Nitrogen Balances of Young Women Fed Amino Acids in the FAO Reference Pattern, the Milk Pattern and the Peanut Pattern

Abstract

Comparisons of the metabolic response, as measured by nitrogen balance, of six young women to two patterns of dietary essential amino acids and to two sources of amino acids were made in each of two studies. In one study the response to the FAO reference pattern of essential amino acids and the milk pattern was compared; in the other, the response to the FAO reference pattern and the peanut pattern was compared. Both the FAO and the food patterns were studied when furnished chiefly by crystalline amino acids and when furnished chiefly by the food under study. The comparisons between the FAO pattern and the food pattern (milk or peanut) were made for each subject at the lowest level of intake based on the sulfur-containing amino acids (presumably the limiting amino acid in both foods) that were found to be compatible with nitrogen equilibrium when all amino acids were given as crystalline amino acids proportioned as in the FAO pattern. In both studies the nitrogen retention of the subjects was greater when they received essential amino acids proportioned as in the food pattern than when they received the amino acids proportioned as in the FAO pattern when the source of these patterns was the same. In all patterns studied, nitrogen balances of most subjects were slightly better when food rather than crystalline amino acids was the chief source of essential amino acids.