FTV Are supplements worth the money? Part 1; Protein, Creatine, vitamins and Bladder supplements

From the vault this week, before I do a full episode on the state of postpartum care in the UK next week,

In a 2 part episode I am discussing some of the supplements that you might have seen promoted online. 
Week after next I'll cover NMN, NAD, CBD etc but this week I'm focusing on supplements much more common in the health and fitness world;

Protein, Creatine, Vitamins and some bladder supplements (like Jude).

Are they safe, even pre and postpartum?

Are they useful?

Are the more expensive ones really better than cheaper version?

Are there alternatives?

IOW, should YOU be taking them or are you better off saving your money.

As always; HPNB only has 5 billing cycles.

So this means that you not only get 3 months FREE access, no obligation!

BUT, if you decide you want to do the rest of the program, after only 5 months of paying $10/£8 a month you now get FREE LIFE TIME ACCESS! That's $50 max spend, in case you were wondering.

Though I'm not terribly active on  Instagram and Facebook you can follow us there. I am however active on Threads so find me there!


Visit healthypostnatalbody.com and get 3 months completely FREE access. No sales, no commitment, no BS.

Email peter@healthypostnatalbody.com if you have any questions, comments or want to suggest a guest/topic      

Playing us out; "Fallout" by CJ Oliver

Transcript

Welcome And What’s Coming

Peter 0:00

Hey, welcome to the healthy post Natal Body Podcast. With your host Peter Lap That As always, would be me. This is a podcast for the 5th of April 2026. Still 2026. And it's Easter. It's Easter Sunday. That's what that is. I hope you're well. Peter at healthypostnatal Body.com if you have any questions and comments and all that type of stuff. Last week I did a new QA. Next week I'm doing a whole episode on the state of postpartum care in the UK. Where it's working, where it isn't working, what should be improved, in my opinion. Why it needs to be freely available on the NHS and all that sort of stuff. All that sort of thing. I've heard tons of stories over the last few weeks from people that have been done a little bit by the system. So I'm going to offer some solutions. This week, from the vault, we're doing an episode on supplementation. This is part one. I will do part two, bring that back the week after next. And that'll be the NMN one. This is about protein and creatine and all that sort of stuff. Do you need the supplements? Should you buy them? Is the hype are are they worth the hype? Can you maybe just get all this stuff from food? You know what the answer is gonna be, right? So without further ado, it's quite a good episode, but without further ado, here we go. And I am surrounded by everybody I pay a mortgage for, or at least, you know, all the fluffies I pay a mortgage for. Um so if you hear any snoring in the background, that's what that is. I hope you are all well, and I hope you're crushing it. To be honest, again, once again, I am under a little bit of time pressure, but I promised you, I promised you I would do uh my two-parter on on supplement this week. Um to make it myself a bit easier for myself, instead of doing the NMN one this week and the NAD one this week, I've decided to do the protein, the creatine, uh, the vitamin one this week because that is a lot more straightforward. It's also, to be honest, probably the one you're most interested in. Because, you know, within certain circles, uh NMN is discussed a lot, and NAD plus and all that type of stuff is discussed a lot. But for most of the people that uh most of the things I get emails about tend to be focused around uh around protein supplementation um and creatine and and and all that type of stuff. Um so that's that's what we're starting with. Let's start with let's start with protein, right? One of the questions I get asked quite a lot is should I be taking a protein supplement? I am concerned I'm not getting enough protein. Should I should I be buying a protein share uh protein shake? You know, should I um eat more protein? Should I get more protein in in my diet, like everybody tells me to? Uh, and if I want a supplement, what what should I do now? If that most of the conversations tend to go along along those lines. Now, protein is as you well know, because we've we've we've mentioned it before, you know, you have uh your free macro, uh macronutrients, your proteins, your fats, and your carbohydrates. And and so it's just one of those, right? You can get it from food, you you get it from food. Um, most people in in there's a large trend. Now, I spoke about this before. I might link to that episode if I can find it. The a lot of people in the health and fitness industry are now talking about taking one gram of protein per pound of body weight on a daily basis. Um there is, in my opinion, this has always been the case, and it's very much for uh, as in this has always been the case, that this has been my opinion. Uh not that this has always been the case that you need to take that much. I think for most people who are not professional athletes or and who don't train like bodybuilders or for hypertrophia, bigger muscles, and all that sort of stuff, if you're not that active, I don't see any reason why you would need to hit one gram of protein per pound of body weight. So a hundred-pound person doesn't need to take in a hundred grams of protein. Um there is, and again, last time I touched on this, I touched on a study that showed that um 0.6 to 0.8 grams of protein per pound of body weight was actually beneficial. That has just been rounded up to the one gram per pound. And I think that's a terrible way of doing business because all of a sudden you've increased that margin by 25%, right? Even if you needed 0.8 grams per pound of body weight, now you're at a gram. That is 25% more. We wouldn't do that with anything else, uh, as far as that I know of. If you have any uh any idea of another supplement, you say, Yeah, just take 25% more. It's all the same, the benefits will still be the same, send me an email, Peter at healthypostnatalbody.com. Or send us a text on that text thing that you can now do. Right. So you don't need that much. But if you decide that you have, if you set yourself a certain target of protein, and I'm not going to tell you what to take, it's different for everybody. Um, but say you set yourself the target of, I don't know, take it in 100 grams of protein per day, right? And you find that you can't get that from food. You struggle with getting that from food. Uh now I could say there's always a way, obviously, there's always a way to get it from food, but say you're struggling with that. Should you then take a protein supplement? Is it safe to do, etc., etc.? Now, there's a ton of different and what kind of protein supplements should you then take, right? Because it's it is one of the most popular supplements on the market, and you can get it from loads of sources, right? You can get the most common one will be whey protein. Um, and they but soy protein, pea protein, all that type of stuff. You can get a billion different flavors. And you know, as as protein, as far as protein goes, they're basically all fine, they're all safe, right? Assuming you you um go to something that's been created by a normal brand, right? So you're not buying some dodgy stuff from a from a bacali protein dealer or something like that. Um, most protein is is completely fine. Um fine to take, safe to take. There's nothing whatsoever wrong with that. Uh, if you struggle to hit your protein target, you know, any protein supplement will basically be okay. Um, some are more expensive than others, but you know, uh that is usually where things get a little bit funny then. If I look around the supermarket, for instance, um, you know, if I shop at Tesco, you see these big buckets and they all have big alarm tags on them now. Um uh they they can cost like 35 pounds per kilo and and and all that sort of stuff. If you look at um a site like MyProtein, for instance, which is like one of the biggest suppliers of protein um online retailers of supplementation, uh, but especially uh of protein, there's an absolute absolute ton of them. Um on their website now, I'll I'll take the the they they have they have like a discount thing on so that skews the prices a little bit. Um but you know you have things like impact whey protein powder, impact whey isolate powder, vegan protein, essential whey protein. Is one better? You have clear whey protein, clear whey isolate, all that type of stuff. It is all just protein. One isn't necessarily better than the other. Obviously, if you're vegan, you want to buy the vegan one. Um I have seen no reason whatsoever for buying um expensive whey protein, so they do this thing called impact whey um impact whey isolate, which is basically 86% protein, um which is which is really high. Compare that to their impact whey protein, their normal whey protein, um which is 80%. So you know that is that is is marginally better, but you pay significantly more. You pay about about 40-50 percent more. The the essential uh the essential protein is a little bit less that comes in at like 75%. Um 75% um what you call it protein per per serving, right? Because all these things come with scoops and they all have sugar and all that type of stuff in it. Right? The the the carbohydrates in it, the sugars in it, the flavoring in it makes it palatable. Um as anybody will tell you unflavored protein, if you unless you add it to something, is not a particular is not a particularly nice thing to have in like a shake or anything like that. But if you look at the pricings, for instance, on the what they call their impact whey protein, that is uh a kilo is 23 pounds. Uh so that's the 80 uh 80 percent. The essential one is 1.3 kilos for 15. I would always go for the essential one, right? Unless you have specific macros you need to hit. So unless you find that your protein supplement would skew your uh your carb fat and protein split too much, and it really shouldn't, because it it's a supplement, right? So it's all marginal. Um then I don't see any reason to go for what they call the most purest form. Um just means there's a little bit more sugar in in uh a little bit more flavoring in the other one. So it's it's there's very little for me, there's very little benefit. If you just look at the gain a bit of muscle, um hit your protein macro for the day and all that sort of stuff. Just buy the essential whey protein, it's completely fine. Um again, whey is the byproduct of milk, by the way, right? So it's it's it's not it's not vegan. Um they do a vegan protein as well, which you know is from uh just plant-based, it is usually soy or or anything like that. Um you know, it's all fine. Uh in in their case, it's pea and fava bean protein, that's why I got so distracted. Um, so it's yeah, it's all fine. All protein supplements are are basically fine. If you see, by the way, when this is a an interesting bit about most of the air quote special proteins that a lot of fitness coaches sell. Let me put it this way. I get about six or seven emails each year asking me if I want my own supplement range. Right? Most personal trainers that have a supplement range of protein have nothing to do, or supplement range, creatine and protein, all that type of stuff, have nothing to do with the production of this stuff. It just gets done by a central company is to slap a label on it. Right? So, like I said, I get five or six emails at least a year from from supplement companies saying, hey, do you want your own HP and B supplement range? And we can make uh pretty labels on it and you can sell it for a lot of money. It's all the same stuff, and quite often it is exactly the same makeup as the stuff that is cheaper on sites like MyProtein and all that sort of stuff. And you know, I'm not selling anything, right? I'm not gonna give you an affiliate link to my protein or anything like that, but that's why I buy my stuff because they're cheaper. Um I I would not buy things like protein powder at the supermarket, just paying through the nose, just get it from one of the larger sites. I wouldn't buy it from necessarily a small supplier either, unless I know that unless I knew that that supplier makes their own. Unless they make their own, then you can say, ah, I'm supporting small business. But most of the time, you're not really supporting a small business. They're just a label stuck on it. And I think I can't remember what the offer was. I think I feel the last one I think was offering me 25% or something like that. Um I could make like 25% uh margin on on everything I sold, and I had nothing to do with it. I would have had nothing to do. I just throw the website up uh or throw these things up on the website, and and you could then buy it, and I make 25% or something like that. Um so most of the small, those of the small special ones, I know this this I'm not gonna name any names, but there's a lot of popular personal trainers that have a protein line, a supplement line that they actually have nothing to do with. Um that is the same stuff as that you can buy somewhere else uh for less. Speaking of somewhere else for less, creatine. Now, this we've heard a lot of, and creatine is is a funny one. I am a huge fan of creatine supplementation for the people that feel the benefits from it. Um now let me start by saying this. So, first of all, creatine is just a natural source of of energy, right? It basically helps your muscles contract, right? It's a steady supply of energy, so your muscles keep going, especially you know, when you're when you're doing intense exercise, you can keep going a bit longer, you lift a bit heavier, and all that type of stuff. Now, most of your body's uh creatine comes from diet, right? So we're talking uh and most of that comes from animal products. This is why a lot of vegan people can be can be low on on this type of stuff, like creatine. And this is why I'm quite a big fan of supplement, of supplementing. But the benefits of supplementing are actually quite widely found for for for most people, right? So um half of it comes from outside sources, animal products, and the other half gets produced in like your liver and and your your kidneys and and all that type of stuff. Now most of that goes to your skeletal muscle, so it goes to your muscles when you when you exercise, and the other goes to your heart, your brain, and other tissues. And that's quite important because it goes to your heart, your brain, and other bits, right? So the benefits of um creatine are only really just starting to come to the fore. So it's um a lot of people are now with now finding studies. We always knew it worked for for like weightlifting and all that sort of stuff. For 50-60 percent of people had no sort of issues with it, and they really saw a nice benefit from it. Uh, let me put it that way. Um, so most people take it when you know they live heavy bodybuilding, um or normal sports, tennis, that type of stuff. Um obviously, always make sure that whatever you're taking, if you're if you're a professional athlete, you make sure it complains, uh, complies with your with your doping, um with your doping body, like wada and all those sort of guys, right? Um but whether it's safe to take protein is uh safe to protein, sorry, but I'm creatine. Whether it's safe to take creatine is is a slightly trickier one when you're like pregnant and breastfeeding and all that type of stuff, or when you have when you have some illnesses. So I'm just going to talk about it as if you are no longer breastfeeding and you're not pregnant. Uh there is, as far as I can tell, there aren't anywhere near enough studies to say, yeah, it's completely fine to take when you're pregnant or you're breastfeeding. That doesn't mean there is an issue necessarily, but there's a big issue between there's a big difference between things being probably okay and things being proven to be okay, right? A lot of this stuff, well, you know, it's difficult to use pregnant women as test subjects. There are very few uh pregnant women line up to do health uh to uh to do trials on things like uh creating a supplementation when there might be a risk to the baby. So you can imagine that this is a tricky one, and therefore it's really whether we reach the threshold of of knowing for sure that it's safe if you're like breastfeeding or pregnant or anything like that, that will probably be a long time to be met. I also think, like with most supplements, you have to ask yourself, do you need to take it? And most women who are pregnant or breastfeeding don't need to take it. So then you just don't take it, right? Uh so it's not a big one to give up. But if you want to take creatine, there are some benefits um coming to the fore now that show that uh there's some studies that have come out recently that show that creatine supplementation may help with like brain functioning uh and all that sort of stuff. Like I said, 5% of the most of the creatine in your body goes to your muscles, but a lot of but the other 5% or so goes to like your heart and your brain and all that sort of stuff. So it makes sense that supplementing would help with brain health. Um, and there are quite a few studies that that that are coming out now that show that regular supplementation with creatine will help with brain health, including neuroprotection uh and all that sort of stuff. Um they're looking into studies with regards to dementia and all that sort of stuff, but that is miles off from what uh from what I know. Now, like I said, many people take uh take creatine supplementation. It's it's basic, it's as far as I know, nothing is creatine is is completely legal for most um for most uh sports. In most sports. Um I know the IOC is fine with it and all this sort of stuff, just make sure you know you good quality and nice and clean stuff. So the most people find that there is there is a benefit to their athletic ability for sure when when they take creatine. Basically, you perform better in the gym, right? Um makes your recovery a bit easier after uh after, especially after intense exercise, you get a bit more muscle mass. Now, whether that's water retention or not is is a different matter or not, but you know, it it it what causes it doesn't matter if you have more tone, so to speak, if you have more muscle, then you know, there you go. Um some benefits with regards to um I've been shown with regards to like neurodegenerative diseases, you know, Parkinson's, that type of stuff, uh, osteoarthritis, fibromyalgia, all that type of stuff. Um so so there is something to be said for, and I'm being really careful with how I phrase this, which I stumble for this a little bit. Something to be said for almost everybody needing, wanting to take a creatine supplement. Um and I find that uh the best way, assuming you have no, you have no health conditions, right? Always you have no health conditions. Don't come to me and say, Pete told me to take this, even though I have a condition I know that doesn't work. Uh that that doesn't work with creatine. Um now, creatine is cheap. This is one of the reasons I like creatine. Creatine is also one of those things that I see a lot advertised now as saying our creatine is better than my protein. My protein is is the biggest, and I don't want this to sound like an ad for them, but these are the guys that I use. Um A lot of ads are saying that um not um their their creatine is better than the my protein creatine because it's they call it washed or whatever. Listen, creatine is creatine, creatine monohydrate is creatine monohydrate, there is nothing else to it. Everybody who says that their version of it is better than the cheaper version is out of their mind and just lying to you. That is all it is. Like I said, creatine is cheap. Um a hundred grams is like five pounds or something like that. Um let's see what the price for a kilo is. It's yeah, so a kilo, which is a lot, is uh 32 pounds. So it is up 40 bucks or something like that. Um so that is not expensive. You take um now, bodybuilders will sometimes cycle creatine and all that, but that I mean they'll build up the creatine intake and then drop it back down. Normal people really don't need to do it. How much you take kind of depends on on how big you are. Of course, dosage matters. But um, I always used to take five grams of creatine every day. Just every day. It's it's a powder by the powder form. I don't buy gummies because I'm not a child, right? You add it to your if you take uh a protein supplement or you have porridge in the morning, just add it to that. It's a tiny scoop, five grams is is is like a teaspoon, right? And like I said, five grams a day. So in a kilo, you have 200 days worth of 30 pounds, right? So you can imagine you have half a year, and a creatine supplement over the course of half a year will cost you 20 quid. 30 pounds, sorry. So that is 60 quid a year, which is pennies per day, uh, for for a supplement that has been shown to have quite a few, uh quite a few benefits, other than just uh being able to perform a bit better in the gym and all that sort of stuff. Um it's cheap. You don't need to buy gummies or anything like that. If you look at if you look on the on the MyProtein website here, you have impact creatine, which is uh the the 30 30 pounds per uh per kilo one, and then you have gummies, which are 18 18 pounds of gummies for for for gummies, which are 90 gummies. And you know. Yeah, okay, that that lasts you uh last you three months. Uh-huh. Does it take you suggested juice? Six gummies daily. There you go. So you take six of the bloody things. So and you have 90, so that's two weeks, right? That's 50, 15 sorry, days of of creatine for 18 pounds. That's outrageous. Two weeks for 18 pounds. But you can just buy the powder 30 quid for half a year, right? And then they're talking about, you know, there's also crea pure and all that type of stuff. Microdyse creatine capsules or purest creatine monohydrate capsules. 24 245 capsules, so a big box, and again, suggested use uh four a day. So, you know, you I don't know what to tell you. Right? Just buy the powder, it's so much cheaper, it's so easy to take. There is just no need for you to spend a lot of money on on uh on creatine. And you do find this with with a lot of supplements, right? A lot of supplements are just are completely fine in their base form and in their powdered form, and they're fine and they're easy to take, and they're a doddle and they're cheap. And then as soon as you start messing with it, it becomes much more of an issue. You find the same with uh with vitamins, which is the next thing I'll come to, and I'll rattle through this a little bit because vitamin is one of those things where it works for you, not every dietitian, every single one I've had on says to just take a multivitam every day. Every single one of them, not a single one of them has said you do not need vitamins. Now, the the don't need to take a multivitamin. Now the studies about this are are still very much along the line of some say it's beneficial, others say it's just expensive pee that you're making, right? Um so there are a lot of people are split in into two counts. They don't do anything, they're not required, or yeah, they're amazing. Most of the people I've spoken to, all of the dietitians that I've spoken to, and they're all registered dietitians and with with good qualifications. I've done interviews with all of them. They're they're available on the if you go to the podcast ERKI sort of thing through the list. Um all of them say to just take one. Because they're comp if you just take one and you don't overdo it, you're completely safe to take them and you're just topping up what you're missing. It's not a big deal. Taking a multivitamin, but you don't doesn't mean you need to buy the expensive gummies, right? What they said, the Bassett, the vitamin company, sells multivitamins that are gummies that have raspberry flavored uh sort of thing now, because apparently we don't take pills, uh we don't take the normal vitamin, boring vitamin pills anymore, but they are significantly more expensive than the boring normal ones. Do you need to buy an expensive vitamin? No. They're vitamins, they're completely fine. They're fake vitamins that are expensive and they're fake vitamins that are cheaper. Just buy, right? If they're not coming from real food, then they're synthetic. When I say fake, that means synthetic. And it's completely fine. They're completely safe to do. Take the cheaper ones, you're completely fine. Anybody who tries to sell you the really expensive ones, and again, I've had loads of supplement companies ask me if I want to sell some of the really expensive ones. They're the same thing, guys. They do the same stuff. Right? Unless they're selling you apples, which again are cheaper than most of the vitamin pills. Right? Again, the vitamins, you don't have to take, but it's not going to hurt if you take one a day, and there might be some benefit to it. That's what most of the registered dietitians have been telling me uh about this. Lastly, I did want to touch on this one bladder supplement. Right? I have seen an awful lot of ads recently for overactive bladder. Um the Jude ads. And I'm not crapping on Jude, I'm just seeing a lot of ads for them because they've been on dragons then. And you know, if if a certain um dragon, right? Air quote dragon invests in these things. You see it all over Instagram because that's where they sell all their horses. Uh, pardon my French. No. Fundamentally, right? Do you need to buy J? No, absolutely not. Start taking pumpkin seeds, you'll be fine. Nine out of ten times. A lot of these um, a lot of these supplements that are like lifestyle supplements, uh, right, they will um they will say that this particular ingredient has benefits, and we will build a supplement around that particular thing, right? And therefore, then then they come to you and say, hey, this supplement helps with pee. In the case of Jude, it's very much pumpkin seeds. And I'm not saying this stuff doesn't work, by the way, right? In in the in this particular case, buy the supplements, and especially like this particular one, just buy the pumpkin seeds. They're so much cheaper. You're out of your mind. Are they safe? Yeah, I don't pumpkin seeds, are yes. Um I I don't I don't I don't see anything uh anything that uh that says that pumpkin seeds are uh not right for you to take when you're pregnant or postnatal postpartum or breastfeeding or anything like that. Right? The by the way, the it it's uh the soy germ and and pumpkin seed is is is is what they do. Um basic, but basically, yeah, just eat pumpkin seeds. You can't buy the expensive supplements, and again, let's let's have a look at at the shop. At the shop 60 capsules. They also sell pants, by the way. That already tells shows you how just how shit it is. Uh sorry, I hate that. One-time purchase. See, it's already bad when they say it's $129 per day, right? 12-week plan. I don't know why you need to put beyond a plan, right? This is that whole subscription model. Um 180 pills. You take more than one pill a day? All right, okay. 60 pills, yeah. So do you take two pills a day? It's it's 75 pounds. Uh for for the the the four-week supply for a month, it's about 36 pounds. Um they they also sell pants that absorb leaks, they sell bamboo all day liners and pants and all that sort of stuff. Yeah, if your supplement works, you don't need special pants. You know what I mean? Uh it makes me question question these things. But they also sell pants because they want to make some more money, right? More than one income stream type thing. Um, so that is a that is a prime example of there being a supplement out there that is so easily replaced just by taking the actual food item. You can take two capsules a day or add some pumpkin seeds to your porridge or God knows what. Right? It is it is it is not difficult, this stuff. Most of the time, a lot a lot of the time, a lot of the time. Supplementation, you can get it from uh your diet, uh unlike creatine and and folate and and and all that sort of stuff. Creatine is to up the levels of creatine that high, you need to eat a lot of meat, and that's expensive. So creatine is cheaper to buy. Uh folate, folic acid, is really difficult to get in high numbers if you need to supplement with that. Iron is kind of the same and all that. So that you can supplement. Uh that you can supplement cheaper than than you can get it through natural sources. But pumpkin seeds, come on now, you wouldn't spend 36 pounds a month on pumpkins. How much are pumpkin seeds? Pumpkin seeds. Um, let's have a look, right? And and and I'm on ecosy of £4.50 for 500 grams. That is from Nature's Best. So that's not even cheap pumpkin seeds, right? Is nature's best that's like the the the new boost, no, no, the new Holland and Barracks or something like that, right? So that that's the the health and and and vitamin supplement the woo crunchy shop. Um those guys sell 500 grams for 4.50. So what is that? Does it last two, three, four, four weeks? Five maybe? Let's say that last four weeks. You just save yourself 32 pounds just by buying the actual thing, which is so easy to consume. Um, you you don't need to supplement that. And and a lot of supplement companies, like I said, they are kind of in that business of making you think you need to buy something that you can actually very comfortably get from uh from food. Right? And or they'll just have you sell, uh they just sell you stuff that you don't uh that you don't actually need. With regards to pumpkin seeds and all that type of stuff, do they work? Yes, they do. Again, there's there there are some studies out there that that that show that they're beneficial, and a lot of people have found them to be beneficial, uh, which is why that particular supplement works. But so does the original ingredient. So I'm not crapping on whether it works or not. I'm just saying that it's an expensive way of of not going to the toilet that night. Um you know it works for everybody. I'm just saying, I'm 50 years old, right? It's nice to be able to sleep for the night. Um, right? Every every old every old white guy will every I'm I'm assuming black guys as well. Every old black guy will will know this, every old man will know this. Getting up in the middle of the night, ah, Jesus, right? If you have an overactive bladder, eat some pumpkin seeds. That's all I'm saying. Anyways, that is part one done. Um next week, like I said, we'll do NMN, we'll do uh NAD Plus. Um we'll do what else? What else do you have? CBD, um, you know, the the the cannabis uh stuff, the self-inflammation and all that type of thing. Um, we'll do all that type of stuff. But for now, this is it done. Uh that's Peter at healthypostnatal body.com. If you have any questions or comments, um just give me a shout, right? That's what I'm here for. Here's a new bit of music. You take care of yourself. Bye now.