L-Glutamine is the most popular amino acid, at least if your body was doing the voting. It uses L-Glutamine more than any other amino acid. Your body mainly uses amino acids as building blocks of protein, and proteins help every cell in your body stay strong and healthy. So, considering those amazing benefits of L-Glutamine, it’s kind of a big deal.
5 L-Glutamine Facts
Despite its popularity, you may not know much about L-Glutamine, other than its benefits for muscle building. That’s all about to change.
- It’s a Twin – L-Glutamine has an almost identical twin, D-Glutamine. Together known as glutamine, L-Glutamine is the form found in your diet and nutritional supplements that delivers the majority of glutamine’s benefits.
- It’s a Conditionally Essential Amino Acid – Your body generally produces as much glutamine as it needs. But production is disrupted under certain circumstances, like when you’re sick, injured or stressed.
- You Can Get L-Glutamine from Many Foods – Just about any food that contains protein will also contain glutamine. But, while some foods like tofu, white rice and corn have high percentages of glutamine in their protein, they are generally lower in overall protein. So your best sources of dietary glutamine are foods that are high in protein made up of a relatively high percentage of glutamine, including eggs and beef.
- L-Glutamine is Important for Consistent Immune System Functionality – If you are injured, suffer a burn or go through a surgical procedure, the stress on your body can also stress your immune system. That can increase the need for glutamine beyond levels that your body can produce. Without enough additional glutamine from your diet or glutamine supplements, your immune system may be weakened.
- It’s Good for Your Digestive System – Your intestines are home to trillions of bacteria cells, both good and bad. Glutamine promotes the growth of healthy intestinal cells. Research shows that glutamine reduces deterioration of the walls of your intestines to prevent bad bacteria cells spreading to the rest of your body through “leaky gut”.
Check out Herbal One’s Ultra L-Glutamine Supplement or visit one of our locations across Canada to ask our nutritionists about what’s right for you. If you found this article helpful, check out our recent post about the difference between probiotics and prebiotics.