Amino Acids – What Are They?

What are amino acids? Check out this guide to find more about it.

There 20 types of amino acids. These natural compounds share particular formation traits and are identified as the ‘building blocks’ of proteins in animals and plants. Since they play a foundational part, amino acids are involved in various chemical reactions all over the human body to aid in maintaining its normal functions.

Categories of Amino Acids

Amino acids are categorized into three groups. These are the Essential Amino Acids, Nonessential Amino Acids, and Conditional Amino Acids. The group wherein a particular amino acid belongs to relies on where the body gets it.

• Essential Amino Acids. The body cannot generate essential amino acids, hence must be acquired from an external source, typically from EAA supplements or food. Most individuals are able to obtain sufficient essential amino acids via their diets. The following are the essential amino acids: valine, tryptophan, threonine, phenylalanine, phenylalanine. lysine, leucine, leucine, isoleucine, histidine.
• Non-essential Amino Acids. These amino acids are those that our body could naturally produce all throughout the day regardless if you consume food or supplements that contain them. Glutamic acid, aspartic acid, asparagine, alanine are the non-essential amino acids.
• Conditional Amino acid. These are only produced under certain conditions, usually when our body is protecting against or fighting off illnesses or coping with stress. There are eight conditional amino acids – serine, proline, ornithine, glycine, tyrosine, glutamine, cysteine, and arginine.

Benefits of Amino Acids

A healthy balanced diet could help in ensuring that you obtain a healthy and sufficient consumption amino acids throughout the day. If the body does not get enough amino acids, it will not be capable of effectively producing proteins, and in some situations the proteins found in the muscles as well as the tissues will begin to deteriorate or weaken.

Amino acids perform a significant role in practically every single system in the body, which includes the following:

• Supporting in the generation and growth of muscles, skin, and connective tissue
• Assisting in preserving and maintaining tissue strength as well as muscle tone
• Helps in repair and healing
• Aids in normalizing digestion
• Provides the body energy
• Helps to regulate moods by means of aiding to generate hormones
• Generating neurotransmitters
• Helps in maintaining the health of the hair, skin, and nails