While a majority of supplements can be a total waste of money at best, and harmful to your health at worst – they’re are still a few supplements that can be useful for the young athlete.
Greens Powder
Kids don’t always like to eat their fruits and veggies, and sometimes this carries on as they get older.
Greens powder is simply powdered vegetables and fruits that can mix easily into any liquid.
While most people would think to use a multi-vitamin, a greens powder is better because it provides you with what you’re actually missing out on: fruits and veggies.
Plus, we have yet to see a kid or teenager who eats too many fruits and vegetables.
Protein Powder
Becoming faster, stronger, and more athletic requires a protein-rich diet – there’s no getting around it. Without it, you cannot expect to recover properly.
All it takes is eating generous amounts of protein-rich foods: eggs, meats, seafood, dairy, etc. The problem is that these foods are incredibly filling and, in the case of meats/eggs/seafood, take time to prepare.
Protein powders derived from dairy or even vegan sources or suitable if one’s time or appetite makes getting enough protein a challenge.
Creatine
Creatine’s generated some controversy over the years, but the fact stands that it is one of the safest, most widely researched performance supplements on the market.
Examine.com – the leading independent analysts of supplement safety and effectiveness, had this to say:
“Creatine is a molecule produced in the body, where it stores high-energy phosphate groups in the form of phosphocreatine. During periods of stress, phosphocreatine releases energy to aid cellular function. This is what causes strength increases after creatine supplementation, but this action can also aid the brain, bones, muscles, and liver. Most of the benefits of creatine are provided through this mechanism.
“Creatine supplementation confers a variety of health benefits, notably neuroprotective and cardioprotective.”
“By all definitions, creatine is not a steroid. If anything, due to creatine’s importance in a cell and prominence in some foods it is more like an essential vitamin or mineral than a steroid.”
“Does creatine cause kidney problems? For those with healthy kidneys: No … even with one kidney, creatine had no negative effect on the kidneys. This is a topic that has been replicated numerous times in different populations by different researchers, and yet not a single peer-reviewed study or case report has surfaced where creatine is the causative factor behind kidney damage.”
For more information, check out Examine.com’s expansive resource page on creatine.
So before you try any supplements, make sure you look into these three, as they are the safest & most effective products that you can start taking.
