If you were a fan of Seinfeld you'll remember the Thanksgiving episode. Jerry starts dating a new girl that has an awesome toy collection. And since this happens to be right around the time of Thanksgiving, Jerry and the gang decide they will 'drug' his new girlfriend by feeding her a turkey dinner rich in tryptophan which is believed to induce sleepiness. Once they manage to induce a turkey coma in this poor girl can Jerry et al break out all the toys and play.[caption id="attachment_4743" align="aligncenter" width="300"] What's the stuff in turkey that makes you sleepy? Tryptophan!So what exactly is tryptophan? Well it's an essential amino acid meaning our bodies cannot make it and it's essential that we get in our diets. And just to back up a bit, amino acids are the building blocks of proteins. When we have a particular collection of amino acids, arranged is a very specific order and give this collection of amino acids a 3D shape we have a protein. I usually like to coach and teach with analogies so here's one for amino acids.If we had a bead necklace that was balled up and folded into a specific shape that would represent the protein. All of the beads on the string represent the amino acids. If certain amino are missing, it's not the same protein. If the order of the amino acids i.e. the order of the beds on the string, changes then it's not the same protein. And if the shape of the balled up necklace changes, it's not the same protein.But enough about protein chemistry, what does tryptophan do and why does that matter? Well tryptophan is a pre-cursor of a number of other important metabolites including: hormones such as serotonin which then leads to melatonin and vitamins such niacin (B3). If our...

Do you take supplements? In particular do you take a protein supplement? If so, you may be interested to know that there is another version of your protein you can take that requires you to eat or drink less than you may be used to and still get all the benefits. And this other version is essential amino acids or even more specifically branched chain amino acids. Let's just take a moment here and define what we're talking about. Without getting into too much detail an amino acid is a chain of carbon atoms with an amino group, -NH2, at one end, and a carboxyl group, -COOH, at the other end. Some of the amino acids our bodies can't make so they are called essential amino acids. And within this group of essential amino acids there is a sub-group of amino acids called branched chain amino acids or BCAAs with functional group bonded to one of the carbons. Clear as mud? Don't sweat it too much. The take home message is that when we supplement with protein there are a few options that will all achieve the same end goal. 1. You could take 20 grams of whey protein2. You could take 6 grams of BCAAs3. You could take 2 grams of leucine Leucine is an example of a BCAA. So all three options above have similar effects which one would you choose? Think in terms of minimal essential dose. Obviously we would go with the third option, right? Why take ten times the amount of something i.e. 20 grams of whey protein to get the same effect as a much smaller dose i.e. 2 grams of leucine? Alright so if we're in agreement that less is more when it comes to supplementation the next step is to determine what to...