Protein

Protein is one of three macronutrients, which are nutrients the body needs in larger amounts. The other macronutrients are fat and carbohydrates.

Protein is made up of long chains of amino acid. There are 20 amino acids. The specific order of amino acids determines the structure and function of each protein.

The 20 amino acids that the body uses to create protein are:

• alanine
• arginine
• asparagine
• aspartic acid
• cysteine
• glutamic acid
• glutamine
• glycine
• histidine
• isoleucine
• leucine
• lysine
• methionine
• phenylalanine
• proline
• serine
• threonine
• tryptophan
• tyrosine
• valine