Researchers have known about leucine for decades, but exciting
new research has shed a new and broader light on this important
health-promoting amino acid. Much of protein’s benefits may be
attributable to leucine due to its ability to stimulate protein
synthesis, help turn on the body’s switch to build muscle and
spare muscle when dieting. Leucine is an essential BCAA Leucine
is an essential amino acid, which simply means our bodies cannot
produce it and we must get it from dietary sources. Leucine is
the most abundant of the three branched chain amino acids
(BCAAs) in muscles (the other two are isoleucine and valine).
BCAAs make up a high proportion of the amino acids in muscle.
They are unique because they are the only amino acids burned by
muscles as fuel; thus, both blood and muscle levels of BCAAs
decrease after exercise. In the past, researchers viewed amino
acids simply as substances needed to make muscle and other body
proteins—sort of like the bricks needed to build a house. In the
case of leucine,