How much leucine in beef and why it matters
As much as I love talking about our farm and our cattle, I also love the opportunity to chat about how nutrient-dense beef is. Leucine is a health buzzword I’ve seen floating around Instagram lately, so let’s talk about how much leucine there is in beef and why it matters.
I’m not a scientist or a nutritionist, so I’m going to break this down like I’m talking to a friend. (I’ll add some links to the bottom of this blog post from the experts, in case you want to read more.)
Why Leucine Matters
Your body needs amino acids to make proteins. Your body needs many different proteins to all do their jobs. I like the visual image described here that amino acids are like letters and when you combine the letters, you get different words - the words are the proteins. Your body needs thousands of proteins to function well!
Specifically, your body needs 20 different amino acids to function properly. Eleven of these 20, your body can make on its own., but there are 9 amino acids that your body cannot make and you must consume. These are considered essential amino acids.
Leucine is just one of those 9 amino acids.
It is considered to be the most important amino acid for muscle growth and repair.
Beef Is An Excellent Source of Leucine
Fortunately for us, beef is rich is leucine.
3 oz of beef = 1.82 g of leucine
Food for thought, you’d have to eat these amounts of other popular high-protein foods to get the same quantity of leucine:
1.5 cups of low-fat Greek yogurt
1.7 cups of red beans
7.43 Tablespoons of peanut butter
3 eggs
2.7 slices of cheddar cheese
almost 3/4 cup of cottage cheese
more than 3.5 cups of oatmeal
As you can see, beef is an extremely efficient (and calorie-friendly) way to get an optimal amount of leucine in your diet for optimal muscle-building benefits. Pork and chicken are just as leucine-rich as beef, so those are great choices as well when it comes to planning an ideal diet for yourself. As much as we’d love it if you ate Blue Cedar Beef every day, we support agricultural and those other tasty protein choices, too.
How much leucine do you need to eat in a day?
Of course, that may have you thinking about how much leucine do you need to be eating per day to help support your body and muscle growth. This would be the part where I remind you that I’m a farmer and not a doctor or nutritionist. You should definitely do some research on your own and talk to your doctor or a dietician about your personal health goals. The World Health Organization suggests a minimum of 3.1 grams of leucine per day for a 175 lb person. Other resources have suggestions for anywhere from 3 to 15 grams of leucine per day. You can imagine that those higher ranges are for people that are looking to really increase their muscle mass.
The good news is, at the most simple level - a couple servings of meat (like tasty beef) per day will get you to that World Health Organization minimum. I like to keep things easy!
Becoming a body-builder isn’t one of my personal goals, but I do strive to be healthy. I want to be able to take care of the farm and my family. I’m in this for the long-haul and I want my body to keep up with me, so I am interested in nutrition from that perspective. I think most of my customers can relate. This is one of the reasons we feel so good about raising quality Black Angus beef here in Virginia. We know it is nutrient dense and good for you.
A Simple Beef Recipe High in Leucine
I do have a leucine rich recipe to share with you today. When we share recipes with our email list, the Mississippi Roast recipe always gets a ton of clicks because it is so easy and a guaranteed flavorful weeknight dinner. You likely have made it before. Recently, I stumbled on the meatballs version of this delicious dish and it was so good!. Take a look at Mississippi Meatballs from What’s Molly Cooking?
The recipe already uses leuciene-rich ingredients like ground beef and egg. You could probably sub in oatmeal for the breadcrumbs, if you wanted. I also did use Greek yogurt for the gravy - as suggested in the recipe - and it turned out wonderfully. Right there, a super tasty, and easy dinner that includes at least 3, and maybe 4 foods high in leucine.
Other Articles If You Want to Dive Deeper:
Amino Acids by The Cleveland Clinic - I found this one so helpful and easy to understand!
10 Healthy High Leucine Foods by Healthline - good suggestions they just left off beef! That happens sometimes in mainstream news. A topic for another blog.
Link to a Leucine foods spreadsheet from the National Agriculture Library
Leucine and Muscle Building from the American Dairy Association North East
Blue Cedar Beef products for busy families that like to eat well: