Amino Acids

A group of organic compounds considered the building blocks of proteins. Of the nearly 80 amino acids found in nature, about 20 are required for human growth and metabolism.

Essential amino acids are those provided by foods; nonessential amino acids are produced naturally by the body and therefore not required though food intake. The essential amino acids are histidine, isoleucine, leucine, lysine, methionine, cysteine, phenylalanine, tyrosine, threomine, tryptophan and valine. The nonessentials are alanine, aspartic acid, arginine, citrulline, glutamic acid, glycine, hydroxyglutamic acid, hydroxyproline, norleucine, proline and serine.

Examples of complete proteins, that is, those containing all the essential amino acids, are milk, milk products, e View the rest of this article