Remember how we emphasized multiple times the importance of real food for muscle growth? No supplement, mass gainer is gonna function as promised if you don’t get the fundamentals right. So in this post we will talk in depth about the Foods with Amino Acids.
What are Essential Amino Acids?
Proteins are the building blocks of muscle. Amino acids are the building blocks of protein. These are organic substances formed by the bonding of nitrogen, hydrogen, carbon, oxygen who primarily dominate this chemical group.
These are mainly subdivided as essential and nonessential. And by now we are aware that it is the nonessentials that are been synthesized inside our body. The rest are the essentials that we need to grow muscle and prevent muscle breakdown. And these are found abundantly in protein. Alanine, asparagine, aspartic acid, cystine, glutamic acid, glutamine, glycine, proline, serine, and tyrosine are some non essentials.
The scientific names of these nine essentials are histidine, isoleucine, leucine, lysine, tryptophan, phenylalanine, threonine, methionine and valine. This is the essential amino acids list. There functions are diversified inside are body and mainly focused on muscle synthesis.
Foods with essentials
Here are a list of Foods with Amino Acids, the ones with highest concentration ranked in order. Also includes great choices for vegetarians.
Meat products
Its no surprise that the Foods with Amino Acids list kicks off with animal protein. The same old chicken breasts, turkey. Lean meats have low amounts of saturated fats relative to red meat. In fact in a study conducted to analyze the average polish diet, researchers proved that lean meat is the best source for essential amino acids.
Lean meats contains 40% leucine, 41.3% isoleucine, 37% Valine. Also contains lysine, histidine, threonine, tryptophan, phenylalanine, and methionine on an average of 43.5%.
Eggs
The next king of all things protein. An egg contains approximately 6g of protein. This includes all the essential amino acids and some vitamins such as vitamin B2,B6,A, D, E, K. Additionally they also contain zinc and copper. Most people use eggs as a pre-workout supplement especially combined with oats.
Whole grains
Now this is some good news for the vegan community. Grains like quinoa, corn, brown rice, barley, oats are dense sources of protein. Grain products contribute by almost 20% for leucine, isoleucine, lysine, histidine, threonine, tryptophan, phenylalanine, and methionine and valine intake.
Fish products
Good old Omega-3 for healthy cholesterol levels. It is the next best thing to fulfill your protein dosage after chicken. Salmon, Tilapiya and pretty much any type of fish are dense sources of not only protein but other macronutrients.
Dairy products
Nutrition wasn’t so sophisticated back in the 70s golden era. This was a primary source of protein for them back in the day. In fact Arnold stressed this fact in his documentary pumping iron.
Cottage cheese, Greek yoghurt, Milk are healthy sources containing the 9 essentials. Additionally they are rich containers of Vitamins and Calcium important for bone health. You don’t want your knees to creak when you squat or deathlift.
Vegetables(legumes, nuts)
Another great source of protein for vegans. Chick peas, lentils, beans, broccoli, Soybeans, peanuts. But there is a slight deficiency unlike meats. Methionine and lysine have low concentrations on these.
Therefore the recommendation is to combine with some quinoa, rice, white button mushrooms. Tofu is another well recommended source of vegan protein that contains Phenylalanine. This helps synthesize tyrosine that induces dopamine. Which is responsible for making you feel good. Also Phenylalanine assists in metabolism and adrenaline regulation.
Pistachios
Rich in potassium and monounsaturated fats and a few other healthy nutrients, this is another option for vegans. However in order to have a complete amino acid profile it is best recommended to mix with beans or grains.
If you prefer having them with fish or meat there are a few kitchen hacks that you can try. Toasted pistachios with cumin and cardomon for brown rice. Grind pistachio to use it a s a paste for grilled fish or meat.
A few well recognized essential amino acids supplements to help you keep the calorie clock ticking.
Amino Acids functions
Most of us are aware that proteins are the key to muscle build. But you will be surprised by how much they are involved in other organic functions.
Mentioned below is a summary of the vital functions carried out by the 9 essential amino acids.
First and foremost yes they are the pioneers in structure and function of proteins and enzymes. Even neurotransmitters such as dopamine.
Stimulating muscle growth and energy production. Maintaining skin care and playing a vital role in fat metabolism.
Maintaining metabolism and detoxification, absorption of other vital multivitamins and minerals. Improving the immune system. Producing growth hormones, regulating blood pressure.
Hemoglobin production, muscle tissue repair, maintaining proper sleep cycles and improving nerve cell health.
Amino Acids Benefits
Prevents muscle mass loss while reducing body weight
We cannot stress this fact enough. While aiding in the production of muscle it also helps prevent loss of muscle mass. Specially as you grow older and muscle mass tends to drop over illnesses.
Studies proved that for adults who maintained a healthy level of amino acids, muscle protein synthesis was preserved over others.
Also research proved that BCAA(branched chain amino acids) stimulates fat loss. However this point hasn’t been thoroughly confirmed. Nevertheless for some people it worked better than whey protein for fat loss.
Sleep better
We mentioned that these contribute a lot in neurotransmission. Some chemicals such as serotonin is essential for good behavior, sleep, mood swings.
Low levels of serotonin has been proven as acting stimulus for depression, bad sleep.
Improves fitness
Most of us use BCAA during workouts and pre-workout. This is because it regulates blood pressure during workouts and prevents fatigue.
Also it decreases muscle soreness. Specially after an intense training session with heavy weights, supplementing with BCAA has shown to improve muscle recovery.
Conclusion
Well I hope this is enough to convince the benefits of eating whole foods. If you are a fitness freak, highly athletic and engaged in many sports, hit the gym often intake of Foods with Amino Acids are vital.
Especially since the 9 essential amino acids aren’t synthesized internally, you must make sure that you’re getting enough. You can get it in both animal and plant based protein sources.
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