Essential Aminos, Collagen, Creatine, and How to Eat Real Good With Them in Mind
And yes, you will make bone broth
Holy freaking new followers. Whoa. The outpouring of support, sharing and subscribing after last week’s meal plan had a girl tearing up. It only makes sense to reward this incredible surge with an article prompted by a question I get a lot - are there any supplements I should actually take?
If you’re new here, a quick primer on me - I’m a chef in Boulder, Colorado who focuses on health and wellness from scratch made, whole foods. You can see a lot of that, plus dogs an unhinged memes, via @thisplatewillsaveyourlife on the ‘gram. My modus operandi with my clients is to get as much nutrition as possible out of every meal and remember that the term ‘supplements’ means supplementing an already complete, all encompassing diet. I learned a lot while working for professional athletes, and I have since shifted my cooking ethos toward recovery and injury prevention - you are all my little NFL quarterbacks.
I could yap ad nauseam about how homogenized farming, dead soil, processed foods and the devil himself have stripped our food of the nutrition it once contained. I also study Ayurveda and the medicinal power of food. It is 2025. Ancient modes of medicine, eating, and moving have had thousands of years to develop, but the things which are killing us outpace them all. Environmental stressors, pollution, chemicals in our food and lifestyles angled toward convenience leave our bodies deficient in more ways than one - and it’s important to solve today’s problems with today’s innovations while understanding and appreciating yesterday’s knowledge.
Today I will bang on a drum that has exhausted many folks in my life - essential amino acids, collagen and creatine.
We’re flying over the following:
Amino acids - what they are, which ones are essentials, which ones are not
Which aminos are precursors to creatine and collagen
Which foods to eat prior to supplementation
Which supplements I recommend
Low level science class here… amino acids are legos of life. They’re essentially a small organic molecule built around a single “alpha” carbon that carries an acidic carboxyl group, an amino group, a hydrogen and a variable side-chain. Picture a domino - the amino and carboxyl ends snap together - a 2 to a 2, a 4 to a 4, and form a peptide bond. This domino chain is what we call proteins. These proteins run your entire fucking life. Your neurons, your metabolism, your wrinkles or lack thereof. Aminos are everywhere else, too - your body even taps them for a Hail Mary fuel source if you’re low on carbs. Your body uses amino acids every single second of every single day.
We hear a lot about essential amino acids. There are 9 of them. When we say essential, we mean that your body cannot make these EAA’s, and they must come from your diet. We also have 11 non-essential amino acids, although seven of them are conditionally essential. NAA’s are made in your liver from scratch. When you’re sick, growing, training too hard or not eating well, these NAA’s - including arginine and glycine - can run low and need a boost. More on this later.
Your essential amino acids should, theoretically, come from your food. You may have heard the term “perfect protein” before - this refers to a protein that contains all 9 EAA’s. Animal proteins (meat, fish, poultry, dairy, eggs) are complete proteins, and some plant sources are too - chia, buckwheat, and quinoa are easily accessible options. Infinite combinations of “complementary proteins” exist, too the magic combo is legume + grain/seed - the classic rice and beans which supplements lysine, for example. Eggs, bone broth and whole milk yoghurt as mainstays of your diet (or soybeans for vegetarians) are an easily scalable safeguard against deficit.
Enter bad eating habits, as we so often discuss on TPWSYL - I wish I could say I ate a perfect balance of Brazil nuts, sirloins steaks, quinoa, buckwheat and eggs, but I don’t! You probably don’t either. Vegetarians who eat dairy and eggs are often in the clear of real deficiency, but many vegans could be at risk of serious losses unless they’re on top of those complementary and complete protein sources and taking supplementation (see NHANES 2015-18 protein intake data).
When your EAA requirements are not being fulfilled, many functions in your body become forfeited as the body searches for fuel. This breakdown is far and wide, but in the interest of today’s deep dive, let’s get back to collagen and creatine.
Collagen is assembled from three long chains of amino acids, and every third position on each chain must be glycine, with frequent appearances by proline and its vitamin-C-modified cousin hydroxyproline. Although glycine and proline are classed as “non-essential,” their availability still depends on overall protein intake, because the body can synthesize only a limited amount each day. When dietary intake falls short of one or more EAAs—common in low-protein or heavily processed diets—the body slows collagen production to conserve resources, which over time is reflected in weaker connective tissue, slower wound repair, and your skin looking old and sad.
Creatine is synthesized in a two-step process - arginine gives a portion of its structure to glycine to form guanidinoacetate; that intermediate then travels to the liver, where it is methylated by the essential amino acid methionine to become creatine. Each and every step of this process hinges on having adequate arginine, glycine, and methionine available at the same time - so low total protein or low EAA intake limits the amount of creatine the body can make. Reduced endogenous - aka made in your gullet - creatine means smaller phosphocreatine stores in muscle and brain, which can translate to quicker fatigue during repeated high-intensity training and slower recovery time.
Okay, that’s mostly all the nerdy shit we’re going to go over - if you’ve made it this far you’re a champion. I feel many of you are thinking, “but I eat plenty of protein. I’m fine.” Probably not. What protein used to look like and what it looks like now has a lot to do with the eating habits pushed upon us by toxic diet culture and general western convenience. Remember, both creatine and collagen start with the same triple threat - glycine, methionine and proline (plus arginine for creatine). Modern nutrition shows us that what really matters isn’t just how many grams of protein you eat, but how the amino acids inside that protein balance out—especially glycine versus methionine. Remember earlier when I said that we can’t depend on things that worked for our ancestors to keep us healthy now? Back in the day of wild game, we automatically paired methionine-heavy muscle meat with collagen-rich foods like shanks, oxtails, chicken skin, and daily bone broth, ending up with a nicer glycine-to-methionine ratio. That mix supplies plenty of raw material for strong connective tissue. When diets load methionine without matching glycine, the body sees a “glycine drain.” Studies in rodents and small human trials link that shortfall to higher oxidative stress and inflammation - while supplement marketing wants you to think that collagen is a beauty supplement, the very real inflammation that a lack of it causes your body, your joints, and your gut is 100% where you need to start. This doesn’t mean you can’t eat steak, it just means rebuilding the balance and telling boneless, skinless, soulless chicken to fuck off once and for all. Think crispy salmon skin, slow-cooked bones, a tin of sardines, that sort of thing.
The overwhelming positive is that if my yurt dwelling ancestors could figure this out, we can, too - so not only do I want to arm you with ways with which you can increase your balanced EAAs, and therein creatine + collagen production, but I also want to keep the crumbling economy in mind. This does not have to be expensive. Before we get into this week’s meal planning recipes, here is a list of food that you can work into your diet however you want and immediately improve your amino acid consumption - this is certainly not everything, but it’s a good start.
Sardines! Sardines! Sardines! ~20 g complete protein, marine type-I collagen, calcium and iodine for ≈ $4 a tin. You can also buy canned salmon, but make sure it has its skin and bones. Sardines are delicious, so affordable, and full of a whole lot of other shit you need - omega 3’s, calcium, you name it.
Skin-on chicken thighs – cheaper than breast, 18–20 g protein per 100 g, and collagen-packed skin you can crisp or simmer into stock.
Beef shank, short-rib or oxtail – connective-tissue heavy cuts deliver the same EAAs as rib-eye plus gelatin that melts into stews; usually half the price of steak.
Whole eggs – nature’s perfect protein with bonus sulfur, biotin
Grass-fed Greek yogurt – yogurt supplies leucine and lysine, probiotics, calcium. Buy whole milk, full fat yogurt, for the love of god. I promise the cup or so of it you eat is not what will keep you from your #bodygoals.
DIY bone broth - I am telling you right now that a pot of boiled chicken feet will do more for you than whatever stupid ass collagen coffee creamer you want to buy for $30.
Extra-firm tofu or tempeh — 18–20 g complete protein per 100 g, one of the few plant foods with all nine EAAs plus plenty of arginine to keep the creatine assembly line moving. Calcium-set blocks add a solid mineral bump, cost next to nothing, and soak up any marinade you throw at them. I will not tolerate Big Milk’s soy slander - if you are not allergic to soy or have a condition which causes you to avoid it, eat. more. tofu. Just make sure it’s organic - seriously - soy is a crop systemically sprayed with glyphosate and that’s a much bigger worry than a man growing boobs or whatever that weird rumor was
Chia + buckwheat + quinoa - chia is low in lysine / almost complete, but buckwheat + quinoa are both complete proteins!!! And generally very inexpensive. This is an amazing opportunity to compound nutrition - cook quinoa in bone broth, soak chia in whole milk / soy milk / yoghurt, that sort of thing
Please, unless you have definitive blood work stating a severe, emergency deficiency which requires medical intervention, start your EAA journey with real food. It’s cheaper. It’s better. You’ve got this.
I understand that making bone broth is not everybody’s bag - you can buy bovine gelatin or marine collagen and supplement accordingly. I drink bovine gelatin every single day in a cup of hot masala chai. I also take creatine every. single. day. in a 5g dose because I don’t eat meat daily, I am active, and I understand that it is one of the best studied, lowest risk factor, super beneficial to bone, muscle and brain health supplements available to us. I buy from kion. (important note - I recommend Kion a lot. I am not affiliated with them nor do I receive any kind of kickback, I buy their products with my own money and I like them, a lot. Their creatine is 100% vegan and if you are a vegan or vegetarian who does not ensure adequate protein consumption I urge you to look into creatine supplementation).
Okay. We did it. We made it through what is perhaps the most science-dense article I’ve thrown out here. Let’s dive into some food you can make this week to absolutely crush your protein consumption. You will notice that up to this paragraph, this article has been free. I believe it’s fair to put things like recipes and grocery lists behind a paywall because this article took days of research, testing, fact checking and editing to write, but I will always post information I believe is essential to you being healthier without spending hundreds of dollars on capsules and potions for free. Knowledge is power.
If you’ve read this far, thank you, I love you, I hope you live forever.
In Health,
A
How to Eat Real Good This Week; the menu:
Collagen broth with ginger + garlic
Quinoa with Swiss chard
Bone in chicken thighs with black garlic butter
Poached salmon + asparagus salad
Chia pudding with mint and blueberries
Cardamom carrots with black lime + chili oil
Miso butter glazed tofu + leeks
Here we go!