: PMC7912953.

5. Smith-Ryan AE, Cabre HE, Eckerson JM, Candow DG. Creatine Supplementation in Women's Health: A Lifespan Perspective. Nutrients. 2021 Mar 8;13(3):877. doi: 10.3390/nu13030877. PMID: 33800439; PMCID: PMC7998865.

6. Korovljev D, Stajer V, Ostojic SM. Relationship between Dietary Creatine and Growth Indicators in Children and Adolescents Aged 2-19 Years: A Cross-Sectional Study. Nutrients. 2021 Mar 23;13(3):1027. doi: 10.3390/nu13031027. PMID: 33806719; PMCID: PMC8004759.

7. Kaviani M, Shaw K, Chilibeck PD. Benefits of Creatine Supplementation for Vegetarians Compared to Omnivorous Athletes: A Systematic Review. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2020 Apr 27;17(9):3041. doi: 10.3390/ijerph17093041. PMID: 32349356; PMCID: PMC7246861.

8. Santini MH, Erwig Leitão A, Mazzolani BC, Smaira FI, de Souza MSC, Santamaria A, Gualano B, Roschel H. Similar effects between animal-based and plant-based protein blend as complementary dietary protein on muscle adaptations to resistance training: findings from a randomized clinical trial. J Int Soc Sports Nutr. 2025 Dec;22(1):2568047. doi: 10.1080/15502783.2025.2568047. Epub 2025 Oct 8. PMID: 41059835; PMCID: PMC12509290.