Valine

Valine is a type of branched chain amino acid that helps to stimulate the production of lean muscle mass from protein. There are 20 amino acids in total, and they’re all the building blocks of protein. Of these 20, the majority can be manufactured by the body. But nine of them cannot and must be consumed in the diet.

These nine are considered the ‘essential’ amino acids and valine is one of these. Valine is required from the diet for energy production as well as stimulating muscle growth.

Animal-based foods, including meat, fish, eggs and dairy products are considered ‘complete’ protein foods since they contain all nine essential amino acids. Plant-based foods that contain all nine essential amino acids including valine include soya and soya products, a type of algae called spirulina and the ancient grains buckwheat and quinoa.