Essential amino acids essential for children
Except for breast milk, which is the only food capable of satisfying the needs of human beings during a stage of life -the first 6 months of life-, there is no essential food neither in childhood nor in adulthood. In Guiainfantil.com we tell you what essential amino acids are essential for children
Except for breast milk, which is the only food capable of satisfying the needs of human beings during a stage of life -the first 6 months of life-, there is no essential food neither in childhood nor in adulthood.
In Guiainfantil.com we tell you what essential amino acids are essential for children, because they can not be obtained in any other way than through the diet.
Essential amino acids for children
The presence of fruits or vegetables in the diet of children, although desirable, is not at all essential. It is true that essential nutrients must be provided through diet, since, as the name suggests, they are essential. In fact, they are called essential since they can not be obtained in any other way than the diet, the organism can not synthesize them and nevertheless needs them to ensure their functioning.
They are essential:
- Some vitamins
- Minerals.
- Fatty acids from fats
- Amino acids from proteins.
Focusing on proteins, let's see what are the essential amino acids essential for children:
- While adults need the contribution of 8 amino acids, children may need to obtain up to 10 amino acids through the diet. These essential amino acids are histidine, isoleucine, leucine, lysine, methionine, phenylalanine, tryptophan, valine, arginine and threonine.
- Arginine is considered a semi-essential amino acid, since its need is conditioned by the state of health and the stage of development in which the individual is. It seems shown that newborns, especially if they are premature, and in a manner directly proportional to their prematurity, are unable to synthesize arginine in the body itself, which is why the amount of arginine present in colostrum is much higher than in mature milk. In term pregnancies and in children arginine can be synthesized in the body (in all ages, in fact), you just have to bear in mind that the speed at which it is synthesized during early childhood is lower than that of adults (speed increases with age), hence it is partially necessary to provide it with diet, especially during early childhood.Legumes, nuts, grains, meat, eggs and seafood are rich in arginine.
- Histidine is necessary in babies and children, decreasing their need with the age of the child. While in this case the amino acid can be considered essential in childhood, it becomes semi-essential in adulthood, being necessary only if the body does not synthesize enough. Soybean seeds, beef, raw salmon, eggs, cheeses and chicken breast, are rich in histidine.
- There are other types of amino acids, called conditional, which include arginine, cysteine, glutamine, tyrosine, proline, serine, ornithine and glycine. These amino acids are not necessary in day to day, however, under stress conditions or in some diseases, they can become essential.
It is not necessary that each meal provides, individually, all the essential amino acids, however, if they should be provided on a day-to-day basis, so, the higher the biological value of the protein, the more likely that all of these amino acids are included and in the proper proportion.
