John: That is a pretty vague question. I’m assuming you are referring to creatine as there is a marketing angle that some manufacturers take that states creatine is unstable in liquid form and breaks down to a useless byproduct. This is however a half truth so to speak. In order for creatine to breakdown to its inert by product creatinine it needs to be in a very acidic liquid at a very high temperature. I highly doubt this is how you are storing your creatine so it is not an issue unless you routinely store your creatine in boiling cups of acid!
In other words, putting creatine in a cup of water or juice and leaving it there for a week will not have any significant effect on it because it is not hot enough or acidic enough to really break the creatine down. And let me make it clear that the liquid must be both hot AND acidic at the same time for it to break down, of both conditions aren’t present the creatine will be fine.
Brad: Absolutely. When you break food down to its chemical components they all have their own unique heat sensitivity, light sensitivity PH sensitively, some can even be degraded by agitation or nutrient-nutrient interactions. It’s not as simple as everybody seems to think.
Rusty (Follow-up): Brad, John…Are there any products on the market you can think of right now that are sold in liquid form that you would avoid?
John: I’ve never purchased any supplement in a liquid form. So I guess you could say I avoid them all, but I’ve never gone looking for one either…does that answer your question or just make it more confusing? The only supplement I take is creatine and it is a powder form.
Brad: The clear whey protein drinks. It takes a huge amount of phosphoric acid and malic acid to keep the protein in suspension (that’s what gives it that crazy dry aftertaste)...just not something I am comfortable with. If you need to drink a ready to drink protein, I’d stick with the milk based ones until the technology gets a little better.