Add These Foods To Your Diet To Get All 9 Essential Amino Acids
Carnivore, omnivore or vegetarian/vegan – We all need quality proteins
Protein is an essential part of the human body. No matter whether you prefer to get yours from animal or plant-based protein sources, your body needs all 9 essential amino acids in order to function properly.
What are the 9 essential amino acids and how do you get them? Let’s take a closer look at proteins and amino acids and the best foods for getting all 9 EAAs in every bite.
What are essential amino acids?
Let’s break down this phrase “essential amino acids” to better understand what we are talking about.
The word “essential” has a very specific meaning when it comes nutrition. An “essential” nutrient is one that your body must have to function normally, but that your body cannot build itself. Therefore all essential nutrients MUST come directly from the food you eat. If your diet does not provide these essential nutrients, deficiencies can result and contribute to injury, illness, and disease.
“Amino acids” are the are the building blocks of proteins. Your body is about 20% protein and proteins are present in every single cell. Your muscles, organs, hormones and enzymes are all proteins. There are about 20 amino acids working to create those proteins. Of these twenty, 9 are considered essential amino acids.
Essential amino acids are building blocks for proteins in the human body that must come directly from your diet. Your body cannot make these 9 amino acids: histidine, isoleucine, leucine, lysine, methionine, phenylalanine, threonine, tryptophan, and valine.
Which foods have all 9 essential amino acids?
Foods that have all 9 essential amino acids are called complete proteins.
The highest quality complete proteins come from animal sources, in part because they contain substantial amounts of the 9 EAAs and in part because those proteins are more bioavailable than plant protein sources (read more about animal vs plant protein bioavailability here).