Collagen is the nutrient du jour. Within the countless seek for excellent pores and skin, girls around the globe have gotten extra aware of collagen consumption. Dietary supplements are all over the place, from natural co-ops to Goal, and you possibly can even order collagen-infused chilly brew and smoothies at many cafes.
Collagen complement gross sales surpassed $1.8 billion in 20221, they usually present no signal of stopping. However in keeping with Dr. Joseph Mercola, Board Licensed Household Drugs Osteopathic Doctor (DO) and Creator of Your Information to Mobile Well being, most Individuals nonetheless aren’t getting the quantity they want.
“Few Individuals get anyplace close to the quantity of collagen required for optimum well being,” he says. “At present, the common collagen consumption is alarmingly low — most individuals devour lower than 5 grams per day, and plenty of get nearly none.”
An absence of collagen isn’t simply unhealthy information to your crow’s toes. Based on Mercola, a collagen deficiency can result in the whole lot from poor joint well being to a decline in metabolic perform. “Many individuals assume collagen dietary supplements are only for pores and skin well being, however collagen is crucial for rather more than that,” he says. “It helps your complete connective tissue system, together with bones, joints, tendons, and even the integrity of your intestine lining.” In brief, the well being advantages of collagen are rather more far-reaching than we’ve been led to imagine.
What Is Collagen and Why Do We Want It?
Collagen is a particular sort of protein, a necessary constructing block in the whole lot from cartilage to bones, tendons, and ligaments. For a lot of our early lives, we’re our personal greatest supply of collagen, explains Dr. Amy Myers, a two-time New York Occasions bestselling creator and internationally acclaimed useful drugs doctor. “Your physique creates collagen each day,” she says. “It combines amino acids from the high-protein meals you eat, like cage-free rooster, grass-fed beef, and fatty fish, and turns them into collagen protein.”
However starting at round age 35, “collagen manufacturing naturally begins to sluggish,” explains Myers. “By age 40, collagen begins to deplete sooner than your physique can reproduce it, and by age 60, over ½ of your physique’s collagen has been depleted.”
Pure ageing isn’t the one issue contributing to decreased collagen. Myers cites genetics, tobacco, air air pollution, extreme solar publicity, and dietary deficiencies as among the many extra causes that folks might decide to complement their diets with collagen. Collagen supplementation has been clinically confirmed to enhance pores and skin well being, scale back muscle losing, enhance the physique’s capacity to heal wounds, and scale back signs of arthritis2.
How Do I Add Collagen to My Weight loss program?
Conventional diets in lots of components of the world are naturally wealthy in collagen. Meals wealthy in collagen consists of slow-cooked stews and soups, bone broth, and the aspic (meat gelatin) historically utilized in many pâtés, terrines, or potted meats.
“Our ancestors used to eat all components of the animal together with the organs and bone marrow,” explains Dave Asprey, New York Occasions Occasions bestselling creator of Closely Meditated. “This not solely reduces waste but additionally honors the entire animal.”
For Mercola, this pure nose-to-tail mindset “ensured a balanced consumption of important and conditional amino acids.” However lately, he says, “the standard Western weight loss program closely favors muscle meats whereas excluding collagen-rich sources resembling bone broth, skin-on poultry, or slow-cooked meats with connective tissue.”
Whereas additionally wealthy in protein, muscle meats alone lack the amino acids which are so essential to collagen. “Should you devour an excessive amount of methionine and tryptophan from muscle meat with out sufficient glycine and proline from collagen,” Asprey says, “you possibly can create an imbalance that promotes irritation, suppresses thyroid perform, and accelerates ageing.”
Entire Meals Sources of Collagen for Pores and skin
Based on Mercola, one of the simplest ways to reverse this pattern is to concentrate on entire meals sources of collagen. Some examples of those pure sources of collagen embrace selfmade bone broth created from beef or rooster bones, or gelatin-rich meats wealthy in connective tissue like oxtail or lamb shank.
And there’s a cause why collagen is such a scorching subject on this planet of skincare. Analysis reveals that sources of bovine collagen like beef bone broth assist pores and skin elasticity and hydration3, whereas marine collagen from fish pores and skin is right for pores and skin well being. Analysis means that marine collagen might assist defend pores and skin from UV harm and hold wrinkles from forming, and it has additionally confirmed helpful for these with osteoporosis and osteoarthritis4.
Mercola says these entire meals sources of collagen “are best as a result of they supply a variety of bioavailable vitamins alongside collagen, together with minerals and important cofactors that assist tissue restore and metabolic well being.”
No matter collagen-rich meals you select to eat, Myers says it’s essential to recollect your physique wants vitamin C to “totally energy collagen manufacturing.” For a holistic method, pair your favourite collagen sources with meals wealthy in vitamin C like berries, broccoli, and leafy inexperienced greens.
Collagen Dietary supplements Might Be a Extra Bioavailable Choice
Should you’re having a tough time getting sufficient collagen out of your weight loss program, dietary supplements could also be a sensible choice. “Should you aren’t usually consuming pores and skin, tendons, or broth created from bones, a high-quality collagen complement could be a sensible method to fill the hole,” says Mercola.
For Asprey, collagen dietary supplements may very well be a greater method to up your consumption of this important nutrient. “Collagen protein dietary supplements are hydrolyzed,” he says, “which means they’re damaged down and extra absorbable by your physique.” Based on a 2024 research in Dermatology Analysis and Follow, hydrolyzed collagen can enhance pores and skin, scalp, and hair well being in simply twelve weeks5.
Asprey additionally notes that dietary supplements make it simpler to maintain observe of simply how a lot collagen per day you’re getting. “Collagen powder gives a constant quantity of collagen, in contrast to bone broth the place the collagen content material can range,” he says.
Myers recommends searching for out bovine and marine collagen dietary supplements, which she says are extra bioavailable than collagen from rooster or eggshells. She additionally suggests choosing collagen peptides, that are derived from smaller items of protein and are thus extra bioavailable than common collagen.
The Draw back of Collagen Dietary supplements
Supplementing can however have one draw back: diminished transparency. As with most protein powders, Asprey explains, “there’s a threat that your collagen comprises excessive ranges of heavy metals if it isn’t prime quality.”
“Contamination is an actual concern, particularly with lower-quality dietary supplements,” echoes Mercola. “Collagen is usually sourced from animal bones and connective tissues, which may accumulate heavy metals, pesticides, and different toxins if the animals have been raised in polluted environments. That is significantly true for collagen derived from conventionally farmed animals, the place publicity to antibiotics, hormones, and environmental contaminants is larger.”
Be sure you supply your collagen dietary supplements from a good model, and select grass-fed bovine collagen at any time when potential. “Bonus factors if the model gives lab testing for every batch,” says Asprey.
“When sourced from grass-fed, pasture-raised animals, collagen dietary supplements could be a sustainable method to make use of each a part of the animal whereas minimizing waste,” Mercola agrees. “I like to recommend on the lookout for dietary supplements that prioritize moral, regenerative farming practices. This additionally lowers the danger of contaminants within the last product.”
The Risks of Too A lot Collagen
It’s all the time potential to be getting an excessive amount of of factor, and this holds true with collagen. “Most individuals assume ‘if one thing is nice, extra should be higher,’” says Asprey. “That isn’t true with most issues, even collagen.”
An excessive amount of collagen has been proven to have unfavourable repercussions on the intestine microbiota, in keeping with 2020 analysis revealed within the Journal of Useful Meals6. Overconsumption of collagen can even enhance oxalate ranges within the physique, in keeping with Asprey. “You don’t need too many oxalates floating round, as a result of they bind to calcium and kind razor sharp crystals that may deposit themselves in your tissues,” he provides.
So how a lot collagen per day ought to you could have? Asprey recommends getting not more than 20 grams of collagen a day and being conscious of consuming too many different high-oxalate meals like spinach, almonds, raspberries, beets, candy potatoes, and kale. For Mercola, the very best method is to get about 15% of your each day energy from protein, with a few third of this protein being within the type of collagen.
Finally, it’s essential to do not forget that most Individuals aren’t getting anyplace close to sufficient collagen. No matter the way you select to include collagen into your weight loss program, whether or not via entire meals sources or dietary supplements, you’re possible off to begin.
Sources:
- https://www.pharmiweb.com/press-release/2024-03-13/collagen-supplements-market-to-surpass-usd-70-billion-by-2032-with-rising-demand-for-cosmetic-appli
- https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8620403/
- https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5707681/
- https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8780088/
- https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1155/2024/8752787
- https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1756464620305028
