What Are Amino Acids?

• Amino acids are tiny building blocks that make proteins in our body.

• They are made of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen.

• There are 20 different amino acids used to build all the proteins in your body.

  
  

Function of Amino Acids

• They build and repair muscles, skin, and organs.

• Help in making enzymes (proteins that speed up body reactions).

• Help the body make hormones, like insulin.

• Needed for making neurotransmitters, which help brain cells talk to each other.

• Help in transporting nutrients in the body.

• Support your immune system to fight illness.

Why Are Amino Acids Important?

• Without amino acids, the body can’t make proteins, which are needed for growth and healing.

• They keep the body strong, active, and healthy.

• They are needed to break down food and use it as energy.

• Some amino acids also help with mood, sleep, and memory.

Where Do Amino Acids Come From?

• The body can make some amino acids on its own (these are called non-essential amino acids).

• But 9 amino acids must come from food (called essential amino acids).

• You get them from protein-rich foods like:

  
  

  • Eggs, meat, fish, and dairy

  • Beans, lentils, soy, and nuts

    
    

    How the Body Balances Amino Acids

    • Your body keeps a pool of amino acids in your blood.

    • It takes what it needs to build proteins as needed.

    • If there are extra amino acids, they are broken down and used for energy or stored as fat.

    • Your body can’t store amino acids for later use like it can with fat or carbs, so you need to eat protein every day.

    
    

    Fun Fact: Combining Foods for All Amino Acids

    • Some plant-based foods are missing one or two essential amino acids.

    • But if you eat two types together (like rice and beans), you get the full set.

    • These are called complementary proteins.

  
  
  
  

  My favourite part/note/summary:

  When amino acids combine they make protein.

  Amino acids are like alphabets, if you rearrange each alphabets in different order you can make different words, just like this, if you combine different types of amino acids with difffrent types of amino acids you can create a protein.

  Example:

  Imagine these five amino acids are letters:

  • A = Alanine

  • L = Leucine

  • G = Glycine

  • T = Threonine

  • S = Serine

  Now let’s say the body puts them together like this:

  • W1: ALGT → This might become a muscle protein

  • W2: GLAS → This might become a brain signal protein

  • W3: LAGS → This might be a protein that repairs cells

  Just like how “stop” and “pots” have the same letters but different meanings, changing the order of amino acids makes a completely different protein — with a different job!

  ⸻

  So:

  • Amino acids = letters

  • Protein = word

  • Function = meaning of the word

  Even a small change in one amino acid is like changing one letter — it can totally change what the protein does, or even make it useless.