If you’re interested in skincare, it’s highly likely that you will have heard about collagen supplements. The magic pill that can make your hair grown thick and long, and make your skin plump and youthful. With hundreds of options just at your local drugstore, and hundreds more offered online, there are a plethora of choices. But do they actually work? Let’s find out.
What is collagen and why is it important?
Collagen is a protein and is in fact, the most abundantly found protein in your body, making up 75-80% of our skin. It can be found in the skin, nails, bones, cartilage, tendons, muscles, the gut lining, the disks that cushion your vertebrae, blood vessels and the outer layer of your organs. It is a critical building block of healthy skin. Without collagen providing structure to the skin, you will notice skin sagging and dimpling.
Collagen can be found in the dermis of your skin. It’s abundant in your youth, and levels off in your 20’s and 30’s. Sadly, in your 40’s and later years, collagen production pretty much halts to a slow stop.
Fibroblast cells produce the collagen in our bodies. But through excessive sun exposure, extreme environmental exposures, or simply through time and ageing, your skin will eventually wrinkle and sag. Elastin, another connective tissue found in the dermis of the skin which allows the skin to snap back into place, is also subjected to the same fate as collagen. Similarly to collagen, elastin breaks down as we age and is very hard to restore.
Why is collagen needed in your body?
Collagen is an essential component of your body as it serves to strengthen, fortify, build and renew tissue at a cellular level. Eating collagen rich foods like bone broth, wild-caught fish, supported by fermented vegetables and leafy greens are essential to a healing diet. There is also growing scientific evidence of collagen supplements being advantageous if your diet is lacking adequate collagen.
A collagen-rich diet provides remarkable benefits like better weight control, clearer skin, reduced inflammation and improved immune function. Every part of your body, requires collagen. Your skin, hair, nails, bones, disks, joints, ligaments, tendons, arterial walls and gastrointestinal tract all depend on the consumption of collagen-rich foods.
How to eat a collagen rich diet?
Collagen can only be found in animal products, particularly in the muscle fibres, tissues and joints of animal products. Making a broth, from animal bones or simmering some oxtail for a couple of hours will produce a delicious, collagen-rich meal. Similarly, eating the skin off of your fish or chicken will also increase your collagen intake.
Something that is less common in the western diet, but incredibly beneficial to boost your collagen, is eating the organ meats of animals. Organ meats are very high in collagen. Did you know that Koreans, originators of the highly sought after youthful, glowy skin, adore eating organ meats? Chicken feet, which are incredibly high in collagen, are eating in abundance in Korea. Stir-fried cartilage is also a popular street food to eat in Korea. In fact, a large portion of the typical Korean diet consists of collagen rich foods. Grilled mackerel with the skin on (remember the skin is the important part that contains collagen) is eaten at most meals. Coupled with a light bone broth, which packs a collagen-rich punch after it has been simmering for at least 12 hours. And then, topped off with their beloved probiotic kimchi, Koreans have the best anti-aging, collagen-rich diet figured out.
How is a typical collagen supplement made?
Collagen supplements are a manufactured dietary product. They can come from sources such a bovine (cow), marine or poultry. The collagen is extracted from these meats by a process called hydrolysis. The collagen peptides (small pieces of animal protein) are broken down into molecules with the aid of water, thereby referred to as ‘hydrolysed collagen’; which is what you may see on the ingredients label.
But, not all collagen supplements are made equally, so make sure you know how your collagen is made and where it comes from. Read the label! A good quality collagen supplement should come from non GMO, grass-fed bovine source, or clean marine sources without toxic chemical marine levels.
How to take collagen supplements?
Collagen peptides in their rawest form are made into a fine powder. From this step, it can either be sold as powder, capsulated into a pill or liquid sachet format. Mixing the powder with a liquid makes the collagen easy to absorb and beneficial to your body. When ingesting collagen, our body breaks it down into amino acids that are then absorbed and transported to cells to make new collage proteins. Therefore, it doesn’t matter if your collagen is bovine, marine or poultry as there is not yet enough evidence to support that a particular source is better than another. It generally is a matter of preference of taste or convenience.
Most powdered collagen supplements on the market have a scoop which you level out, and add the powder to your smoothie, coffee or plain water. Liquid sachets are portable and convenient too.
Interestingly, collagen cannot be stored away in the body, therefore when you decide to start taking a collagen supplement, take it daily.
Are collagen supplements safe?
There have been no studies that show collagen supplements have a detrimental effect on our health. Assuming you are taking the correct dosage, there are no side effects. Considering that collagen is a protein, taking a collagen supplement would be like consuming any other protein.
Recommended Collagen Supplements
Collagen Peptides
Ingredients: Bovine hide collagen peptides, hyaluronic acid (sodium hyaluronate), vitamin C (ascorbic acid)
Vital Proteins has been around since 2013 and has many devoted fans. It is a popular brand with wide distribution. Vital Proteins Collagen Peptides has many positive reviews with hair and nail noticeably stronger. Joint pains have eased on those struggling with joint issues.
Marine Collagen
Ingredients: Hydrolysed Fish Collagen. Crushed Tonic collagen comes from a blend of sustainably harvested non-gmo tilapia and pangasi raised in fresh water fish farms in Europe, with final processing in a Kosher certified facility.
Created by Korean American Sally Kim, Crushed Tonic is based off the Korean diet and uniquely, they only source marine collagen in their products. It’s pure and flavourless so you have no idea it comes from skin. A lot of testing and effort went into creating this effective and fantastic collagen supplement.
Multi Collagen Protein
Ingredients: Hydrolysed Bovine Hide Collagen Peptides, Fermented Eggshell Membrane Collagen, Chicken Bone Broth Protein Concentrate, Bacillus coagulants (2 Billion CFU), Hydrolysed Fish Collagen Peptides.
Ancient Nutrition is a clever collagen supplement because it contains all 3 sources of collagen: bovine, poultry, marine. In addition, a probiotic is added and a Vitamin C for added absoprtion.
Marine Collagen
Ingredients: Made from Wild, Sustainably Caught Cod Skin: Bare Biology Marine Collagen Powder is sourced from certified sustainable hydrolysed wild codfish skin (Gadus morhua) and is made in Norway.
A high quality marine collagen with many happy customers. Hair is reported to become stronger, and skin becomes more smoother and plump. Joints are more supple. The taste is not fishy at all, but has a slight lemon flavour. A firm favourite.
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