Sometimes known as the building blocks of organic matter, amino acids are organic compounds that come together to create proteins.
After consuming and digesting proteins, your body breaks them down into amino acids. Amino acids serve many important purposes. This includes providing energy to boosting the immune response, aiding tissue growth and repair, and helping with muscle function and development.
There are 20 amino acids in total. Nine of them are essential amino acids, meaning we need to get them from our food. Nonessential amino acids can be produced by our bodies.
This article will go over why amino acids are important in diet, as well as a list of essential and nonessential amino acids and their food sources.
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Why Amino Acids Are Important in Our Diet
After proteins have been broken down through the digestive system, our bodies use them to perform several essential functions.
Benefits of amino acids include:
- Muscle function and repair
- Better skin and hair health
- Boosted immune response
- Lower levels of depression and anxiety
- Increased fertility
Muscle Function and Repair
Amino acids help with various aspects of muscle function, repair, and development. Studies suggest that people who consume amino acids, whether from protein-rich food sources or supplements, may experience benefits in various aspects of exercise performance and postexercise recovery. These include:
- Increased muscle strength and mass
- More energy
- Reduced muscle damage
- Fewer injuries
- Less fatigue
Better Skin and Hair Health
Amino acids build several proteins that are key to skin and hair health, including elastin, keratin, and collagen. A diet rich in amino acids provides many potential benefits for your skin and hair, including:
- Speeding up the wound-healing process
- Reducing the visible signs of aging
- Improving water retention
- Protecting the skin microbiome
- Protecting against sun-related skin damage
- Brightening the skin and preventing a dull appearance
- Preventing hair damage and loss
Boosted Immune System
Research indicates that essential amino acids may help to prevent infections and boost your body’s natural immune response. People with amino acid deficiencies show many signs of a weakened immune system, including increased oxidative stress, signs of premature aging, and more frequent infectious diseases.
Lower Levels of Depression and Anxiety
Low dietary intake of essential amino acids is associated with a number of mood-related problems, from irritability and mood swings to sadness and higher stress levels. It’s also linked to mental health disorders, including depression and anxiety.
Increased Fertility
Amino acids appear to play a significant role in many aspects of sexual health and fertility. Studies indicate that amino acid deficiencies are associated with lower sperm counts, lower libido (sex drive), and reduced fertility, as well as miscarriage and premature labor.
Amino Acid Foods
Remember that you can only get essential amino acids from food, while your body can produce nonessential amino acids on its own. Let’s go over a few examples of foods rich in both essential and nonessential amino acids.
Essential Amino Acids
Some of the best food sources of each of the nine essential amino acids are:
- Histidine: Meat, chicken, fish, soybeans, peas, oats, wheat, kidney beans, and dried bonito broth
- Isoleucine: Beef, chicken, pork, fish, milk, lentils, cheese, tofu, quinoa, and pumpkin seeds
- Lysine: Red meat, fish, cheese, milk, yogurt, legumes, and brewer’s yeast
- Leucine: Beef, venison, chicken, lamb, cashews, pistachios, pine nuts, almonds, beans, lentils, cheese, cocoa, and yogurt
- Methionine: Soy, nuts, beef, lamb, turkey, beans, pork, eggs, shellfish, and quinoa
- Tryptophan: Cheese, chicken, milk, egg whites, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds, peanuts, turkey, fish, and soybeans
- Valine: Meat, chicken, eggs, whole grains, nuts, mushrooms, peanuts, and soybean products (such as edamame and tempeh)
- Threonine: Red meat, poultry, fish, cottage cheese, beans, lentils, seeds, and wheat germ
- Phenylalanine: Meat, soy, poultry, beans, nuts, nut butters, peas, avocados, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, and sweet potatoes
Nonessential Amino Acids
The 11 nonessential amino acids include:
- Alanine
- Arginine
- Asparagine
- Aspartic acid
- Cysteine
- Glycine
- Glutamic acid
- Glutamine
- Proline
- Serine
- Tyrosine
Your body can use essential amino acids to make non-essential amino acids if needed, so it’s not as important to get nonessential amino acids from your diet. Still, you can get nonessential amino acids from many of the same food sources, such as:
- Beans
- Dairy
- Eggs
- Lentils
- Meat
- Nuts
- Quinoa
- Seeds
- Soy
Amino Acid Meal-Planning Ideas
A high-protein diet is essential to getting enough essential amino acids. Incorporate multiple protein sources into your meals every day to ensure that you’re consuming all the micronutrients and macronutrients you need.
If you eat a plant-based diet, you can focus on vegetarian or vegan protein sources like nuts, beans, eggs, lentils, and/or soy. Also, remember to opt for lean meats, fish, and other seafood if you have a history of heart disease or simply want to protect your heart health.
Verdict on Supplementing With Amino Acids
Many people wonder if they can replace dietary intake of amino acids (especially essential amino acids) with dietary supplements or further enhance their athletic performance with amino acid supplementation. However, research on the efficacy of amino acid supplements is limited.
For example, some studies suggest that supplements of branched-chain amino acids (BCAAs)—valine, isoleucine, and leucine—increase muscle strength and mass and delay the effects of fatigue after intense exercise or training sessions. However, other research indicates that BCAA supplements aren’t effective in improving exercise performance or recovery.
Overall, the available research suggests that amino acid supplementation may be effective to an extent when combined with a protein-rich diet. Still, results are inconclusive, and there is limited evidence to suggest that supplements could boost performance beyond what could be accomplished by eating foods with amino acids.
Summary
Amino acids are organic molecules that form proteins when combined. They play an important role in many crucial bodily functions, such as muscle performance and development, growth, immune response, fertility, and mood.
Essential amino acids, including histidine, lysine, isoleucine, tryptophan, valine, phenylalanine, methionine, threonine, and leucine, can only be obtained through dietary intake (food sources). Nonessential amino acids, which include asparagine, tyrosine, serine, and proline, among others, can be made by the body itself. The best food sources of most amino acids are meat, fish, eggs, soy, nuts, beans, and lentils.
