Creatine Is Not a Steroid, Trust Me
After being one of the first few eliminated from a Texas Hold 'em tournament (a sad story by itself) and thus being forced into the winter cold to search for beer, it happened again. There were a few of us in the car and the topic of conversation turned to Barry Bonds and the impact of the steroid scandal on baseball's sacred records. And then it was brought up that Bonds wasn't the only one - there was McGwire.
"But McGwire didn't admit to steroids, just prohormones and creatine," I volunteered.
After a short pause to digest this information, the comment that I have come to expect in such conversations came forth:
"Yeah, but creatine, that's the same thing."
I paused and counted to ten, hoping that someone else would step forward and correct this misstatement. If it had at least been said that prohormones were the same thing as steroids and creatine was left out of it, if this wasn't an untruth I had heard uttered 100 times before, I wouldn't have been so ticked (and perhaps if I hadn't just gone out of a poker game to an ace-high flush while holding a king-high flush, I wouldn't have been so ticked).
To say prohormones are the same as steroids is also wrong but at least it has an arguable base. How creatine continually gets considered one and the same is beyond me.
"Creatine is not a steroid, trust me," I said when it became apparent the rest of the car load was content to accept the ridiculous assertion. I then proceeded into a lengthy lecture on the differences between anabolic steroids, prohormones and creatine until I was blue in the face and even annoying myself.
The reply to my rambling seemed to be quiet acceptance (anything to shut me up - it isn't a good idea to get "technical" with a car full of guys who really just want to find beer). Searching for something to punctuate my lecture, something to make a lasting impression, something to drive home my points, I mistakenly added...
"Heck, even I have taken creatine."
It wasn't until later that I realized that my last comment would have far-reaching implications. Forever more, every time I hit a homerun in my beer-belly softball league there will be an invisible asterisk placed beside it. There will be whispers behind my back, "Hey, he took creatine." Forget the fact that taking a creatine supplement is more akin to taking a daily vitamin (no asterisks for Centrum) than an illegal performance enhancing drug.
Bonds and I will have something in common here: the whispers and asterisks. Of course, one thing we will never have in common (other then being able to hit a curveball) is the ability to mistake flaxseed oil for HGH.
In the end, people get something in their heads and when it stays there long enough, no matter how wrong it may be, it becomes pretty hard to dislodge. In more sane moments I realize that the fact that most people may think that creatine is a steroid is not the world's most pressing problems. I don't intend to become a creatine evangelist. I just wish people wouldn't say it was so just after I went out of a poker game with a hand that should have made me rich.
JP Clifford
"But McGwire didn't admit to steroids, just prohormones and creatine," I volunteered.
After a short pause to digest this information, the comment that I have come to expect in such conversations came forth:
"Yeah, but creatine, that's the same thing."
I paused and counted to ten, hoping that someone else would step forward and correct this misstatement. If it had at least been said that prohormones were the same thing as steroids and creatine was left out of it, if this wasn't an untruth I had heard uttered 100 times before, I wouldn't have been so ticked (and perhaps if I hadn't just gone out of a poker game to an ace-high flush while holding a king-high flush, I wouldn't have been so ticked).
To say prohormones are the same as steroids is also wrong but at least it has an arguable base. How creatine continually gets considered one and the same is beyond me.
"Creatine is not a steroid, trust me," I said when it became apparent the rest of the car load was content to accept the ridiculous assertion. I then proceeded into a lengthy lecture on the differences between anabolic steroids, prohormones and creatine until I was blue in the face and even annoying myself.
The reply to my rambling seemed to be quiet acceptance (anything to shut me up - it isn't a good idea to get "technical" with a car full of guys who really just want to find beer). Searching for something to punctuate my lecture, something to make a lasting impression, something to drive home my points, I mistakenly added...
"Heck, even I have taken creatine."
It wasn't until later that I realized that my last comment would have far-reaching implications. Forever more, every time I hit a homerun in my beer-belly softball league there will be an invisible asterisk placed beside it. There will be whispers behind my back, "Hey, he took creatine." Forget the fact that taking a creatine supplement is more akin to taking a daily vitamin (no asterisks for Centrum) than an illegal performance enhancing drug.
Bonds and I will have something in common here: the whispers and asterisks. Of course, one thing we will never have in common (other then being able to hit a curveball) is the ability to mistake flaxseed oil for HGH.
In the end, people get something in their heads and when it stays there long enough, no matter how wrong it may be, it becomes pretty hard to dislodge. In more sane moments I realize that the fact that most people may think that creatine is a steroid is not the world's most pressing problems. I don't intend to become a creatine evangelist. I just wish people wouldn't say it was so just after I went out of a poker game with a hand that should have made me rich.
JP Clifford
posted by JP Clifford at 6:00 AM
1 Comments:
I generally find people who are struggling to consume their calorie intake do so because the limit they've set being too high. For example, I see many programs advocating a 500-1000 surplus where as if they set their limits lower, say between 250-350, they would find eating their surplus easier but most importantly, less fat gains and a shorter time spent cutting.
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