The Role of Essential Amino Acids in Your Body
Essential for Biological Processes
Essential Amino Acids The human body can synthesize all of the amino acids necessary to build proteins except for the ten called the "essential amino acids", indicated by asterisks in the amino acid illustrations. An adequate diet must contain these essential amino acids. Typically, they are supplied by meat and dairy products, but if those are not consumed, some care must be applied to ensuring an adequate supply.
They can be supplied by a combination of cereal grains (wheat, corn, rice, etc.) and legumes (beans,peanuts, etc.). A number of popular ethnic foods involve such a combination, so that in a single dish, one might hope to get the ten essential amino acids. Mexican corn and beans, Japanese rice and soybeans, and Cajun red beans and rice are examples of such fortuitous combinations, commonly used by vegetarians.
Amino acids are organic compounds that combine to form proteins. Amino acids and proteins are the building blocks of life.
When proteins are digested or broken down, amino acids are left. The human body uses amino acids to make proteins to help the body:
The Chemistry of Amino Acids
The chemical properties of the amino acids of proteins determine the biological activity of the protein. Proteins not only catalyze all (or most) of the reactions in living cells, they control virtually all cellular process. In addition, proteins contain within their amino acid sequences the necessary information to determine how that protein will fold into a three dimensional structure, and the stability of the resulting structure.
Failure to obtain enough of even 1 of the 10 essential amino acids, those that we cannot make, results in degradation of the body's proteins—muscle and so forth—to obtain the one amino acid that is needed. Unlike fat and starch, the human body does not store excess amino acids for later use—the amino acids must be in the food every day.
Conditional Essential Amino Acids
Several other amino acids are conditionally essential amino acids, meaning they are required at some stages or growth or by some people who cannot synthesize them, either because of genetics or a medical condition.
In addition to the essential amino acids, babies and growing children also need arginine, cysteine and tyrosine.
Certain populations need arginine, cystein, glycine, glutamine, histidine, proline, serine and tyrosine because they either cannot synthesize them at all or else are unable to make enough to meet the needs of their metabolism.
