GLYCINE (Why You NEED It) & Which Foods Have It (Essential Amino Acid?)

hi i'm dr barry for the next few minutes

let's discuss

glycine now a lot of people think that

glycine is this

boring non-essential amino acid

but actually nothing could be further

from the truth and in this video i'm

going to give you some exciting

information about glycine why you should

care

who should really try to get more

glycine in their diet

and at the end of this video i'm going

to tell you about some delicious ways

you can skyrocket your glycine intake

and it's delicious and nutritious one of

the major reasons that

dietitians and nutritionists think that

glycine is

non-essential is because we we make

glycine in our body most people make

about

three grams of glycine a day and in the

average

standard diet you eat about three grams

of glycine a day so for the average

person

you're making three grams and eating

three grams you're getting about six

grams a day

the problem is is that many people don't

make enough glycine they have trouble

making it

and there are certain conditions both

uh medical conditions pathological

conditions and

normal physiological conditions that

require you to have

a much higher dosage of glycine

in your diet most experts who have

looked into this glycine question

feel like we need somewhere between 10

grams a day all the way up to

60 grams a day continue

based on your health your age and what

medical conditions you may suffer from

now this apparent glycine deficiency

is a modern human problem you see for

the past two million years our ancestors

have been nose to tail

super carnivores about 70 percent of

their diet came from meat

this is well established in the paleo

anthropological literature

and they didn't just eat the mussel meat

of the animals like many of us today do

they ate the connective tissue the bone

marrow the organs the skin

they hate it all and so they didn't need

to make much more than three grams of

glycine a day

because they were eating so much in

their diet

but with today's modern diets especially

plant-based diets

it's going to be very very difficult

to get 10 grams of glycine a day in your

diet

if you're trying to eat a plant-based

diet that's just not going to happen

and then even for some of my carnivore

friends who are eating

just muscle meat just the red meat of

animals

there is some glycine in there but it

may not be enough depending

on the things i'm about to tell you

about if you're young and healthy

and skinny then 10 grams of glycine a

day

3 grams you make seven grams you eat

that's probably going to be enough for

you

right now but as you get older if you

have any autoimmune conditions if you're

overweight if you're diabetic if you

have any chronic medical conditions

if you're pregnant or if you're a

growing child

so really any condition that is

characterized by

rapid growth like pregnancy or being a

young child

or is characterized by chronic disease

like diabetes like autoimmune conditions

you need a lot more glycine in your diet

some authorities say you might need up

to

60 grams a day in order to

give your body everything it needs to

grow to heal

and to repair so why is glycine

so important what is your body needed

for what does it do with it

i'm glad you asked there's a list and

i'm going to go through them quickly

first of all glycine actually acts as an

inhibitory

neurotransmitter in your brain and this

is why it seems

if you get it in sufficient quantity it

it helps people with their sleep

it helps people with anxiety disorders

it helps people with

ocd it just calms down

the nervous system and that's a good

thing you don't want it to be too

exciting

it also helps calm gut inflammation

people who get

adequate amounts of glycine have

reported that their leaky gut their

symptoms of sibo

and their symptoms of irritable bowel

syndrome get substantially better

and indeed this may be one of the

reasons that people with

gut issues when they convert to a

carnivore diet

their gut issues go almost completely

away

glycine obviously is a building block of

collagen and it is also a building block

of

creatine and so it's going to help with

muscle both

muscle growth it's going to help keep

your bones as strong as they can

possibly be

it's also going to help your joint

health by helping to

keep cartilage tendons and ligaments

strong and to help repair them as

quickly as possible

it's also going to help you regulate

your blood sugar and insulin

that's a big deal it is going to help

you fight

skin aging and wrinkles your skin the

reason that as we get older our skin

gets wrinkly and droopy

is because our collagen loses its

elasticity we don't have as much

collagen

as we used to and that's one of the

major reasons there's some research

showing that

that getting good sources of collagen of

which a major component is glycine

really helps to make fine lines and

wrinkles get less noticeable

i think again this is the reason that

many of my carnivore friends look

anywhere from five to twenty years

younger

than their chronological ages they're

getting this rich source of glycine

in their daily diet glycine also

helps tremendously to fight inflammation

because it's one of the building blocks

of glutathione which is the preeminent

anti-inflammatory molecule in the human

body

glutathione helps fight all bad

inflammation

all chronic inappropriate inflammation

glutathione is going to fight that

and one of the building blocks of

glutathione is glycine

as always i've included links to this

research down in the show notes so that

you can read further

for yourself i think that anybody who is

a vegan or is trying to eat a

predominantly plant-based diet should

100

supplement glycine and other collagen

building blocks

in their diet because you're just never

going to get enough from your diet

and indeed we see this in people who

have been vegan

for for three years five years 10 years

15 years

they very often look much older than

their chronological age

and that's because the collagen in their

skin

and in their connective tissue is just

not what it should be because they're

not getting enough of the collagen

building backbone of glycine

now let's talk about some great sources

of glycine

in your diet the i'm going to go

roughly in order from good sources but

not great

and then the last ones i'm going to talk

about are absolutely phenomenal

sources of glycine so the eggs

of any bird so chicken quail

turkey any egg duck eggs they're all

going to be great sources of glycine and

most of the glycine will be in the white

of the egg not the yolk this is one of

those rare instances

where the white is actually a better

source of this nutrient than the yolk

any seafood whatsoever is going to be a

good source of glycine

now we're going to start talking about

better sources of glycine

any cut of meat whatsoever

from beef to pork to chicken to turkey

all of these are going to be

great sources of glycine even while game

is a great source of glycine

now let's talk about the superfoods with

relation to

to glycine bone broth you see

one of the reasons our ancestors didn't

need to make much glycine

is that they were always eating the

tendon and the cartilage and the sinew

and the connective tissue

they were always cooking the bones and

eating the broth

they were eating the brains they were

eating all of this connective tissue

and so bone broth anytime you have bones

left over put them in a ziploc bag

at the end of the week make a pot of

bone broth

when i say bone broth it doesn't just

need to say bone broth on the label

it needs to actually be real bone broth

and so some of the bone broths that you

buy over the counter

are not going to be great sources of

glycine you want to probably make your

own bone broth

and that's how you know you're getting

more than enough glycine

in your diet the skin of any

animal is going to be an excellent

source of glycine

and so when you chicken skins

turkey skin pork skins and so you're

like wait you mean the pork skins that

come in a bag that are crispy and

delicious

yeah they're excellent sources of

glycine also

chicken skins it's becoming more common

that you can buy

fried chicken skin and it's a delicious

snack you can include it in your meal we

use chicken skins and pork skins

as dippers to dip into something that

we've made

so that you can have that chip

experience without the

chip side effects anytime that you eat

any meat

you want to try to include some of the

connective tissue some of those white

chewy bits those are those are rich

sources of glycine and so

when you eat pork ribs or beef ribs you

want to leave the membrane

on the back of the ribs you want to eat

some of the cartilage eat some of the

little crunchy chewy bits because

those are almost pure glycine

i don't usually talk about supplements i

find it's a little disingenuous because

i believe if you're eating a proper

human diet

you're going to be able to get enough of

all the essential amino acids

fatty acids vitamins and minerals in

your diet but if you just insist on

taking a supplement

then the two supplements i recommend to

get adequate amounts of glycine in your

diet

are carnivore crisps chicken skins

they're delicious and they're fried in a

very healthy oil

or epic pork rinds they're also fried in

a very healthy oil and are an excellent

source

of glycine and so if you must supplement

please

pick to one of one of these two

supplements and supplement with them i

put links down below in case you just

want to take a supplement

this is dr berry i'll see you next time