Among the most beneficial and effective supplements in any sports nutrition program
are branched chain amino acids. These are the essential aminos leucine, isoleucine,
and valine.
Although these supplements have been around for a long time and the scientific
understanding in the exercise performance benefits of BCAA supplementation is
rich many people dont know exactly how they exert their effects or how and
when to use them properly.
You probably know that amino acids are the building blocks of protein. When
you eat a protein food, it gets digested in the stomach and intestine into individual
amino acids and short chains of amino acids that are small enough to be absorbed
into the bloodstream. These amino acids have far reaching effects in the body
from building and repairing tissues, to producing chemicals that enable our
brains to function optimally.
What Is The Difference Between Essential and Non-Essential Amino Acids?
Essential amino acids cannot be made by the body. You must get them from complete
protein foods or combinations of incomplete vegetable foods. There are 9 essential
amino acids: histidine, isoleucine, leucine, lysine, methionine, phenylalanine,
tryptophan, and valine. Your body can make non-essential amino acids by itself
from vitamins and other amino acids.
The term "non-essential" can be misleading since all amino acids
are essential for proper metabolism and certain non-essential amino acids, such
as glutamine, become very essential. The 13 non-essential amino acids are alanine,
arginine, aspartic acid, cysteine, cystine, glutamic acid, glutamine, glycine,
hydroxyproline, proline, serine, & tyrosine.
The essential branched chain amino acids (BCAAs) are of special importance
for athletes because they are metabolized in the muscle, rather than in the
liver. Heres how this works: After digestion once protein is broken down into
individual amino acids these aminos can either be used to build new proteins
or be burned as fuel to produce energy.