Proteins and amino acids

Amino acids are derived by the body from proteins from our diet. Proteins occur in meat, fish, whole grains, pulses, beans, eggs.  The body can produce most of the 24 amino acids from other proteins, but 9 amino acids that the body needs can only come from the diet and therefore we need to consume enough of the foods where these so-called essential amino acids occur.

These are: histidine, isoleucine, leucine, lysine, methionine, phenylalanine, threonine, tryptophan and valine, which we can obtain from meat, fish, egg and dairy products and vegetable sources.