Muscle Milk: Throw it Out

I put this in a previous post to overdrive 23, but thought that people may not have gotten to read it since a lot of people had already posted an answer to him, so Im re-posting it.

I used to use Muscle Milk all the time. It tastes great and has decent numbers, but Ive stopped using it as of late because of an article here on T-mag. In the article “The Naked Truth - Dangerous Creatine” by David J. Barr he talks about G-Amine, which is in Muscle Milk. In the article it states…

“But wait, there’s MORE! Order now and you’ll get another potentially dangerous ingredient for free!” One particular supplement (“SWOLE”) combines GPA with another potentially dangerous substance known as Glycocyamine (G-amine). Sadly, G-amine (also known as guanidinoacetate) has been picked up by a few different supplement companies who obviously don’t do any research on what they’re getting people to ingest.

The reason G-amine is so popular (from a marketing standpoint, not from the consumers) is because it is the precursor to creatine. Just like Testosterone can come from andro, creatine comes from G-amine. The theory is that you jack up G-amine levels and you get a whole bunch more creatine. The really asinine part is that, you can just directly take creatine!

Unfortunately, consuming this chemical seems to have the undesirable effect of elevating blood levels of a substance called homocysteine, which is a very strong risk factor for cardiovascular disease (Stead et al., 2001). Cardiovascular disease is easily the number one killer in the Western World, and the last thing we need to do is increase our risk for it. Conversely, taking creatine decreases homocysteine levels, raising even more therapeutic possibilities for this supplement. As if to spit on your grave, if you?re supplementing with creatine, G-amine may also decrease its uptake by muscles (Zugno et al., 2003)."

Take this information however you want. As for me, I threw out my Muscle Milk, and wont touch anything with these ingredients in them. I also dont want to touch anything from a company that doesnt do enough research on what they’re putting into their products. Now I just stick to Grow!. I know that Biotest looks into what they put into their products and I trust them.
Personally I’d rather have a healthy heart than a good tasting protein.

Ingredients of Muscle Milk:
www.bodyarmorpt.com/Suppmain.htm

Muscle Milk tries to disguise the G-Amine by calling it EndoCreatine.

Good catch! I never used this stuff because last time I checked it was C+F, basically mixing fats and too much sugar. But I never caught the other stuff. Thanks!

MurrDawg,

Glad to see you re-posted this information!

I have seen this milk called Whey Improved Milk, it is meant to taste like the real thing. Have not tried it though

It is fat free, sugar free has only 2g carbs per serving and the protein is made up of whey isloate & whey concentrate. No soy in included in the ingredients

Looks alright in terms of nutrition value

IT’S BREAKFAST CANDY, kids…

jaystyles

Nice catch Dawg!

Good post, I dont take creatine but people tend to come to me for nutritional advice sometimes, so is there anyplace or way to get creatien without the G-Amino in it?

[quote]MurrDawg wrote:
I put this in a previous post to overdrive 23, but thought that people may not have gotten to read it since a lot of people had already posted an answer to him, so Im re-posting it.

I used to use Muscle Milk all the time. It tastes great and has decent numbers, but Ive stopped using it as of late because of an article here on T-mag. In the article “The Naked Truth - Dangerous Creatine” by David J. Barr he talks about G-Amine, which is in Muscle Milk. In the article it states…

“But wait, there’s MORE! Order now and you’ll get another potentially dangerous ingredient for free!” One particular supplement (“SWOLE”) combines GPA with another potentially dangerous substance known as Glycocyamine (G-amine). Sadly, G-amine (also known as guanidinoacetate) has been picked up by a few different supplement companies who obviously don’t do any research on what they’re getting people to ingest.

The reason G-amine is so popular (from a marketing standpoint, not from the consumers) is because it is the precursor to creatine. Just like Testosterone can come from andro, creatine comes from G-amine. The theory is that you jack up G-amine levels and you get a whole bunch more creatine. The really asinine part is that, you can just directly take creatine!

Unfortunately, consuming this chemical seems to have the undesirable effect of elevating blood levels of a substance called homocysteine, which is a very strong risk factor for cardiovascular disease (Stead et al., 2001). Cardiovascular disease is easily the number one killer in the Western World, and the last thing we need to do is increase our risk for it. Conversely, taking creatine decreases homocysteine levels, raising even more therapeutic possibilities for this supplement. As if to spit on your grave, if you?re supplementing with creatine, G-amine may also decrease its uptake by muscles (Zugno et al., 2003)."

Take this information however you want. As for me, I threw out my Muscle Milk, and wont touch anything with these ingredients in them. I also dont want to touch anything from a company that doesnt do enough research on what they’re putting into their products. Now I just stick to Grow!. I know that Biotest looks into what they put into their products and I trust them.
Personally I’d rather have a healthy heart than a good tasting protein.

Ingredients of Muscle Milk:
www.bodyarmorpt.com/Suppmain.htm

Muscle Milk tries to disguise the G-Amine by calling it EndoCreatine.[/quote]

Better throw out all of your red meat too then bro…

[quote]KingsRevenge wrote:
Good post, I dont take creatine but people tend to come to me for nutritional advice sometimes, so is there anyplace or way to get creatien without the G-Amino in it?[/quote]

Take another look at what was posted. G-Amine is a precursor to creatine and causes risk of cardiovascular disease. Creatine does NOT carry that risk and does NOT have G-Amine. Using the Andro and Test example again: Andro is a precursor to Test, but that doesn’t mean that if you take Test you will find Andro in it, just as you won’t find G-Amine in Creatine. Hope I was clear.

I only resurrect this post, because I was researching proteins. Basically, I’m forced to find a good alternative to Biotest, since they seem to be having difficulty keeping their coveted protein supply in stock. I’ve had a lot of people in the gym and professional recommend Muscle Milk. Looks like the protein and fats are good, but I’ll need to research more on the glycocyamine.

What else are we supposed to do, when our pushers are out of stock?

Good post. Are there any people who actually died from the use of “SWOLE” or “MUSCLE MILK” or who have regressed in their training? I, regretfully, took “SWOLE” along w/“MUSCLE MILK” for 2 full months about 6 months ago, not knowing the dangers, and I recieved better than average gains.

[quote]jackzepplin wrote:
I’ve had a lot of people in the gym and professional recommend Muscle Milk. Looks like the protein and fats are good, but I’ll need to research more on the glycocyamine.
[/quote]

Only if you want a bunch of canola oil thrown in with your protein. There are far better fats to add to protein drinks if you want a significant amount of fat in your protein drink.

It’s all marketing. Lean lipids my ass.

Life is simple when you just stick with CLASSIC Grow!

:slight_smile:

thanks for the post, i bought some becuase I had ran out of protein powder and needed something like that day,
I wont buy that again

[quote]Lift4Life wrote:
Good post. Are there any people who actually died from the use of “SWOLE” or “MUSCLE MILK” or who have regressed in their training? I, regretfully, took “SWOLE” along w/“MUSCLE MILK” for 2 full months about 6 months ago, not knowing the dangers, and I recieved better than average gains. [/quote]

Your logic is flawed.

One can make gain despite many negative factors. However, just because gains were made doesn’t mean that the negative factors didn’t exist.

A better question is ‘why would someone want to purchase these products once they are aware of these issues?’

lol didn’t realize I was responding to a 2 year old post.

Good info anyway. Thanks for bumping this.

[quote]MODOK wrote:
Just a FYI…many, many things are known homocysteine elevators.[/quote]

Like stressing out over things that may raise homocysteine levels?

[quote]MODOK wrote:
Just a FYI…many, many things are known homocysteine elevators.[/quote]

Good point, so it’s probably not a good idea to go out of one’s way to consume a supplement that has even more.

It’s pretty interesting I must admit. However, I think I’ll still order the occasional tub because it tastes so good. It’s also great for bulking when you mix it with milk.

Monopoly

[quote]ChrisKing wrote:
Lift4Life wrote:
Good post. Are there any people who actually died from the use of “SWOLE” or “MUSCLE MILK” or who have regressed in their training? I, regretfully, took “SWOLE” along w/“MUSCLE MILK” for 2 full months about 6 months ago, not knowing the dangers, and I recieved better than average gains.

Your logic is flawed.

One can make gain despite many negative factors. However, just because gains were made doesn’t mean that the negative factors didn’t exist.

A better question is ‘why would someone want to purchase these products once they are aware of these issues?’[/quote]

I was just pointing out that my training did not regress while on “SWOLE”. My logic is not flawed, people still take steroids are they healthy in all instances?..what is the difference here? I do believe people can rationalize taking a supplement that causes negative effects.

(This is all for arguement’s sake, I do not use “SWOLE” or “MUSCLE MILK” anymore, after what I’ve read)