system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: What are the amino acids? And what do they do to the body? (Simple answers cause I’m a noob)
gpt
Amino acids are the building blocks of proteins. Imagine amino acids like lego blocks, you can assemble them into any shape and size.

Amino acids are all identical, except for a single “side group”. This side group can be a single hydrogen, a complex carbon chain, some nitrogen groups, etc etc. These give the amino acids different properties, which gives the proteins a function.

Any protein you eat will be broken down into its base amino acid components. It doesn’t matter if you eat chicken, peas, beef or mushrooms, you will still get the same amino acids, which your body can use to make any protein. The lego structure will be split into individual blocks, which your body will assemble into functional proteins.

Eating “collagen protein” for smooth skin doesn’t work, Nor eating “special proteins” for some magic purpose. In fact, overeating one single source of protein will harm you. Some plants like wheat don’t have the same ratio of proteins as humans, so if you only ate wheat you would be short of some amino acids. It’s like disassembling a black lego boat and expecting to build a blue sphere - impossible.