"Amino acids are like letters, and proteins are like words. There are many ways to put letters together to make words, and each word has a different function, a different place in the language. The protein you eat is broken down into individual amino acids in the digestive system, and then different cells take the ones they need and recombine these amino acids into the proteins that make up your body. Picture a Scrabble board full of words. Then imagine the tiles getting dumped, mixed up, and reassembled into new words."