Today we have a guest post by Malisa Celeste from Tonic Superfoods, where she shares with us some information about her favourite supplement, L-Glutamine.  Malisa is a nutritional medicine student and health blogger.  Over the past three years, Malisa’s focus has been on healthy living, whilst immersing her self with nutritional supplementation and superfoods.  You can read more about Malisa’s views on nutrition over at Tonic Superfoods.

These days, it’s a normal occurrence for me to pull a pill box out of my bag when I sit down for lunch or dinner with friends.  Friends that haven’t seen this phenomenon before are often quite surprised, questioning what on earth I am doing?  These are my supplements, I take various things throughout the course of the day to assist in a whole host of things including, general health, muscle growth, recovery and hormonal balance.

Is supplementation necessary if you eat a clean, healthy, organic diet?

Yes, the reason behind this is the modern world.  In a perfect situation, or a perfect world, if I were to eat a clean diet consisting of good quality organic fruit and vegetables, grass-fed meat and a good source of fats; I wouldn’t need supplementation.  However, in this modern, manufactured world that we live in, the food isn’t as nutrient dense as nature initially intended it to be.

The focus in the food industry has shifted to ensure that supply and demand is met with profit; as such the farmers and manufacturers have turned to mass production, including genetic modification and growth accelerants to produce large quantities of ‘good looking’ fruit, vegetables and cattle.  With these unnatural changes the nutrient value of our foods have been compromised.  Even if we choose organic, the soils in our modern world is not as nutrient dense, and although organic products are free from nasty toxins and pesticides, they still do not offer the same nutritional benefit as products grown in years gone by.

Smart supplementation allows the body to receive the missing nutrients that we were once able to get from our foods; not only that, it also assists in correcting the balance & normalize hormonal function that has been disrupted due to the nutrient deficiency.  What is even more exciting, by assisting your body to get the nutrients it is missing, it also helps the body to be able to more readily absorb the nutrients offered from food.

What is my favourite supplement?

Without a doubt, I would answer L-Glutamine. There are so many benefits to taking this super supplement, so today I’m going to explain a little bit about this super supplement and share some of its benefits with you!

L-Glutamine is an amino acid, in fact it’s the most abundant amino acid in your blood and muscle tissue.  It is used by the body as a source of energy and is essential for intestinal, immune and muscle function.

The body manufactures it’s own, however glutamine rich foods include; beef, fish, poultry, eggs, dairy, raw parsley and raw spinach.

Immune Repair

When the body is challenged or compromised with infection or injury, your immune cells start to divide in an attempt to concur what is challenging your body.  Often fighting off a virus, infection or injury will add stress to the body, increasing cortisol levels.  Supplementation with glutamine, will support the division of immune cells, assisting in managing stress and keeping your immune defense strong.

Further to this, glutamine provides support to the lining of the intestinal tract.  In fact, glutamine is critical for the maintenance of proper gut metabolism.  Poor gut health can cause fatigue, IBS and inflammation within the body.  By supplementing with glutamine, you can ensure gut health is optimal and assist in repair of the cells lining the intestinal tract.

Brain Food

Glutamine, Glutamate and GABA are all neurotransmitters, which means they are chemical messengers in the brain.  GABA is the neurotransmitter that calms, Glutamate stimulates, whilst Glutamine regulates the two ensuring balance.  Glutamine provides energy to the nervous system and if the brain is not receiving enough glucose to function, it will compensate by increasing glutamine metabolism for energy.  Regular supplementation with glutamine will assist in focus, concentration, memory, mood, alertness and performance!

Muscle Growth and Weight Loss

For anyone that is serious about their training, L-Glutamine is a must.  Weight training produces a catabolic effect on the body, whilst supplementing with Glutamine ensures that growth hormone levels remain high, which combats the catabolic effect allowing muscles to grow and develop.

Muscle growth is important for metabolism & weight loss, I’ve written previously about how increased muscle mass assists in increasing your metabolic rate (ability to burn calories). Muscle growth also plays an important factor in immune health, with lean muscle mass being important for a healthy immune system.

Blood Sugar

Glutamine assists in stabilizing blood sugar (yep… I told you it was a super supplement!).  When blood sugar is low, glutamine suppresses insulin, stopping the further decline of sugar levels within the body.  It also stimulates glycogen to be released, helping to increase blood sugar to a more normal level.  Furthermore, as glutamine is a ‘glycogenic’ amino acid, it has the ability to convert to sugar for energy production.

Regular consumption of glutamine assists in decreasing cravings of sugar and alcohol, which can assist in weight management.

I consume glutamine daily; upon rising on an empty stomach, directly after a workout and in the evening just before bed.

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