i am one cocky sob i'll tell you ALL that much.
i really need to be put in my place so i would invite someone, ANYONE, to put me in my place here.
PLEASE PROVE TO ME THAT INGESTING BRANCH CHAINED AMINO ACIDS ON TOP OF AN ADEQUATELY PORTIONED PROTEIN DIET WILL PROVIDE ANY BENEFIT WHATSOEVER OTHER THAN ADDING TO SOME SUPPLEMENT COMPANY'S BANK BALANCE.
please avoid wasting energy and bandwith with brow/chest beating. all that does is embolden me further
and gets old fast. 
thankyou. 
I surely cannot. I am a computer scientist, not a bio-engineer (or whatever). But since I train with arguably the #1 bodybuilder/fitness model trainer in the world, I listen to his advice. And I see no reason for him to mislead me.
And I would guess that just like the computer world, the bio world is crock full of shitty and trendy studies. And, at the same time, has some very good ones. So you could probably go back and forth with studies all day long.
I know in the computer world there are many, many articles written about "amazing" technologies such as Ruby or CSS or even back in the day before everyone else figured it out, Perl (sucks ass for internet, other than very specialized application). But since I have used them all, and consider myself to know a bit about real-world usage, I've found that the studies that say those technologies are amazing and whiz-bang, are dead wrong. Beginners usually believe the studies and blindly argue for them (like a religion)...then after a couple years of usage (if they are smart and loose their zealot status), figure out that they were wrong and change.
On the other hand, AJAX is one of the most amazing technologies I have ever found (for internet dev) -- and the studies (often times by the same authors who drummed up support for shit like Ruby, Perl or CSS) agree with me. So, what does that tell me?
Only someone with real world experience can give you a good idea as to what actually works and what doesn't -- authors and armchair warriors cannot. They can
introduce you to ideas or new technologies (which is what I use them for now), and give you numbers (like a reference book), but as an expert in a field, you must use it in a real world environment.