Indeed, leucine is getting a lot of lip service. And for good reason I will add. For a quick review, remember that researchers have shown that increases in the blood levels of amino acids results in an increase in muscle protein synthesis.
Indeed, leucine is getting a lot of lip service. And for good reason I will add. For a quick review, remember that researchers have shown that increases in the blood levels of amino acids results in an increase in muscle protein synthesis. Studies a few years later then went on to show that only the essential amino acids were needed to stimulate muscle protein synthesis. The essential amino acids are those amino acids which cannot be produced by the body and as a result they must be received in the diet. Leucine, of course, is one of the essential amino acids.
Next, researchers began exploring how much of the essential amino acids were needed to stimulate muscle protein synthesis and they concluded that a dose of 6 to 12 grams of the essential amino acids were needed. This amount of the essential amino acids is what is provided with a typical 25 gram dose of whey protein isolate or hydrolysate.
Certainly you can get good doses of the essential amino acids with eating any complete protein as well. A complete protein is any source of protein that contains all of the essential amino acids and all animal sources of protein are complete proteins. Milk, egg, dairy, beef, chicken, fish, etc. are all complete protein sources and provide all of the essential amino acids, but a solid whey protein isolate contains the greatest concentrations of these.
A total of nine amino acids are considered to be essential, and to date very little research has been conducted to determine which of these nine essential amino acids are needed in the greatest amounts. Much of this research has focused upon leucine. In p