amino acids

• proteins are made of smaller building blocks called amino acids
• there are about 20 different amino acids that combine to make up the millions of proteins found in nature
• a protein can consist of between 50 and tens of thousands of amino acids
• a protein chain is made of many amino acids
• the body breaks down protein into amino acids
• essential amino acids are amino acids that must be supplied to us through our diet and cannot be made by the body
• non essential amino acids are amino acids that can be made by the body
• high biological value protein foods contain all the essential amino acids
• for adults, 9 amino acids have to be provided in the diet: histidene, isoleucine, leucine, lysine, methionine, phenylalanine, threonine, tryptophan, valine
• in children, these amino acids are also considered essential: arginine, cysteine, glutamine, glycine, proline, tyrosine
• conditionally essential amino acids need to be obtained from food sources at certain life stages because they cannot be provided in sufficient quantities to satisfy the needs of the body
• low biological value protein foods have one or more of the essential amino acids missing
• the non essential amino acids in adults are: alanine, arganine, aspartic acid, asparagine, proline, serine