Universal Nutrition was the first company to introduce chewable creatine supplements, and the ANIMAL lineup includes great tasting and convenient supplement chews that cover you before, during and after your workout. Now that so many other companies are also doing it, I thought it would be helpful to explain how to evaluate this popular format.
When it comes to the characteristics of a great supplement, it’s a multifactorial matter. As is the case with so many things in life, a product can excel in a single area but still fail to be a product that you or I find helpful. Over the course of almost 30 years, both as a consumer of supplements and as someone working within the industry, I’ve seen a lot of products come and go. I’ve seen products with incredible formulations that never took off just as I’ve seen products become wildly popular despite a less than stellar formulation.
Supplements are a lot like gyms; the determination as to whether one is “good” or not depends on its ability to check enough of the right boxes.
- First and foremost, formulation is a key factor; we need a product to contain effective ingredients in efficacious doses, that does what is claims to do. Large amounts of ineffective ingredients are no more useful that small amounts of highly effective ingredients.
- Second, the product must be useable. The only way a product can be effective is if you actually consume it! Practicality, ease of use and flavor are key players. If it’s a real pain to prep and tastes bad I’m going to move on to something else.
- Once consumed, a product must be reasonably easy to digest and assimilate. A product can boast a great formula, be easy to consume and still fall short because the bioavailability is poor.
- Lastly, a product cannot be cost prohibitive! The most effective, most enjoyable product doesn’t help anyone if it is unaffordable. And in this regard, I look at value – how much am I getting for my dollar.
Now that we’ve identified the key components of a great product, I want to introduce you to a lineup of products that tick ALL off these boxes: ANIMAL Performance Chews.
ANIMAL Creatine Chews, ANIMAL Energy Chews and ANIMAL Recovery Chews all feature high quality formulas that come in great tasting, rapidly absorbed, chewable tablets that can be brought anywhere and taken on demand without any mixing or additional equipment or accessories. Literally, all you need are ANIMAL Chews and a mouth to put them in. It’s a balance between efficacy and practicality; oh and did I mention the fact that chews won’t break the bank? All are highly effective and affordable.
"They’ve done a hell of a job with the ANIMAL Chews lineup and it’s not just me who thinks so; I’ve seen more gym bags and cup holders loaded with Chews in the past few months."
Additionally, each formulation is easily customizable so that you can tailor fit your dosing to fit your individual needs. For example, each tablet of ANIMAL Creatine Chews has 1.25g of creatine. Nothing says that you must stick to the standard 5g of creatine per serving. Just the same, when it comes to energy supplements you may prefer more or less kick; chews make it easy to get the exact dose you prefer. And I would be remiss if I didn’t call out ANIMAL Recovery’s unique combination of key aminos and electrolytes.
ANIMAL recognizes that in our fast-paced world we cannot sacrifice quality and efficacy for convenience, while putting in extra care creating great tasting flavors that fit your lifestyle and your budget. Much respect to ANIMAL for making pre, intra and post training supplementation an absolute no-brainer.
