Complete Proteins
For optimum performance and effective muscle building, your diet should be rich in complete proteins. Meat, fish, and whey are excellent sources of complete proteins.
For optimum performance and effective muscle building, your diet should be rich in complete proteins. Meat, fish, and whey are excellent sources of complete proteins.
Amino Acids
Your muscles are made of protein. Proteins are made of amino acids. There are 20 different amino acids.
Amino acids are not only used for protein building, they have many other functions in your metabolism and brain function.
Your muscles are made of protein. Proteins are made of amino acids. There are 20 different amino acids.
Amino acids are not only used for protein building, they have many other functions in your metabolism and brain function.
Proteins
There are many different proteins. The proteins that you eat are broken down into their component amino acids, and these amino acids are reassembled into the proteins that your body needs.
Proteins are not only necessary for muscle building. They are essential for many chemical processes in your body, carry chemicals such as oxygen around, and are used to build cartilage, hair and nails.
Essential Amino Acids
Of the 20 amino acids that your body needs, 8 are classified as “essential amino acids.” These are amino acids that your body cannot produce, so they must be present in your food. The remaining 12 amino acids are nonessential. Your body can make nonessential amino acids from other amino acids, or from scratch.
The Complete Set
It is important that you consume proteins that contain a full set of these 8 essential amino acids. Proteins that contain all 8 essential amino acids are called “complete proteins.”
Even if you consume incomplete proteins, which are missing some essential amino acids, you can make them complete by adding a different protein that contains the missing amino acids. Animal proteins are complete. Most vegetable proteins are not. Notable exceptions are soy and buckwheat, they contain complete proteins. But even incomplete vegetable proteins can be made complete by combining them with other incomplete proteins.
Some complete proteins:
- Meat, all kinds
- Fish
- Eggs
- Dairy, including whey
- Soy
- Buckwheat
- Legumes combined with nuts or grains
