Login | June 22, 2026
Fueling your mitochondria for success
PETE GLADDEN
Published: June 22, 2026
Over several decades of coaching endurance athletes I’ve always given my clients one cautionary caveat prior to getting them started on training programs.
And it goes like this: “I can provide considerable input regarding your physical training regime, but there’s far less I can do with respect to the sleep and nutritional side of your training.”
Now to clarify, I do offer guidance in those two critical areas, but because these two parameters are far less under my control than is the physical side of a training program, much of the onus in those areas subsequently resides with the athletes.
I give this advice because nutrition and sleep are equally as important as the physical training.
So with that little preamble in mind let’s have a short conversation concerning the nutritional side of training which I’m calling “Fueling your mitochondria for success.”
Now if you’re not familiar with mitochondria, you can get a better perspective on why this important little organelle is so critical to the energy production process in training, then check out my ALN column “A Brief Primer On Mitochondria,” published on 11/10/25.
Thus, when we talk about mitochondria and energy production we’re also talking about the fuels we need to ingest in order to make sure our mitochondria is vibrant, plentiful and healthy.
Now there are numerous peer-reviewed studies out there which have demonstrated that a diet consisting of healthy fats, lean meats, legumes, vegetables and whole grains reduce mitochondrial damage, improve mitochondrial function, and produce a kind of anti-inflammatory effect.
And as a matter of fact there’s a recent study which has taken an even deeper dive into this mitochondria-nutrition connection by establishing that leucine, a nutrient found in high protein foods, can “rev up” the mitochondria by protecting its energy-producing proteins that reside within.
The study, “Leucine inhibits degradation of outer mitochondrial membrane proteins to adapt mitochondrial respiration,” was published in the May 2026 issue of “Nature Cell Biology.”
Now what’s really interesting about this revelation is the fact that researchers discovered that leucine has a massive effect on mitochondrial function by protecting certain proteins that reside on the organelle’s outer membrane.
And if you’re not familiar with leucine, well, it’s an amino acid (One of the nine essential amino acids that our bodies cannot produce on its own) which we must get from the foods we eat.
Leucine’s nutritional significance lies in the fact that it’s a major activator for muscle protein synthesis, therefore deeming it essential for muscle building/muscle repair along with it being a regulator of blood sugar.
So now knowing that the nutritional status of mitochondria, particularly with respect to its leucine levels, directly impacts its energy production capabilities, health & wellness professionals consequently have a deeper understanding of energy-related matters at the cellular level.
For one, knowing that the nutrients we ingest not only provide fuel, but they also play a huge role in how energy is produced at the cellular level is a critical component to factor in when establishing nutritional programs for athletes.
What’s more, knowing that leucine is so impactful on mitochondrial metabolism, doctors might very well be able to implement new therapeutic procedures for treating diseases which involve compromised energy production - diseases like cancer and metabolic disorders.
Okay, so what with the revelation that leucine is so important to mitochondrial health, and knowing that mitochondria is so important to energy production, that obviously leads to the next question: What foods can provide us with a good source of leucine?
Here are several of the heavy hitters.
1) Chicken breast offers one of the highest volumes of leucine, providing around 2.6 grams per 100-gram serving.
2) Beef provides roughly 2.1 grams of leucine per 100-gram serving.
3) Eggs are another rich source of leucine, yielding approximately 0.5 grams of leucine per one large egg.
4) Tuna offers about 1.7 grams of leucine per 100-gram serving.
5) Soybeans are a really great, as well as economical source of leucine, providing 2.8 grams per one cup of cooked beans.
6) Lentils can yield about 1.3 grams of leucine per cup.
7) Greek yogurt has about 1.3 grams of leucine per cup.
So…if you’re interested in “beefing up” those little mitochondrial powerhouses that reside in your muscle tissues, think about your nutrition, and make sure to choose foods that contain significant amounts of leucine.