THE WH Nutrition Dictionary

‘Must google that later,’ you think, as someone in your running club waxes lyrical about the amino acid profile of their protein shake. We’ll save you the trouble with this cheat sheet to trending nutrition terms

- Ally Head

amino acids(uh.meenoh asuhds)

Even if you were concentrating in biology class, you’d be hard-pressed to remember the details. Well, we suspect your lessons involved amino acids – the building blocks your body uses to store protein, which in turn builds your major muscles, organs and immune system. Think of them as Lego bricks, glued together by cells and built from the animal and plant proteins you eat. Chemists Louis Nicolas Vauquelin and Pierre Jean Robiquet discovered the first amino acid way back in 1806. By 1935, scientists knew of about 20 of the 22 of them, including 10 that your body produces naturally and nine more that are essential for it to function properly. Fascinating stuff.

KNOW THIS: Those nine are ‘essential’ because, without them, your body’s proteins (aka muscle) would start degenerating. “You can’t actually make these nine essential amino acids yourself, but they’re present in foods,” explains nutritionist Rhiannon Lambert. “The foods with all nine amino acids are called complete proteins and include meat, dairy, soybeans and eggs. Foods with some amino acids, but not all nine – such as beans, rice and peanut butter – are incomplete proteins.” Meaning a protein-packed picnic genuinely constitutes an acid trip.

antioxidants

(antee oksuhduhnt)

Like a burly bouncer for your cells, antioxidants are chemical compounds found in fruit and vegies that protect against damage caused by free radicals. Free what, now? Let’s back up a bit. “Certain substances – alcohol and fried food, but also polluted air – cause the body to produce free radical chemicals via a process called oxidation,” says nutritionist Jenna