What Foods Contain Creatine? Meat, Fish and the Truth About Eggs

Creatine is stored in muscle, so the foods that contain it are muscle: meat and fish. Oily fish such as herring and salmon and red meats such as beef and pork carry the most, roughly 0.3 to 1 g per 100 g raw. Poultry has a little less. Eggs, dairy, fruit, vegetables, grains, nuts and beans contain essentially none, because none of them is muscle tissue. A typical meat-eater takes in about 1 to 2 g a day this way; a vegetarian takes in almost nothing. Reaching the 3 to 5 g a day used in the research from food alone would mean eating close to a kilogram of beef every day, which is why supplements exist.

• Highest: herring, then pork, beef, salmon and tuna
• Some: cod, chicken, lamb, other meat and fish
• Essentially none: eggs, milk, cheese, bananas, any plant food
• Two eggs: a few milligrams at most, which rounds to zero
• Cooking: destroys some creatine, more at high heat and long times

What food is highest in creatine?

Herring, on the standard figures, at around 0.65 to 1 g per 100 g of raw fish. The values below come from the reference review that most of the sports-nutrition literature still relies on, and from a direct measurement of raw fish flesh.^{1, 2} They are for raw weight; cooking reduces them, which is covered further down. Food intake matters because what creatine does depends on how full your muscle store is.

The right-hand column is the point. Even the richest sources need a third of a kilogram or more to supply the 3 g a day that fills muscle stores over a month.³ That is a possible diet for a herring enthusiast and not for most people.

Evidence: moderate. The food figures are well established but come from a small number of analyses, and individual cuts vary.

How much creatine is in 2 eggs?

Essentially none. An egg is not muscle; it is a yolk, white and shell, and creatine is made and stored in muscle. Published analyses put eggs at a trace level, well under 10 mg per 100 g, so two large eggs weighing about 120 g together contain a few milligrams at most.¹ A 3 g supplement dose is several hundred times that. Eggs are an excellent source of protein and provide the amino acids your body uses to make its own creatine, which may be where the idea comes from, but they do not provide creatine itself.

Do bananas have creatine?

No. No fruit does, and no vegetable, grain, bean, nut or seed. Plant foods contain no creatine at all, because plants have no muscle.⁴ Bananas are a fine source of carbohydrate and potassium, and that is all the overlap with creatine there is: carbohydrate eaten alongside a creatine dose slightly improves how much is retained. Taking creatine with food is covered here.

Which foods are rich in creatine for vegetarians?

None, and that answer matters. Vegetarians who eat no fish or meat obtain almost no creatine from food, and vegans none, so their stores run lower than meat-eaters'.^{4, 5} In a Canadian trial that measured it directly, vegetarians' muscle creatine was about 10% lower than non-vegetarians' before supplementing.⁶ Dairy and eggs do not close the gap.

The body compensates partly by making more of its own creatine, about a gram a day from the amino acids arginine, glycine and methionine, which plant proteins do supply. But synthesis does not fully replace dietary intake, which is why the gap shows up in muscle biopsies.

Creatine monohydrate itself is made synthetically, not from animals, so supplements are suitable for vegans. Check the capsule or gummy ingredients, since gelatin is sometimes used as a setting agent; pectin-set gummies and plain powder are vegan.

Why do vegetarians and vegans respond more to creatine?

Because the emptier the store, the more room there is to fill. In the Canadian trial, vegetarians who took creatine during eight weeks of weight training gained more muscle creatine, more lean tissue and more total work capacity than meat-eaters who took it.⁶ A systematic review of nine studies found the same pattern: supplementing raised vegetarians' muscle and blood creatine, often to levels above omnivores', and improved lean mass, strength and some measures of brain function; whether the performance gains were bigger than in omnivores was mixed.⁵

The dose is the same as for anyone, 3 to 5 g a day. How to pick your dose is here. For someone eating no meat or fish, this is one of the few supplements with a clear nutritional rationale rather than a marketing one.

Does cooking destroy creatine?

Some of it. Heat converts creatine to creatinine, a waste product, and the hotter and longer the cooking, the more is lost. A 2025 laboratory analysis of creatine under stress found temperature the biggest single driver of its breakdown.⁷ In fish fried at around 200°C, researchers measured creatine falling and creatinine rising as part of the chemistry that also forms the browned, charred compounds on the surface.²

Practically, a rare steak keeps more creatine than a well-done one, and a poached fillet keeps more than a charred one. But cooking does not remove it all, and the difference is not large enough to change how you cook. Nobody should eat undercooked meat for the sake of a few hundred milligrams of creatine.

How much creatine do you get from a normal diet?

About 1 to 2 g a day if you eat meat or fish most days, close to zero if you do not.⁴ Your body makes roughly another gram, and you lose about 2 g a day as creatinine in urine, so an omnivore's stores sit roughly steady at two-thirds full.¹ Supplementing is the only practical way to take them to the ceiling. If you want a measured 3 g or 5 g daily without the herring, that is what a supplement is for; our gummies deliver 3 g per serving and our Peach Perfect powder delivers 5 g per scoop.

What we don't know

• Precise values for every cut and species. The reference table rests on a small number of analyses, mostly decades old. Modern surveys of UK supermarket meat and fish do not exist.
• Exactly how much cooking loses. Measured in a few foods under laboratory conditions, not across normal home cooking.
• Whether dietary creatine and supplemental creatine behave identically. Almost certainly, since it is the same molecule, but food creatine arrives with protein and fat and has not been compared head to head.

Frequently asked questions

What foods are high in creatine?

Herring, pork, beef, salmon and tuna, at roughly 0.45 to 1 g per 100 g raw. Chicken and white fish have less. Nothing else has any worth counting.^{1, 2}

Can I get enough creatine from food alone?

Enough to keep your stores at their normal level, yes, if you eat meat or fish daily. Enough to fill them to the level the trials used, no, not without eating a kilogram of beef a day.

Is there creatine in milk or cheese?

A trace in milk, about 0.01 g per 100 ml, and little in cheese. Dairy is not a meaningful source.¹

Does protein powder contain creatine?

Not unless it has been added. Whey is a milk protein and contains only a trace. Check the label; some blends include creatine and say so.

Sources

1. Balsom PD, Söderlund K, Ekblom B. Creatine in humans with special reference to creatine supplementation. Sports Medicine, 1994. PubMed 7817065.
2. Marsh NL, Iwaoka WT, Mower HF. Formation of mutagens during the frying of Hawaiian fish: correlation with creatine and creatinine content. Mutation Research, 1990. PubMed 2270090.
3. Hultman E, Söderlund K, Timmons JA, Cederblad G, Greenhaff PL. Muscle creatine loading in men. Journal of Applied Physiology, 1996. PubMed 8828669.
4. Ostojic SM. The evolving role of creatine in public health: from food-based nutrient to supplement and beyond. Public Health Nutrition, 2025. PubMed 41243431.
5. Kaviani M, Shaw K, Chilibeck PD. Benefits of creatine supplementation for vegetarians compared to omnivorous athletes: a systematic review. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 2020. PubMed 32349356.
6. Burke DG, Chilibeck PD, Parise G, Candow DG, Mahoney D, Tarnopolsky M. Effect of creatine and weight training on muscle creatine and performance in vegetarians. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, 2003. PubMed 14600563.
7. Saiki PY, Sales GM, de Oliveira AN, Catharino RR. Multi-analytical characterization of creatine degradation for dietary supplement safety assessment. Food Research International, 2025. PubMed 41214971.

This article is general information, not medical advice. If you have a medical condition or take regular medication, check with your GP or pharmacist before starting creatine.