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Amino acids 101: protein's building blocks

Amino acids, the building blocks of protein, are a common supplement in natural products stores. But what exactly are they and why do we need them?

Although more than 80 amino acids exist in nature, only 20 of these combine to create the various proteins in the human body. Nine of these are called "essential amino acids," meaning that they must be attained from food. The essential amino acids are isoleucine, leucine, lysine, methionine, phenylalanine, threonine, tryptophan and valine. Histidine is considered semi-essential because we only need to get it from a dietary source as infants. Our bodies produce the other 11, called "nonessential amino acids": arginine, alanine, asparagine, ...

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