About

About The Scoop Desk

What this site is, how it makes money, and what it will not do.

What this site is

The Scoop Desk writes about supplement ingredients — what they do, the doses the research actually used, and how to check a label against them. Pre-workouts, protein, creatine, vitamins and minerals.

The premise is that most buying decisions in this category are made on packaging and marketing copy, and that a reader who can read a Supplement Facts panel needs far less help choosing than the industry would like.

What this site does not do

We do not publish product reviews, ratings or test results. Independent laboratory testing of finished products is expensive and specialised, and we have not done it. Inventing results, or recycling marketing claims as findings, is exactly the behaviour this site exists to push back on.

So you will not find scored rankings, 'best of' tables presented as tested, or prices here. You will find ingredient facts you can verify independently, and an explanation of how to apply them to whatever is in front of you on the shelf.

Where products have genuinely been verified by someone, we point at the certifier — NSF Certified for Sport, Informed Sport, USP — rather than claiming the credit.

How this site makes money

Some links on this site are affiliate links. If you buy through one, we may earn a commission at no additional cost to you.

Those links go to search results for a category of product — 'creatine monohydrate', say — rather than to a specific item we have endorsed. That is deliberate. We are not in a position to tell you which tub is best, and a link that merely puts the category in front of you does not pretend otherwise.

Affiliate relationships do not influence the content. Since we do not rank or recommend individual products, there is very little for a commission to distort.

Not medical advice

Nothing here is medical advice, and none of it is a substitute for a clinician who knows your history. Supplements interact with medications and with existing conditions. If you are pregnant, breastfeeding, managing a health condition or taking prescription medication, talk to your doctor or pharmacist before adding anything.

If you are subject to drug testing, use only products with third-party certification for sport. Contamination of uncertified supplements is well documented and the consequences fall on you.

Corrections

If something here is wrong, we want to fix it. Dosing guidance shifts as research accumulates, and a page written today can age badly. Corrections are welcome and will be made.