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Essential Amino Acids | Fitness, Health & Exercise Glossary

What Are the 8 Essential Amino Acids and What Are Their Benefits?

Definition of Essential Amino Acids

Essential Amino Acids (also known as Indispensible Amino Acids) are amino acids that cannot be synthesized by the body, and thus must be supplied by diet. 

Essential Amino Acids, while required by the human body to support life, are not called “essential”  because they are more important than other amino acids, but instead because they cannot be produced by the body. In other words, they must be obtained through food sources since the body cannot produce them itself.

Non-essential amino acids are those that are synthesized by the body and do not require dietary supplementation.

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What Is A Complete Protein? Complete vs Incomplete Proteins | Ask The Fitness Nerd

Completely Confused About Complete Proteins? Learn What A Complete Protein Is and How Balance Your Protein Intake

Dear Fitness Nerd,

Can you explain exactly what a complete protein is? I’m 23 and pretty into fitness, working out, etc. I lift weights several times a week and run daily.  But I’m also a vegetarian and concerned I may not be eating enough protein every day to support my activity levels.  I’m also worried that since I primarily eat plant sources of protein, I might not be getting a complete protein. Can you help me out here? Thanks!   – Jessa (San Diego - CA)

A complete protein is a protein source that contains all eight essential amino acids in the sufficient proportions to support normal biological functions.   In adults, the eight essential amino acids are:

• Phenylalanine
• Valine
• Threonine
• Tryptophan
• Isoleucine
• Methionine
• Leucine
• Lysine

These amino acids are called “essential” because the body cannot make them, so they have to be supplied through diet.  Recently, histadine has been added to this list as well, as scientists discovered that adults cannot synthesize it.

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Black Beans and Egg Breakfast Bowl Recipe | Healthy Recipes & Snacks

Breakfast and Black Beans? Check Out This Protein-Packed, High-Fiber and Low-Fat Breakfast Recipe That Takes Less Than Five Minutes To Prepare. 

Unless you’re from Latin America, Mexico or Spain, beans and breakfast aren’t normally two things you associate together.

But maybe you should — especially if your usual breakfast routine is getting is getting stale and could use a kick. 

Beans are one of the most nutritious and inexpensive additions to any healthy pantry.  Filling, low-in-fat, and loaded with soluble fiber, protein, minerals and healthy antioxidants, beans are clean eating powerhouses. And that means not just made into soup or served with rice, but believe it or not, as a breakfast dish.

Black Beans and Eggs? For Breakfast?

This recipe uses canned black beans combined with eggs and traditional Mexican herbs and spices to make a tasty breakfast bowl that you can throw together in less than five minutes from finish to start.

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Can You Mix Whey Protein Isolate in a Blender? | Ask The Fitness Nerd

Does Mixing Whey Protein Isolate in a Blender Make It Less Effective?

Dear Fitness Nerd,

I’ve been drinking whey protein isolate for a couple of years. Usually I mix it up in a blender with some juice or milk after I workout or for a smoothie in the morning. But a guy at the gym recently told me that it’s better to mix your whey in a shaker bottle and not in a blender. He said it has something to do with the blender messing up the whey proteins and interfering with absorption. I’ve never heard that before. Is there any problem I should know about with mixing whey in a blender? Tony — Staten Island, NY

Tony, I’m always fascinated by how myths like this get started.

After looking at hundreds of these types of questions, I’ve come to the conclusion that 90% of them start with some “guy at the gym.”  

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Salmon Patties Recipe | Healthy Recipes & Snacks

A salmon pattie recipe made extra-healthy without sacrificing flavor … and it’s even lightly fried!

Whenever I sing the praises of my salmon patties recipe, people who have never had a salmon patty always seem surprised that salmon can be “pattied.” After-all, isn’t salmon something you eat filleted on a cedar plank? They also get that same weirded out look that people get when they first find out escargot are snails.  The thought of fish shaped into a patty probably brings back bad memories of “fish fillet” day in the elementary school cafeteria, so I supposed you can’t expect to turn someone into a salmon patty lover over night.

Unless, of course, you can get them to try one — which usually involves me comparing them to crab cakes, which nearly everyone loves. Or, you can just call them salmon “croquettes” and the substitution of a French word for the word “patties” makes them sound gourmet and upscale. Suddenly, people think they are chic and want to try one.

Here’s the thing though: Salmon patties are wicked healthy, especially if you make a few modifications to the traditional salmon patties recipes floating around out there.  So if you are trying to add more healthy fats from things like fish into your diet, it’s worth your time to at least give this salmon pattie recipe a spin. If you like it, it will probably become a staple recipe in your clean eating diet.

First, a few things you should know about salmon patties and this particular salmon patty recipe.

Salmon Patties Are Easy!

One of the great things about salmon patties is that they are one of the simplest dishes to make, and they don’t take any special ingredients or equipment. Think meatloaf, but made out of salmon and pressed into little discs.

You literally can put this salmon patty recipe together in less than 10 minutes with canned salmon and six additional ingredients you probably already have in your pantry and refrigerator.  All you need is a glass bowl, a fork and your hands (that’s why they call them “patties.”) Cooking time is about 15 minutes, so you can have a healthy, clean meal in less than 30 minutes. And if you make extras (which I would recommend) you can either eat them for lunch or dinner the next day, or freeze them for a later meal.

If you want to make them with fresh salmon the preparation is a little more involved. Since we are trying to limit your time in the kitchen, so you can instead spend it running, working out or staying physically active, we’re going to use the tried and true canned salmon, which makes preparation very fast.

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True Lemon®: Get Real Lemon In a Powder … With No Rind! | Healthy Food of The Day

True Lemon has everything you’d want in a lemon juice … sans the juicer or rind. Learn why True Lemon deserves to be in every Clean Eating pantry.

A question for you: What food has zero calories, zero fat, zero sugar, less than one gram of carbs and 25% of your U.S. recommended daily allowance of Vitamin C?

If you answered lemons (which I bet you didn’t), you’d be only partially right.

It’s called True Lemon® , and it’s one of those foods that once you discover it, you can’t really imagine not always having some of it around.

Not only is it a healthy way to make plain old water taste better, but you can use it in place of fresh lemon juice in things like tea and healthy recipes (for example vinaigrettes for dressing your salad.)

The best part? True Lemon is the ultimate portable flavor-enhancer. While carting around a whole lemon to add to your tea isn’t really practical for most people, a packet of True Lemon can accomplish the same thing with less effort.  And because it’s crystallized, the True Lemon people can put it in tiny, 0.8 gram packets that you can litter around the places where you’d need it the most, like the car glove box, your laptop bag, your desk drawer and even your coat pocket.

In other words, True Lemon is like carrying a fresh lemon with you in your pocket — without the bulk, rind, and lemon juicer implement to contend with.

What Is True Lemon? And is it Real Lemon?

True Lemon is real lemon — it’s made from lemon juices and the volatile oils in lemon rinds which give lemons their fragrance, vitamins and sour “punch” that we all love in drinks, teas and recipes. The difference between real lemons and the bag of lemons in the green or yellow mesh pouch that you buy at the grocery store has to do with the portability of it.

The folks at Real Lemon have developed a way to take lemon juice from whole lemons, as well as the oils from the lemon’s rind, and crystallize it in a way that preserves the natural flavor, tartness and properties of lemon juice. They then wrap it up in a tiny package that is more economical and convenient than carrying around a bag of lemons (or grabbing one of those possibly unsanitary lemon wedges off from the drink station at a restaurant.)

Want a little lemon kick to your iced tea or sparkling water? No problem. Just pull out a packet of Real Lemon, tear it open, and dump it in. Honestly, I’d challenge anyone to tell the difference between Real Lemon and the “real” stuff in the heavy yellow rind.  I know a bunch of “lemon-in-my -tea” fanatics who have switched to Real Lemon because they can control the tartness, and add lemon flavor, even when a restaurant doesn’t have fresh lemon wedges available.

True Lemon and Recipes and Baking

True Lemon is also a great stand-in for fresh lemon juice in things like marinades, coating or salad dressings.

Case in Point: While I always try to keep some fresh lemons on hand, a few nights ago, I ran short when I was whipping together a vinaigrettes.  I was actually a bit apprehensive about substituting Real Lemon powder in for the fresh stuff, but really didn’t have much choice. In the end, I was surprised at what a great stand-in Real Lemon was for fresh lemon juice. I have a suspicion that most people, including myself, would never be able to tell the difference.

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Ezekiel 4:9 Sprouted Grain Bread | Healthy Food of The Day

Food For Life’s Ezekiel 4:9 Sprouted Grain Bread Is A Crunchy, Healthy, Protein-Balanced Slice of Organic Goodness

Bread made without flour? Out of sprouted grains, legumes and seeds? This couldn’t possibly taste good, could it?

In the past, I’ve sung the praises of Food for Life’s Ezekiel 4:9 sprouted grain cereal.

Based loosely on a Biblical recipe culled from the Book of Ezekiel, Food for Life (the company that makes Ezekiel bread) has introduced a whole line of sprouted grain foods that run the gamut from Cereal, to bread to pasta and even tortillas. 

Regardless of how you feel about the scriptural roots of these foods (or even your interpretation of the related Biblical passages — and there are many), the folks who make Ezekiel 4:9 bread and cereal are on to something. At the end of the day, you could be a pagan and still benefit from this bread.

While it seems inconceivable that you could make a crunchy cereal or fluffy, light loaf of bread out of sprouted grains and beans, Food for Life has figured out how to do it.

And even better, they’ve done it without sacrificing nutrition, flavor or using preservatives or sweeteners like high fructose corn syrup.

In the case of Ezekiel 4:9 Sprouted Grain Bread, the result is an organic, nutritionally-dense, high fiber bread that also is a complete protein — one of the few breads on the market that contain all 9 essential amino acids, is low in fat, has no Trans Fats or cholesterol and is generally low in sodium. 

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