Protein Requirements for Active Children
Condition: Increased Metabolic Requirement; Healthy
Study type: Interventional

Summary: 
      Nutritional requirements for dietary amino acids in children have traditionally been
      determined utilizing the nitrogen balance technique, which is prone to underestimating
      protein requirements. As a result, there is a need to re-evaluate recommendations in order to
      characterize how dietary amino acid needs may be modulated by physical activity in healthy,
      active children. The purpose of this study is to measure the protein requirement in children
      (boys and girls) using the IAAO technique in the presence of a variable intensity exercise
      stimulus. It is hypothesized that the present study will deem current amino acid requirements
      to be underestimates of appropriate amino acid requirements for this population.
    

Detailed description: 
      Provided energy needs are met, the adequate ingestion of dietary amino acids is the most
      critical nutritional factor to support the optimal remodeling and deposition of lean body
      mass in individuals of all ages, including active youth. Despite the fact that the most
      consistent and rapid growth velocities outside of infancy occur during childhood and
      adolescence, respectively, there is a paucity of research into the fundamental questions of
      how exercise and nutrition (i.e. dietary amino acid ingestion) enhance protein turnover in
      these key demographics. Of primary importance is the impact exercise has on the nutritional
      requirement for dietary amino acids in concurrently growing youth. This lack of dedicated
      research represents a significant knowledge gap for a large segment of the world's
      population. Nutritional requirements for dietary amino acids in young adults has
      traditionally been determined utilizing the antiquated and often erroneous nitrogen balance
      technique, which makes it difficult to adequately define the protein needs of this
      population, let alone those of children. In addition, nitrogen balance requires a prolonged
      adaptation period, which exposes subjects to deficient intakes for 7-10 days, making it
      unsuitable for use in vulnerable populations like children. As a result, there is a need to
      establish (in the case of children) recommendations utilizing advanced stable isotope
      methodology in order to characterize how dietary amino acid needs may be affected by physical
      activity over the critical early years of development.

      Studies using the minimally invasive indicator amino acid oxidation (IAAO) technique have
      suggested that protein requirements in young men and children are at least 50% higher than
      WHO/FAO guidelines based on nitrogen balance data.

      The present study will use, for the first time in active children, the gold-standard IAAO
      technique to achieve two major objectives: i) to determine the impact of high levels of
      physical activity on protein requirements in active, growing children, and; ii) to determine
      whether exercise in adolescence, previously determined in a separate study, alters protein
      requirements relative to similarly active children.
    

Intervention name(s): Amino Acid Intake
Intervention type(s): Dietary Supplement
Intervention description(s): Amino acid intakes will be varied at 0.2-2.67 g/kg/d
Intervention model: Single Group Assignment
Masking: None (Open Label)
Primary purpose: Basic Science