Essential and Non-Essential Amino Acids
Essential amino acids are those that our body cannot synthesize and must be acquired through our diet.
These eight essential amino acids are:
- isoleucine
- leucine
- lysine
- methionine
- phenylalanine
- threonine
- tryptophan
- valine
There are twelve primary non-essential amino acids (plus another eight minor non-essential which we will not discuss in this section). These non-essential amino acids can be manufactured by the body and/or obtained through the diet.
*These are not found in body tissue structure, but contribute to human metabolism.