I'm often asked my opinion about the cause or treatment of some medical condition,

but the question to instead ask is, what does the science say?

What is the best available balance of evidence published in the peer-reviewed medical

literature have to say right now?

Welcome to the Nutrition Facts podcast.

I'm your host, Dr. Michael Greger.

Today we bring you the first installment in our series on Taurine. No, Taurine isn't an

astrological sign. It's an non-essential amino acid that our body can make, but does it make enough

for optimal health? What are the pros and cons of supplementing? Let's start

with a little background. Energy drinks are widely consumed the United States with sales

exceeding 350 million gallons. There's only like 335 million people in the U.S.

So we each average more than a gallon a year?

Is there just the caffeine that people are after?

A major ingredient in popular energy drinks is taurine.

What is that?

Torine is one of the most abundant free amino acids in our body, free as in not incorporated into proteins.

We make it in our own bodies. That's why it's considered non-essential, as in we don't have to get any in our diet.

However, premature infants are vulnerable to torring deficiency because they initially

lack some of the enzymes needed to synthesize tureen, but breast milk provides all the

torsion they need, and it's

often added to infant formula as well. We aren't the only animals who make it. The name

Torine derives from the Latin Taurus, meaning bowl or ox, because Toreen was first isolated from

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