Get to know the Functions and Food Sources of Essential Amino Acids

Our body needs amino acids to be able to survive, including essential amino acids. Various foods can be consumed to obtain essential amino acids. Amino acids themselves are actually organic compounds that combine to become proteins. When you eat foods that contain protein, the protein in these foods will undergo a process of decomposition. The results of this breakdown will then produce amino acids that will be left in the body, and used for various functions.

Is Amino Acid Essential?

There are several types of amino acids, namely conditional amino acids, non-essential amino acids, and essential amino acids. Essential amino acids are the type needed by the human body, but the body cannot produce itself. So it requires foods that contain essential amino acids to meet their needs. Amino acids that are included in essential amino acids include valine, histidine, tryptophan, isoleucine, lysine, leucine, methionine, threonine, and phenylalanine. After going through the process of decomposition and digestion, these amino acids will provide a variety of important benefits for the body. Starting from repairing body tissues, helping normal growth, breaking down food, and as a source of energy for the body.

Variety of Foods Containing Essential Amino Acids

As mentioned above, there are various types of essential amino acids. The following are various foods that are sources of essential amino acids, based on the type.

• Isoleucine

If you want to get isoleucine, try eating egg whites. In addition to not containing much fat, it turns out egg whites also contain lots of isoleucine. Not only egg whites, other foods such as lamb, turkey, crab, chicken, tuna, cod, and soy are also good sources of isoleucine.

• Lysine

Chicken breast and turkey are foods that contain high enough lysine. In addition, foods such as watercress, seaweed, and parsley leaves also have a high content of lysine. In addition, you can also get lysine from foods such as tuna.

• Leucine

Not only contain lysine and isoleucine, foods like seaweed, and tuna also contain leucine. While other foods that are rich in leucine include soybeans, egg whites, and chicken.

• Valine

Foods that have a high valine content are eggs. Besides eggs, other foods that are sources of valine include seaweed, watercress, turkey, and spinach.

• Treonin

Foods that are rich in threonine are spinach and raw watercress. Other options for foods containing threonines include tilapia, egg whites, turkeys, and soybeans.

• Histidine

Tuna, cod, chicken, turkey, and kidney beans are foods that contain histidine. As for the higher histidine content, you can consume processed pork products, which are a good source of histidine.

• Phenylalanine

To get a fairly high amount of phenylalanine, you can eat several types of meat. Such as turkey, lamb, beef, or pork. Sesame flour, cottonseed flour, and salmon include foods that contain phenylalanine.

• Tryptophan

The flesh of sea lions and deer are actually foods that contain high tryptophan. However, maybe these two types of meat are not commonly consumed and difficult to obtain. To get tryptophan, you can also consume soy, spinach, seaweed, egg whites, and turkey.

• Methionine

Foods that contain methionine include chicken, turkey, crab, lobster and tuna. However, some of these foods are still inferior when compared to egg whites. Egg white has a high enough methionine content. Egg white also contains other essential amino acids which are certainly good for the body.

Try to consume more foods that contain essential amino acids, as mentioned above. There are so many health and fitness benefits, which you can get from these various types of food.