Why creatine and protein continue to see significant sales growth in the nutraceutical space

Nutritional Outlook interviews Scott Dicker, senior director of market insights at SPINS to discuss the 2026 Ingredients to Watch. Dicker unpacks sales trends in the nutraceutical space and what they mean for product formulators and marketers. This is Part 1 of a two-part conversation in which Dicker discusses what is driving sales growth of creatine and protein.

Read full Ingredients to Watch coverage here to access expert insights and detailed sales data from SPINS.

Watch Part 2 of this conversation here.

Listen to the full episode of The Nutritional Outlook Podcast for the full interview with Scott Dicker, senior director, market insights, at SPINS.

Sebastian Krawiec (SK): So to start, there's going to be a couple ingredients that we're sort of revisiting this year, that we've covered in the past. So one ingredient that has been getting a lot of love in the past few years is creatine, and I like to revisit it here, since SPINS data shows that within the performance category of the MULO channel, creatine grew in sales by 72%, and in a natural channel, creatine, for Energy Support, grew nearly 50% in sales. When we covered creatine in the Ingredients to Watch two years ago, a lot of the conversation was centered around changing demos for buyers of the ingredient as well as the active nutrition category more broadly. Do you find the still holds true? Or have you observed any other important factors driving interest in sales of creatine products today?

Scott Dicker (SD): Creatine is one that that, as you mentioned, we've been talking about for a few years now, and you know, it has really been a staple for decades in the gym especially. And it's a good thing that we're talking about the same ingredients for a couple years in a row, because otherwise we would have been wrong; if we're changing, if we're taking complete 180s all the time. Creatine is one that I always say has all the tailwinds on it. So it's new demographics, that's the biggest one. So, both age brackets, as well as women getting involved in it. So this really expands the pool. There's also new use cases. So it's not just for young men in the gym anymore, which, as I mentioned was the case for a couple decades.

We're seeing a lot of boost in it for cognitive support as well. You're seeing a emergence of new delivery formats, whether that's ready to drinks or gummies or chewables, like hard chews, things like that. So these are all big tailwinds. That's moving it. The virality of it is helping out as well, as far as a market awareness and “who is this for?” But there are others as well that it's being touted for things like bone health or immune health that are still very early, but could bubble up as well. But for something like cognitive health, the recommended intake is about twice what I've been used to the daily recommended intake of when you're just trying to saturate your muscles for energy and strength and power and all that fun stuff. Now you've expanded your base, expanded the potential pool of people who are going to use this ingredient, and the people who currently use it might now take more of it. So that's why there's such a big push as this is an ingredient that's been really on a rocket ship for the past past handful of years.

SK: That's super interesting. Yeah, so you need more of it for brain health. Interesting. Do you find that when it comes to products marketed towards brain health using creatine…Is it a standalone ingredient? Is it combined with other ingredients? What are you observing there?

SD: Mostly standalone right now, I there's opportunity for it to be combined with other ingredients. I would say, I'm a little skeptical of some of those, because a lot of the other nootropic ingredients are meant for more acute usage. And creatine, we know, typically, is built up over time with consistent use. I've seen some literature that a single, large dose can can help out in certain areas as well, but that's something to be on the lookout for. I'm sure there will be people that try it, but right now, it's mostly standalone, just touting new benefits.

SK: Moving on to our next ingredient. I wanted to focus on protein, particularly whey and dairy-based proteins. Your data shows a big increase in in protein sales, particularly whey and other dairy based proteins. You know, with animal based proteins appearing on the top 25 functional ingredients by dollar, four times, in different ways. And then what I'm thinking when I see this rise in protein, I'm thinking this must have something to do with the rise of GLP-1 drugs and the demand for nutritional support around that. Do you think that's the case?

SD: It's certainly one of them. So protein, we talked about creatine having all these, all these tailwinds on it, pushing forward. Protein also continues to have a health halo around it. So, we saw the new dietary guidelines just raised protein recommendations significantly. We know that people on GLP-1s are looking for added protein to make sure that when they lose weight, they're not losing muscle mass. We know people are getting more active thinking about health span more and protein plays a factor there as well. So all these things are pushing protein forward, and we see that it's across generations, it's across gender. And we do see that there's a difference in where people are looking for protein.

One of the barometers that I tend to look at is how a protein powder is doing, because to me, when you have protein enhanced options through every aisle in the grocery store and you have products that are inherently high in protein, like yogurt or cottage cheese or eggs doing really well, I would almost expect protein powders and ready-to-drinks to either level off or dip, because people have all these options. That's not the case. We continue to see it grow either in high single digits or low double digits, year after year, to show that, no, we have not yet hit peak protein.

People are still interested in it for a variety of reasons, one of which being GLP-1s. A lot of the other reasons having to do with health span, people being more cognizant of what's going in [their food], there being mixed messaging all the time around different fats or carbs; protein typically gets that health halo. So, we're seeing a lot of growth room still for protein. And then just to circle back, when you said it appears a few times on the top list, it's almost unfair to compare protein to some of these botanical ingredients with so much more of a limited use case and availability. So I always expect protein to rank high and often even the different varieties.

SK: That makes sense. I guess my observation being that a lot of the double digit growth we're seeing is also kind of specifically to the animal dairy based whey, casein proteins. Is there, you know, a particular reason why there might be particular growth of these types of proteins.

SD: It's a very interesting thing. So we saw, if you remember what, I guess was five, six years ago, when the big plant based boom happened, every type of analog there was, was becoming plant based. We also saw a big spike in plant based protein sales. Since then, we've seen that level off, not necessarily go away, but level off. And we've seen a return to whey protein, both as the top market share, which it always was, but also the top growth driver.

I think a lot of the things that were inherently true about whey; it's easier to mix, tends to flavor better as well, and as well as you know, again, a re- emphasis on dairy from certain parts of the community and its ability to really position itself in good light in that way, and we're seeing the growth though, one of the the swings that you see in response to some of those when that plant-based was having high growth is that you're seeing a lot of natural attributes driving growth there. So naturally positioned whey protein, grass fed, organic things like that, that are also able to make some of these other, you know, better-for-planet, better-for-animal label claims is driving a lot of the growth.

SK: Recently there was a Consumer Reports report stating there were higher levels of heavy metals in plant based protein products. Do you think that's a factor kind of turning people away from plant based protein?

SD: There's some sort of report or article around that topic that comes out about every year. It gets a lot of people in our industry upset about it. I do get people outside the industry come and ask me about that from time to time. But I really, I'm not sure how much of an impact that has, if it's just a just more noise, but it's definitely something out there that I know the industry always looks at some of these headlines, and maybe that plays a role. I don't have any hard data to support that one, though.

SK: Bringing up sort of a GLP-1 space earlier, I wonder if we can kind of look at it more broadly, as you know, can you talk about, you know, the opportunity of GLP-1 users and the drugs, with regard to the dietary supplement industry, in terms of acquiring and retaining new and loyal customers? Because, I mean, I'm seeing a ton of products being marketed toward this area, and it's a huge opportunity. But then is, you know, is there any concern that eventually will kind of hit a wall there, or is it more promising than that?

SD: I'm more on the promising end of the thought. I think that as people are taking GLP-1s, they are usually deciding to think more about their health. And as they think more about their health, it usually leads them to, one, make diet changes, and two, change or start taking certain supplements. I am, long-term, not super high on weight management supplements that are competitor products, although we continue to see ingredients like Berberine do very well right now. So there will be pockets of growth always. But companion products, I think we'll see a continue to see a big benefit. So that's things like protein. It's things like like products that fill nutrient gaps. So multivitamins, I think, are going to be a long-term benefit from this, greens, powders, a lot of those other in supplements, as well as things for gut health and microbiome. As we know, there's a lot of reports about gastrointestinal side effects, so I think that that area is is going to lead to people more so on it, as well as when they when consumers think that it's a medical necessity, whether it is or not, I'm not, I'm not here to say, but I think it makes it stickier that they'll be in these categories for the long term.