Amino Acids are the key building blocks which dictates and regulates what the state of our body is health wise. They are the key vital contributors when it comes to maintaining its optimal well being while helping us keep our vitality at its peak maximum.
There are 22 known amino acids in our body where 10 of them are essential, which means that the human body is not able to manufacture them on its own. The other 12 Amino Acids are nonessential, where the human body is capable of manufacturing them with the proper nutrition.
Amino Acids are crucial for maintaining proper health. What needs to be understood however is the critical importance of protein. What the protein substance does is it makes up the tendons, ligaments, glands, muscles, organs, hair and nails in our body.
Protein contributes to and are thus essential for the repair, maintenance and growth of these body parts as well as the efficient healing of the tissues, bones, and cells.
Insufficient or poor levels of the essential amino acids will dramatically interrupt how our bodies are able to function. For instance, a deficiency in histidine and phenylalanine, which are essential amino acids, causes neurological problems as well as bouts of depression. Low levels of tryptophan can make us anxious, irritable and unable to sleep properly.
The protein which is resident in our body is broken down primarily from outside sources such as bacteria, germs and viruses, or from poor digestion.
Amino Acids Found In Protein
Where essential amino acids are found most abundantly is in high protein based foods, while all healthy food contains certain amounts. Food from animals such as chicken, pork, beef, turkey or lamb, as well as milk, eggs and cheese are all complete with proteins which contains all of the 10 essential amino acids.
The majority of vegetable proteins also contains adequate levels of the essentials, but not usually all of them, depending on the variety of produce.
Some of the vegetables will contain traces or be completely non existent in a couple of the essential amino acids. Certain grains, nuts, legumes, germ coverings and some selected vegetables may fall into this category.
The best way of getting sufficient levels of these essentials is by eating a well balanced diet, which is the key. A diet which contains a variety of healthy wholesome foods including lean meat and green leafy vegetables is critical and recommended.
If you eat all of the complete protein groups on a daily basis, then it’s not required to take additional supplements or necessary to create different food combinations.
Balancing Out The Protein Intake
For those of you who are on a “lacto-ovo” vegetarian based diet, you should be less concerned than those who choose to follow a regular vegan diet. For these types of vegetarian diets, what’s required is establishing a good protein balance intake plan specifically from selected grains, legumes, vegetables, and nuts.
Eating different types of grain, seeds and beans are the easiest way of getting an adequate balance of the proteins. The various cultures from around the world who are on traditional vegan based diets seem to have this problem solved, such as sticking to a steady diet of chickpeas and couscous or black beans and rice.
It’s also been stated that some complete vegetarian proteins, the one’s which contain all 10 of the essential amino acids can be better than consuming animal protein. This provided that the complete range of proteins and essentials are completely consumed.
These high concentration protein foods are found in sesame seeds, almonds, sunflower and pumpkin seeds, buckwheat, soybeans, potatoes, peanuts, the majority of leafy greens vegetables and the majority of fruits.
The Benefits Of Consuming Chocolate
Now that we have your attention, what pure chocolate contains are significant amounts of arginine, which is an essential amino acid which is used to produce nitric oxide.
What nitric oxide does is it causes the blood vessels to relax which helps in increasing the blood flow while controlling blood pressure. So when chocolate is eaten in moderation, particularly pure dark chocolate, it can provide excellent health benefits.
The Type Of Chocolate You Should Be Eating
• Make sure that you choose pure dark chocolate which isn’t overly processed while containing just natural ingredients
• Choose chocolate which is sugar-free, especially if you suffer from hypoglycemia or diabetes
• Only choose dairy-free vegan chocolate if you’re on a vegan based diet
Amino Acid Supplements
Attempting to pay strict attention to what we eat or how we decide to combine which foods to eat to maximize essential amino acid intake are important steps that we should be taking to prevent deficiency in these required essentials.
But more than likely, what we eat usually won’t give us the proper intake of these much need amino acids on a daily basis. The alternate is taking essential Amino Acid supplements.
These supplements are also an excellent way for those who may be suffering from nervous or certain mental disorders, experiencing chronic fatigue syndrome, heart disease, epilepsy, diabetes, herpes or anemia.
Taking these amino acids in supplemental form are available in a combination of all 10 essential amino acids or in single form. It’s always recommended that you consult with a health practitioner to find which supplements will be suitable for your particular situation.