💊Daily Pill: Leucine

Flip the switch for muscle building

The Daily Pill is a series of very short daily posts where I share the definition of a medical term I think we should all know. Read it every morning and build up your medical vocabulary.

Leucine

Leucine is an essential amino acid - meaning your body can't produce it on its own, so you have to get it from your diet. Amino acids are the building blocks of proteins and play a crucial role in muscle growth and repair. Leucine is particularly important because it activates the pathway for muscle building (mTOR, for those who dabble in molecular biology). Hence, leucine is vital for building and maintaining muscle mass - especially in response to exercise. It's found in high amounts in foods like meat, dairy products, and legumes… you may want to consume it as a supplement just for good measure.

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🤔Why you need to know:

The difference between high quality proteins and low quality proteins in your diet - for the purposes of muscle building, comes down to leucine content:

🧠Trivia:

The finding that established leucine as the key amino acid for muscle growth, revolutionizing our understanding of how dietary proteins influence muscle development, happened in the early 1980s at Harvard Medical School.