What Is Cysteine & What Foods Can I Find It In?
Cysteine is mostly a non-essential amino acid.
Non-essential means that the body can synthesize the acid itself.
But in some cases, cysteine can be essential for infants, the elderly, and some people with certain metabolic diseases, making it a conditionally essential amino acid.
For the body to be able to synthesize cysteine, is it crucial that there is a sufficient quantity of the amino acid methionine.
Cysteine has the same structure as the amino acid serine.
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Benefits Of Cysteine
Cysteine is a conditionally essential sulfur-containing amino acid. (source ◳)
Cysteine is found in beta-keratin, an important component of skin, hair, and nails. (source ◳)
You can find other benefits of cysteine in Cysteine: 5 Research-Backed Benefits .
Cysteine In The Body
The human body uses cysteine to produce the antioxidant glutathione, as well as the amino acid taurine.
The body can also convert cysteine into glucose for a source of energy. (source ◳)
Cysteine In Food
By eating enough protein in your diet, you get all of the cysteine and all other important amino acids you need. (source ◳)
If you are interested in a list of foods where you can find this nutrient. Go to our nutrition tool and check out cysteine.
Foods You Can Find Cysteine In
You find Cysteine mostly in legume, dairy and egg, and sausage and luncheon meat products.
Examples of food sources include
- Soy Flour
- Egg Yolk
- Egg White
- Whole Egg
- Turkey Sausage
- Ricotta
- Breakfast Beef Sausage
Foods That Contain Cysteine 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 Cysteine we recommend you visit our tool.
Here's our top ranked list of foods that contain Cysteine.