Forget fad diets and questionable diet pills. Instead, focus on an anti-inflammatory diet, potentially enhanced by specific nutrients like L-glutamine, known for their positive effects on the body and skin.
The Anti-Inflammatory Diet Foundation
An anti-inflammatory diet is crucial. It should include:
- Healthy fats
- Low-glycemic carbohydrates
- High-quality protein
- Antioxidant-rich fruits and vegetables
This dietary approach benefits both your body composition and skin health.
Supplementing for Enhanced Weight Loss
Targeted nutritional supplements can further support weight loss efforts. Nutrients like glutamine, alpha-lipoic acid (ALA), and chromium can aid in body fat reduction, regulate blood sugar and insulin, and promote youthful skin.
Glutamine: An Essential Amino Acid
Glutamine is a vital amino acid, a building block of protein, abundant within the genetic code. While the body can synthesize it, muscle cells primarily manufacture the glutamine needed for proper muscle function. During intense workouts or physical injury, glutamine is rapidly depleted, creating a demand that exceeds the body's production capacity.
Read also: Weight Loss Guide Andalusia, AL
Fortunately, glutamine can be obtained from various foods, including:
- Meat, fish, and poultry
- Lettuce, spinach, parsley, and cabbage
- Beans
- Beets
- Wheat
- Eggs
- Milk, cheese, yogurt
How Glutamine Supports Weight Loss
Glutamine may aid weight loss by reducing food cravings and boosting energy levels.
When overweight, the body requires more glutamine. If insufficient, it breaks down muscle tissue to obtain it, leading to muscle mass loss. Adequate glutamine levels help maintain muscle mass during weight loss. Supplementing with glutamine can also support adherence to an anti-inflammatory diet by reducing cravings for high-glycemic carbohydrates.
Additional Weight Loss Supplements
Other nutrients can contribute to body fat reduction and promote healthy, youthful skin:
- Alpha-lipoic acid (ALA): This antioxidant converts food into energy and combats visible signs of aging by reducing fine lines and wrinkles.
- Dimethylaminoethanol (DMAE): Found in fish, DMAE is vital for nerve communication and may improve skin firmness, muscle tone, memory, and problem-solving abilities.
- Carnitine: Essential for active metabolism, carnitine transports fatty acids into cells for energy production. Its effectiveness depends on the presence of fatty acids in the diet.
- Omega 3: This essential fatty acid, available as a supplement, supports cardiovascular health.
- Conjugated linoleic acid (CLA): Found in eggs, lamb, red meat, and some mushrooms, CLA helps reduce body fat, especially in the abdominal area.
The Importance of Gut Health
L-glutamine benefits your overall health by supporting gut function and digestive processes. The man famous for discovering the Krebs cycle in the body (also known as the “citric acid cycle“) was the first person to recommend taking L-glutamine for gut-related issues. That’s because Sir Hans Adolf Krebs found that it helped improve a healthy gut-related immune response.
Read also: Beef jerky: A high-protein option for shedding pounds?
For example, a study published in the journal of Clinical Immunology found that L-glutamine normalizes the effects of the TH2 immune response that stimulates inflammatory cytokines. It’s also known to play an important role in maintaining healthy gut microbiota and immunity. It seems helpful for reducing intestinal colonization and bacterial overgrowth of pathogens.
There are millions of people struggling with a condition called leaky gut syndrome. A study published in the Lancet examined 20 hospital patients and found that supplementing with L-glutamine decreased intestinal permeability. It also shows promise for treating ulcers by providing protection from further damage.
If you know or suspect that you have leaky gut, one of the culprits could be that your body is not making enough glutamine on its own or getting enough from your diet. Adding an L-glutamine supplement could be a game changer for your gut health. If you are already taking a probiotic - great!
L-Glutamine and the Brain
A precursor to the neurotransmitter glutamate in your brain, glutamine is key to boosting your brain health. Glutamine can also help stall brain aging. L-glutamine’s major role in the brain is that of a precursor of the neurotransmitter amino acids: the excitatory amino acids glutamate and aspartate, and the calming amino acid GABA. If the brain is not receiving enough glucose, it compensates by increasing glutamine metabolism for energy. This is why you may have heard of glutamine labeled as “brain food” - it really is!
L-Glutamine for Muscle Mass
Whether your goal is to increase athletic performance, boost metabolism, improve recovery or even build muscle, research shows that L-glutamine can significantly aid your efforts. After an intense workout, the levels of cellular glutamine can drop by 50 percent and plasma levels by 30 percent. Supplementing with L-glutamine allows your muscles to fight and push a bit further. A study found that glutamine supplementation makes it possible to recover quicker from intense weight training sessions because it improves muscle hydration. As an amino acid, L-glutamine is a building block of proteins in the body. L-glutamine helps decrease muscle soreness after exercise by supporting muscle repair (muscle tissue is made from proteins). L-glutamine also helps you sustain your energy levels during your workout by elevating plasma growth hormone, which plays a crucial role in the metabolism of fat and muscle.
Read also: Inspiring Health Transformation
L-Glutamine and Detoxification
One of L-glutamine’s main roles in the body is to support detoxification by cleansing the body from high levels of ammonia. Doing approximately one hour of exercise can cause a 40 percent reduction of glutamine in the body. It can also cause suppressed immune function.
Human Growth Hormone
Research has indicated that human growth hormone (HGH) levels go up nearly 400 percent after glutamine supplementation.
Scientific Studies on Glutamine and Weight Loss
In a study, thirty-nine overweight/obese volunteers received 30 g of Gln or alanine (Ala-control) for 14 days. Body weight (BW), waist circumference (WC), hormones, and pro-inflammatory markers were evaluated. To investigate molecular mechanisms, Gln or Ala was given to Wistar rats on a high-fat diet (HFD), and metabolic parameters, euglycemic hyperinsulinemic clamp with tracers, and Western blot were done. Gln reduced WC and serum lipopolysaccharide (LPS) in overweight volunteers. In the obese group, Gln diminished WC and serum insulin. There was a positive correlation between the reduction on WC and LPS. In rats on HFD, Gln reduced adiposity, improved insulin action and signaling, and reversed both defects in glucose metabolism in the liver and muscle. Gln supplementation increased muscle glucose uptake and reversed the increased hepatic glucose production, in parallel with a reduced glucose uptake in adipose tissue. This insulin resistance in AT was accompanied by enhanced IRS1 O-linked-glycosamine association in this tissue, but not in the liver and muscle. These data suggest that Gln supplementation leads to insulin resistance specifically in adipose tissue via the hexosamine pathway and reduces adipose mass, which is associated with improvement in the systemic insulin action.
Another study included thirty-nine adult volunteers who are overweight or obese (3 men and 36 women) were included and completed in the study protocol. They were 38.3 ± 7.2 years old. The only volunteers used in the study were the ones who maintained similar physical activity. The caloric intake of the individuals was recorded for 24 h, and only the volunteers that maintained similar caloric intake were used in the study. Volunteers did not display differences in caloric intake before and after supplementations. No differences were observed in the body weight and BMI after supplementation with Gln or Ala in overweight volunteers. However, the glutamine supplementation induced a significant decrease in the waist circumference of overweight subjects. Serum glucose, insulin levels, IL-1β, IL-6, and TNF-α levels were not different after glutamine or alanine supplementation. However, the supplementation with glutamine, but not with alanine, reduced circulating LPS levels in overweight subjects. Regarding the obese group, no differences were observed in body weight and BMI after supplementation with Gln or Ala. In a similar fashion with overweight subjects, supplementation with glutamine induced a significant reduction in waist circumference, whereas Ala supplementation did not alter this parameter. No change in glycemia was observed in obese individuals after Gln or Ala supplementation. However, a significant reduction in insulin levels was found in obese subjects after Gln supplementation. No changes were observed in serum levels of TNF-α, IL-1β, and IL-6, but LPS showed a nonsignificant reduction after supplementation with Gln in obese subjects.
Is Glutamine Good for Weight Loss?
There’s evidence suggesting that it helps burn fat and build lean muscle mass by suppressing insulin levels and stabilizing blood glucose. In fact, six weeks of supplementation with 30 grams per day of glutamine powder “markedly improved some cardiovascular risk factors, as well as body composition, in patients with type 2 diabetes” in one study. Emerging evidence also indicates that l-glutamine plays a fundamental role in cardiovascular health by serving as a substrate for the synthesis of DNA, ATP, proteins and lipids.
Forms of Glutamine
L-glutamine is synthesized by the body from glutamic acid or glutamate. Glutamine has even become a common supplement for critically ill patients. There are two forms of L-glutamine. The other type is called trans-alanyl-glutamine or alanyl-L-glutamine. It’s an amino acid attached to another amino acid.
How to Use Glutamine
Some bodybuilders say that glutamine works best when combined with certain brained chain amino acids (BCAAs), especially leucine. Overall, glutamine seems safe to consume in moderate amounts, especially if taken short term. Although the effects of excess glutamine rarely cause problems, if you take oral glutamine long term, it’s a good idea to also supplement with B vitamins. In rare cases, allergic reactions to this supplement have been reported.
Cautions
Taking glutamine can help with sickle cell disease. It may provide your immune system with an added boost in those “conditional” situations when you need more glutamine than your body can make. But there’s no solid evidence that glutamine provides major benefits if you’re generally healthy.
As with any supplement, consult a healthcare professional before adding glutamine to your diet, especially if you have underlying health conditions.