Aminoacids for recovery from fatigue.

The other day we spoke about branched aminoacids and their contribution to muscular fatigue.

We spoke of how we could fight muscular fatigue by consuming these aminoacids and how they affect the decrease of these aminoacids in serotonine production. Now we are going to speak of how we can eat these aminoacids.

Aminoacids, as we said before, are the basic elements of proteins, or better said the proteins are made from aminoacids. The digestion of proteins give us aminoacids as nutrients, so to obtain these branched aminoacids we need to eat proteins.

Any person with a balanced diet is taking the right proportions of aminoacids for the correct function of his body, his requirements for normal sport conditions.

When we do intense exercise, our nutrients requirements increase and, as we saw before, we don’t consume aminoacids in the same proportions. We consume more branched aminoacids than other aminoacids, and that leads to fatigue. So if we want to fight it we have to supplement our diet with these elements.

There is food with a higher proportion of branched aminoacids: dairy products, meat, fish, eggs, whole cereals (rice and wheat), legumes (lentils, soya, etc.) and nuts (walnuts and peanuts).

• L-Leucine: Whole rice and wheat, beans, soya, walnuts and meat.

• L-Isoleucine: Lentils, almonds, chickpeas, eggs, chicken, fish, meat, barley and soya.

• L-Valine: Dairy products, meat, soya, peanuts and mushrooms.

Whole cereals have a lot more proteins than white cereals, being more healthy and helping with fatigue, specially when combined with legumes (as for example lentils with rice) where the protein input is more balanced and complete.

Besides there are many protein supplements extracted from whey (from the industry of cheese and yoghurt), that have a great proportion of these branched aminoacids. There is no prove that is more efficient than other dairy products. The dairy products may have more fats, but also more vitamins and minerals, necessary for the body.

What really works is to take these branched aminoacids after and/or before intense exercise, not only in muscular fatigue, but in the development of body mass and a better recovery.