Glutamine
Glutamine is the most plentiful free amino acid in blood and muscle. It moves nitrogen around the body and fuels the gut lining and immune cells, and healthy people make all they need.
2 nitrogen atomscarried in each molecule, from muscle to other organs
Conditionally essential the body usually makes enough
Daily requirement · none set, because healthy adults make it
- Main sources All protein foods wheat gluten is unusually rich
- Made in Muscle and the lungs and brain
- Used by Gut and immune cells and the kidneys
- In Caltide Not totaled yet no food data for it
No official daily amount or upper limit exists for glutamine. Sources are listed at the end of this page.
Where Glutamine Comes From
Most of it is made in your own muscle. Food adds more, from any protein.
- Meat, fish and eggsglutamine is one of the common amino acids in animal protein
- Milk and cheesecasein, the main milk protein, is rich in it
- Wheat and other grainsgluten, the protein that makes dough stretch, is unusually high in glutamine
- Beans, lentils and soythe main plant sources besides grains
- SupplementsL-glutamine powder and capsules, and some protein powders
Food tables rarely list glutamine on its own, for the reason explained below, so foods are named without figures.
What Is Glutamine?
Glutamine is glutamate with an amide group, an extra nitrogen and hydrogen, attached to its side chain. That second nitrogen is the point: glutamine is how the body packages nitrogen safely and moves it from tissue to tissue.
How Muscle Supplies Glutamine
Skeletal muscle makes most of the body's glutamine, partly from nitrogen taken off leucine and the other branched-chain amino acids. It sends glutamine into the blood, and three kinds of tissue take it up:
The gut lining. Cells lining the small intestine renew every few days and burn glutamine as a main fuel. They also turn some of it into citrulline, which the kidneys make into arginine.
Immune cells. Lymphocytes and macrophages use glutamine for energy and to build the DNA they need when they multiply during an infection.
The kidneys. The kidneys split the nitrogen off glutamine as ammonia and use it to carry excess acid out in urine. When blood becomes too acidic, they take up more glutamine to do it.
Why Food Labels Never Show Glutamine
To count amino acids, labs break protein apart by boiling it in strong acid. That step strips the amide group off glutamine and turns it into glutamic acid, so food tables report one combined glutamic acid figure that includes the glutamine. Separate glutamine values need a different, more costly method, and most databases do not have them.
The same reason means the food library has no glutamine figure yet. Every food page lists total protein instead.
When the Body Runs Short of Glutamine
After major surgery, severe burns or serious infection, the gut, immune cells and healing tissue use glutamine faster, muscle breaks down to supply it, and blood levels fall. That is why glutamine is called conditionally essential, and why it was studied in hospital nutrition.
Glutamine Supplements
Your muscle and your food are the main sources, but supplements are a source too, usually as L-glutamine powder.
What Studies Show About Glutamine Supplements
- Sickle cell diseasea prescription L-glutamine powder approved by the US FDA in 2017 reduced pain crises in trials
- Muscle and strengthtrials in healthy, well-fed adults found no meaningful benefit
- Gut health claimsnot established in healthy people by good trials
When Glutamine Can Do Harm
- Critical illnessin a large 2013 trial, high-dose glutamine increased deaths in intensive care patients with organ failure
- Severe liver diseasebreaking glutamine down releases ammonia, which a failing liver cannot clear
Sources are listed at the end of this page. Ask a doctor before taking a supplement if you have a health condition. Not medical advice.
Tracking Glutamine in Caltide
- Not totaled yetFood tables have no glutamine figures, so Caltide does not add it up in the Nutrition tab yet. You can still list L-glutamine as an ingredient when you add a supplement.
Glutamine Sources and References
The figures and claims on this page are checked against these sources.
Questions About Glutamine
It carries nitrogen between organs and fuels fast-dividing cells. Muscle releases it, the gut lining and immune cells burn it for energy, and the kidneys use its nitrogen to get rid of acid.
No, it is conditionally essential. Healthy people make plenty, mostly in muscle, but after major surgery, severe burns or serious infection the body may use it faster than it can make it.
No. Glutamine is glutamate with an extra nitrogen group attached. MSG (monosodium glutamate) is the sodium salt of glutamate, so it contains no glutamine.
All protein foods: meat, fish, eggs, dairy, beans and soy. Wheat gluten is unusually rich in it. Food labels and tables rarely give a figure, because the standard lab method turns glutamine into glutamic acid.
Not in healthy people who eat enough protein. Trials in athletes and in people doing strength training found no meaningful gain in muscle or strength from glutamine supplements.
Yes. In 2017 the US FDA approved a prescription L-glutamine powder for people aged 5 and over with sickle cell disease, to reduce pain crises. That is a medical treatment, not a reason for others to take it.
Healthy adults tolerate it well in studies. People with severe liver disease should avoid it, because breaking it down releases ammonia, and high-dose glutamine increased deaths in a 2013 trial in critically ill patients with organ failure.
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