What Is Aspartic Acid & What Foods Can I Find It In?

3D-model of Aspartic acid (src)

Aspartic acid is an acidic amino acid. It gives it a negative charge.

Negatively charged amino acids play several important roles in proteins.

Aspartic acid was known before as aspartate.

It’s a non-essential amino acid. Non-essential means that it can be made by humans in the body when needed.

Table of Contents

Aspartic Acid Is Non-Essential But Important

Aspartic acid is a non-essential amino acid.

It plays an important role in the synthesis of other amino acids.

Aspartic acid also serves as a neurotransmitter. (source )

Aspartic acid has an average occurrence of about 5% in all proteins.

Aspartic acid is used as a major constituent of keratin, the protein found in hair and nails.

It is the fourth most important component of the human brain, and it is also found in the male and female reproductive systems.

Aspartic Acid Converts Glucose

Aspartic acid is one of the most important amino acids in the human diet.

Aspartic acid is used in the body to form the enzyme aspartate aminotransferase, which helps the body to convert glucose to glycogen.

Measurement For Vitamin B6

Levels of aspartic acid and alanine are used to assess the levels of vitamin B6.

It is considered to be a long-term indicator of a person's vitamin B6 status. (source )

Aspartic Acid For Muscle Mass?

Some believe that aspartic acid can be good for testosterone levels and increased muscle mass and strength.

But no research supports these claims.

Studies have shown that supplementation with aspartic acid can show positive results in animal studies.

But in human studies, supplementation gives no effect. (source )

Foods You Can Find Aspartic Acid In

You find aspartic acid mostly in legumes, eggs, american indian and alaska native food, beverages.

Examples of food sources include

Foods in our nutrition tool

You can find regularly updated, top ranked lists of foods for over 200+ nutrients in our nutrition tool.

If you are interested in what foods contain the most aspartic acid, we recommend you visit our tool.

Here's our top ranked list of foods that contain Aspartic Acid.

Sara Niemelä

co-founder Care Omnia, Head Content Creator

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Nutrition is my passion. I've spent thousands upon thousands of hours reading, analyzing, categorizing and comparing research studies.

I’m a wife and a mother of three. I enjoy the outdoors, cooking, and spending time with my family.