Leucine is an essential amino acid, which means that it cannot be produced in our bodies.
Many body builders and athletes take supplements with this amino acid to promote faster muscle recovery.
What Does It Do?
It helps regulate blood sugar, growth and repair of muscle tissue, healing wounds, energy regulation, and growth hormone production.
It can also prevent the breakdown of protein in the muscle after stress or trauma occurs. As stated before it can also help promote muscle recovery.
As you can see it does many things in our bodies and is very useful for athletes and bodybuilders.
What If I Don’t Take Enough?
Good news… it is almost impossible to be deficient in this amino acid simply because all protein foods contain it. The only time you can really be deficient is if you starve yourself and in some cases some vegans and vegetarians can be deficient.
The Symptoms include :
# Dizziness
# Headaches
# Irritability
# Fatigue
They symptoms are similar to a lot of different problems so it is hard to tell if you are deficient.
What If I Take Too Much?
First off before I start, if you plan on taking a supplement with Leucine in it, be sure to keep the three branched amino acids (Isoleucine and Valine included) even for the most part.
If you take too much it can contribute to pellagra (A nutrition disease) and ammonia in the body.
What Foods Have It?
Any foods with a good source of protein have it. Some foods like brown rice, beans, whole wheat, nuts, and meat have a good source of it.
Overview
I suggest if you are working out very hard you should eat plenty of protein. That means you don’t necessarily need to use a supplement specifically with this essential amino acid.
I would however take a supplement with essential amino acids so that you can get enough of all the essential amino acids.
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