What Is Leucine & What Foods Can I Find It In?
Leucine is an essential amino acid that is used in the biosynthesis of proteins, used as building blocks.
Leucine metabolism occurs in many tissues in our body, especially in the liver, adipose tissue, and muscle tissue.
Essential means that the body cannot synthesize it, and therefore must be ingested through our diet.
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Leucine Is Important With Many Health Benefits
Leucine is one of nine essential amino acids in humans.
Leucine is important for protein synthesis and many metabolic functions. (source ◳)
Leucine, together with isoleucine and valine, make up about one-third of muscle protein.
They are branched-chain amino acids. (source ◳)
Leucine is beneficial in the regulation of blood-sugar levels and growth, among other things. You can see the benefits of leucine in Leucine: 6 Research-Backed Benefits .
You get leucine from foods
Leucine cannot be synthesized in the body, it must be obtained from the diet. (source ◳)
Because leucine is available in many foods is deficiency rare. (source ◳)
Foods You Can Find Leucine In
You find Leucine mostly in dairy and egg, legume, american indian and alaska native food, and seafood products.
Examples of food sources include
- Egg White
- Soy Protein Isolate
- Bearded Seal
- Beluga Whale Meat
- Atlantic Cod
- Spirulina
- Soy Protein Concentrate
Foods That Contain Leucine 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 Leucine we recommend you visit our tool.
Here's our top ranked list of foods that contain Leucine.