Protein and amino acids
To understand the diet properly, it helps to know what happens to protein in a healthy body.
Key points
What food gives us
Our bodies are made of water, protein, fats (lipids), sugars (carbohydrates) and minerals, not forgetting vitamins. All of these are essential to life and come mainly from what we eat. Digestion gradually breaks food down into nutrients, substances small enough to be absorbed and then used by our cells.
Energy, building and maintenance
Sugars and fats serve mainly as fuel for all the vital functions. Protein is used first to build tissues during growth, then to maintain and renew them; any surplus can also be burned to provide energy. Water, minerals and vitamins provide no energy, but the body cannot do without them.
Metabolism and its enzymes
Metabolism covers all the chemical changes that nutrients undergo to produce energy and make the body’s components. Each reaction is carried out by a specialised tool, an enzyme, and there are a great many of them. To work properly, an enzyme sometimes needs a cofactor, a substance that makes it more efficient and is most often a vitamin.
Amino acids, the links in the protein chain
A protein is a chain of amino acids, and human proteins are built from twenty different amino acids. Some, called essential amino acids, cannot be made by the body, so they must come from food. The amino acids in the blood have two sources: protein from meals, once digested, and the body’s own proteins, which wear out and are constantly replaced.
Anabolism and catabolism
The amino acids in the blood are used first to make the body’s proteins: this is anabolism, a process that uses energy and makes growth possible. An ordinary diet generally provides far more protein than the body needs. The surplus is broken down by enzymes, often one per amino acid, and yields a little energy: this is catabolism. The intermediate steps of this breakdown produce organic acids.
The other topics.
Understanding the condition
Disorders of amino acid catabolism
An enzyme is missing: the body cannot break down certain amino acids normally.
The treatment
The principles of treatment
A diet specific to each condition, set by your medical team.
Childhood, adolescence, pregnancy
Phenylketonuria (PKU)
Your child’s diet, adolescence and pregnancy.
Risk situations
Maple syrup urine disease (MSUD)
A lifelong diet, the warning signs and what to do first.
Diet and monitoring
Organic acidurias
Diet, medication and monitoring, with your reference centre.
Intake set by the team
Chronic kidney disease
Less protein, enough energy: a diet built with your team.
School, holidays, fever
Day to day
Family meals, school, holidays, and when to call the medical team.
Taranis know-how.
Since 1979, Taranis has been creating varied, enjoyable foods designed for everyday life despite the constraints of a restricted diet under medical supervision. Its research and development team creates reduced-protein recipes whose taste and texture come close to those of ordinary products, working with specialist hospital departments, prescribers and the people who follow the diet. The products are made to precise specifications, with checks at every stage of production, and most of them are foods for special medical purposes.
Reviewed by Steeve Roland, physiotherapist, over 20 years in clinical nutrition, founder of BSNUTRITION · Updated on
Publisher: BS NUTRITION SA, Rue de l’Industrie 20, 1400 Nivelles, Belgium. Legal notice