"All supplements run the risk of contamination with unlisted ingredients," warns Leone, "Extra sugar and even artificial sweeteners may be a concern for some athletes. "The powder might absorb better," explains Byron, but, due to flavouring and colouring, the powder may also contain more potentially harmful ingredients. Leone says people them "to help improve muscle growth and repair and help reduce muscle fatigue and soreness." The general theory is that because BCAAs are essential and play such an integral role in muscle function, that supplementing with even more of them will yield greater and/or faster results.īCAA supplements often come in pill or powder form and can sometimes be bundled together with other supplements, such as glutamine and creatine. BCAAs also play a role in glucose metabolism and immune and brain function."īyron says that BCAAs supplements often claim to improve muscle gains and exercise performance. So if we are deficient in proteins, we don't function very well as humans." More specifically, Leone notes that BCAAs "are of interest to those who want to build muscle, because of their role in protein synthesis and turnover, and energy regulation. "They help with structure, transport, signalling, many metabolic processes. Since they're parts of protein, BCAAs do the "same thing that all proteins do," says Byron. Essential amino acids aren't produced internally, "which means the body can't make them," says Byron, "so we have to eat them." That's what makes it "essential" that we get them in our diets. They're made up of three separate essential amino acids - leucine, isoleucine and valine - and are called "branched-chain" because of their molecular structure. The non-essential amino acids are "non-essential" because they can be made by your body.īCAA's are considered essential amino acids. "Proteinogenic amino acids are the building blocks of protein," says Leone, "There are two main types of proteinogenic amino acids: essential amino acids, of which there are 9, and non-essential amino acids," of which there are 11. To understand what branched-chain amino acids are, we have to first know about proteinogenic amino acids in general. But are they worth the buzz? We reached out to nutritionist Kyle Byron and sports dietician Ashley Leone, owner of Gazelle Nutrition Lab, to find out exactly what BCAAs are, how they work and if they're worth the investment for you. In that aisle, you may have come across products labelled BCAAs (or Branched-Chain Amino Acids), which claim to help you work out harder or recover from your workouts faster. If you've ever strolled down the supplement aisle at the health food store, there are plenty of powders and pills all promising to get you where you want to be, but faster. Anything that promises to help you along can be really tempting. Improving your health and fitness takes commitment and patience.
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