Dietitian Review on Collagen

We are back with another supplement review - this week is it collagen. Is it worth the hype? Find out here! 

Click play, sip back, and be empowered.

Transcript

Baylee: 0:23

Hello everyone. Welcome back to this week's episode of Mocktail Minutes. This is Bailey

Brianna: 0:28

And this is Brianna.

Baylee: 0:30

This week I'm drinking my lunch. I'm drinking my smoothie. So we have water, vanilla protein, mixed berries, lots of peanut butter

Brianna: 0:41

Great.

Baylee: 0:42

ground chia seeds. I think that is everything simple and effective.

Brianna: 0:47

Good job. Done. I am doing one of these joie sparkling teas.

Baylee: 0:54

Oh yeah.

Brianna: 0:55

This, this one's pretty good. It's the peach. pretty

Baylee: 0:57

cannot do the sparkling teas. I don't like them.

Brianna: 1:00

It's weird. It's not very carbonated.

Baylee: 1:03

Oh, okay.

Brianna: 1:04

It says sparkling, but yeah, first.

Baylee: 1:08

level one sparkle.

Brianna: 1:09

Yeah. Level one. Yeah. But it does have ashwagandha in it. So you might not like,

Baylee: 1:17

Oh no.

Brianna: 1:18

really figure out how much ashwaganda I have in drinks.

Baylee: 1:21

Yeah, don't know if I would like sparkly farts. That's what Aand reminds

Brianna: 1:26

doesn't taste too earthy. Maybe at the end a little bit.

Baylee: 1:31

Yeah. It's the aftertaste that gets you with that.

Brianna: 1:33

Yeah.

Baylee: 1:35

It's like dirt, but also a musty fart.

Brianna: 1:38

yeah, it's like peach and then dirt.

Baylee: 1:41

Yum.

Brianna: 1:41

Yum. I love it.

Baylee: 1:43

we are talking about collagen. We've done some supplement reviews in the past. Today we're reviewing collagen. It's a very popular one. I use collagen. I think you use collagen too, don't you?

Brianna: 1:54

Yeah.

Baylee: 1:55

I mean. It's very popular. It's in my coffee every morning, but collagen is the most abundant protein in your body. So it forms basically like a matrix of your skin, your bones, tendons, ligaments, cartilage, connective tissue. It's kind of like the glue that holds your body together. And naturally your body does produce collagen, but collagen production declines with age starting like. Mid twenties due to stress, smoking, poor nutrition, sun exposure, illness. I feel like it became more popular and like. Forties, fifties. Age group or like that's where people were going to it for. Or just like skin, maybe not skin, hair and nail nails, just skin.

Brianna: 2:43

Yeah, I feel like joints, that's what people think of. And then, yeah, now it's very marketed like your skin and your hair and your, because I mean it does, you need collagen to like build all that up. But when you're getting a supplement,'cause you can get collagen from food. Like other ways. But when you're getting it from a supplement, it's hydrolyzed, so it's a hydrolyzed collagen peptide, meaning they just took the longer proteins and broke them down into smaller units, so they're easier to digest. And there's actually a lot of types of collagen, but most of your supplements are either like type one or three. And usually from like cow or fish. The ones from cow. Is rich in one in three, and it's good for like your skin, tendons, bones, and then the ones from fish is mainly type one, and that's really good for your skin, hair, and nails. But there's like five main types of collagen now.

Baylee: 3:34

I would say most multi collagen supplements, like vital proteins, that's a very common one, includes type one, type two, type three, type four, and type five. So, and. I mean according, well, I would guess so. Oh my gosh. Brain work. I've had some people ask me about collagen before, and another thing that's popular around collagen is like the liquid versus powder. there is a company out there that really pushes liquid collagen, and as far as I know, there's really not a major difference in the absorption. If it's hydrolyzed peptides, really matter if it's liquid or powder. So it's more just looking at the ingredients, like what is it flavored with? Is there stuff added? Where are the sweeteners? Is there any preservatives? And thinking about those things. And then like same company that's like, oh, you must do liquid collagen. It must be this. They're like, it must be type one and type three. This is what you need. No, each type is gonna support different tissues in your body. And you wanna get a variety. That's where you're gonna get your benefits. And you can actually enhance your collagen absorption by like pairing it with vitamin C. So sometimes you'll see that in the collagen supplementation, but you could also like. Eat some citrus with it, some peppers. Those are high Vitamin C foods. Like zinc or copper can also be beneficial to eat alongside of it. So you like seeds, you could do some glycine rich foods like bone broth. That would also be really good for getting some extra glycine in there.

Brianna: 5:24

Yeah.

Baylee: 5:25

But just kind of things to think about there. Really, you want it hydrolyzed, you want it third party tested. You want to have a quality ingredient list. I, I mean, I like the vital proteins. Just ingredients. Have some further food. That's another good one. Perfect. Supplements has a collagen too, don't they?

Brianna: 5:44

Yes.

Baylee: 5:45

I think they, yeah. They have Thrive Market. They have some, so.

Brianna: 5:50

a lot

Baylee: 5:51

There's lot brands of collagen because it's, it's so simple. It's nothing

Brianna: 5:55

It's, and I, that liquid collagen that you're talking about, I think I know the one you're talking about. It's really expensive and I, for me,

Baylee: 6:03

don't wanna call it.

Brianna: 6:05

yeah. But I know, right. But for me, it doesn't make sense. It's like, that's like saying a protein drink is better than a protein powder. You know what I mean? They're both hydrolyzed proteins just in different forms. It makes no sense how it gets absorbed. So, you know, I would, yeah, but you wanna make sure it's a good brand. We, we can list some of these brands too.'cause I've used almost all of'em that we listed, except maybe like one or two of'em. They're fine. Your collagen shouldn't be extremely expensive. It should be good quality, but it shouldn't be like the same as like a protein powder'cause it's not a complete protein, which kind of brings like the next question people have is like, oh well can I just use it and place a protein powder? No, because it's not a complete protein, but it does count towards your overall protein intake. And there's like a lot of research that says like it's good for your skin health, your joint health, muscle mass, bone health hair. Hair and nail, and even like gut health too, like your gut your stomach, collagen's great for, it's always gonna be dependent on the dose and the consistency, but then also like what's your overall protein intake like, because if you think about it, it is a peptide, which just means it's a bunch of string of amino acids, but when it gets absorbed into your body, a lot of those amino acids like. Get broken off into like just their own single thing. And if you are really undereating protein you, that collagen is not gonna be like hyper fixated on like your nails. It's not gonna be like, oh, I'm going to nails for like nail growth if you are just undereating.'cause we use. Peptide, like we use amino acids for so many different things. It's in every tissue of the body. So you know, if you're needing it for, I don't know, something more important, like your muscle or your bone, it's gonna go there. It's not just like, oh, I started taking a supplement and now my hair is much better. You have to have the adequate protein to do it. Which is one thing that I think, cause I deep dived on this company. They're like saying it targets certain things

Baylee: 8:13

That's not how it works

Brianna: 8:15

that works. Your body does not anything different. It is like cool amino acids. We need them here, here and here. Yeah. Right?

Baylee: 8:23

mean, that's the goal. Like that's part the hell.

Brianna: 8:26

Oh yeah.

Baylee: 8:27

I often find is a lot of these products or these supplements claiming these things, they're like, you know, like this is the goal, but no one is looking at the big picture. And this is where I think it could be a little bit tricky almost, or. It can get a little bit overwhelming when you're trying to change habits because we're not, yes, we're giving you like small things to work on, but we're not just like, here drink collagen every day and this is just gonna change everything. Like there is no just one thing that's gonna change everything. It's a combination of multiple different things and adding up and it takes time. I can't stress that enough of like, it takes time to do things. But yeah. Collagen. It's not necessarily like a muscle building protein usually. So here's what I do for a lot of my clients, because we know like 30 grams of animal protein gives us enough loosening to stimulate muscle protein synthesis, aka building a new muscle. So a lot of us need more than 30 grams of protein at a meal. That's a starting point. So get your 30 grams of protein from animal protein and then add on like plant protein sources, collagen, like get the other proteins in there too. I think that's helpful rather than just focusing on like, oh, I gotta eat eight ounces of chicken every meal. Like, no, you don't have to do that. And I think that's helpful to where. Collagen shouldn't be your main source of protein if you're wanting to build muscle, but it's an addition. So like my coffee, it's a collagen coffee, like a protein coffee, but it has 18 grams of collagen in it. So I do that alongside with my eggs and chicken sausage, or that's like my snack is that. And then my other, my meals always have 30 grams of animal protein. So it's not that it's bad, but it's just because it's not. A complete amino acid profile. It's rich in glycine and proline, but it's very low. We're missing in like trytophan, and then it's low in methionine. It's low in losing. It's low in is,

Brianna: 10:32

Yeah.

Baylee: 10:33

so especially because it lacks a trytophan. That's why it kind of fails the complete protein test.

Brianna: 10:40

Yeah, so it's not gonna be the same if you're like, oh, I'm making my smoothie this morning and I put in collagen. It's just not gonna be getting you what you think it's getting you. That's what I do. I put it like in my coffee that I have after breakfast, so I'm getting my protein that I need at breakfast, and then cool. I have an additional 10 to 20 grams of protein from collagen in my coffee, and I'll it as like a sweetener, you

Baylee: 11:02

yeah, it's just like a different type of protein. It's almost like. I don't know, steak versus chicken, I guess you're gonna get different benefits. You're gonna get more iron from steak. And same thing with collagen. You're just gonna get different benefits. We need both. It's not to say one is necessarily like better than the other, and I think that's where we get stuck is like it has to be either or in so many different areas.

Brianna: 11:24

Mm-hmm.

Baylee: 11:25

Like we just use all different things.

Brianna: 11:27

Yeah, so. What the research is saying this, we'll put it out there.'cause again, when you're looking at your collagen, there's gonna be a lot of claims. Okay. So what it does say it can improve skin health because it improves elasticity and hydration. So that matrix that it like makes up, you know, so can reduce wr wrinkles and signs of aging. Mostly when it's like two to point, five grams to 10 grams, obviously that's a huge range. Right? And in all the studies it's from four to 12 weeks. So again. You're probably gonna need to take it longer than a month. You're gonna be consistent. And also all of these are most likely making sure that you're having adequate protein intake, so they're not relying on collagen as your source of protein. It's just an additional supplementation. The other thing it can do is it can help joint health, so it can improve that stiffness, especially in osteoarthritis or athletes. And it may stimulate cartilage regeneration, which is why it's important to take it. If you're aging, but also just if you do a lot of sports, you work out a lot, you're putting a lot of pressure on your joints, bone health. So some evidence does show that collagen helps improve bone marrow density when taking, again, consistently, especially in postmenopausal women. And then as far as hair and nail growth, it's more like a smaller outcome. So there's like small improvements, kinda like anecdotally supported. So again, though, I would say. If you're eating adequate protein, you're gonna see, and obviously vitamins, especially your B vitamins, which again is found in animal protein. Your nails and your hair are gonna be better. But there was a little bit of like reduced brittleness, that sort of thing. So taking it a hydrolyzed collagen protein in the red amount from a reputable source every day consistently, you can see these benefits and you're not gonna, not gonna hurt to make it.

Baylee: 13:19

It's not really gonna hurt anything. Time of day doesn't matter. When you take it, just add it to your day. Coffee is always an easy one, I think. Cho Chocolate Collagen. In your coffee, delicious or lazy girl, use the roast of purpose and know you get 18 grams of collagen every morning. So whatever works for you. But yeah, collagen, it's gonna be helpful. Skin, joints, hair, skin, nails that. I already said skin, hair, nails, gut health, all those different benefits, your whey protein is gonna be more for muscle growth. And then even things like bone broth. Bone broth is actually a natural collagen source and it has great minerals. So there are just, there's just different types of proteins. It's not that it's better or worse than

Brianna: 14:00

some of the downsides are like, again, if you're accidentally using it as your protein powder, complete source, it's not. Heavy metals. So this is why it's important to do a higher quality third party tested supplement.'cause again, supplements can do whatever they want. They can be very cheaply made. And this is also an issue with protein powders too. But you can have heavy metals in them, especially like the marine sources, allergies. If you're allergic to fish and you're using a supplement, that might be like a combination of both, but it doesn't say it. So again, reputable source to make sure that the ingredients that are in there. What is stated on the package. Then unregulated claims, we kinda went over that, but then also if you're vegan, you are not really getting collagen. There is some companies out there that have like a vegan source. I think it's like from algae and I don't, I've

Baylee: 14:51

Yes, I think I've seen that too before.

Brianna: 14:53

haven't looked into it enough to like really figure out how algae has collagen, right.

Baylee: 14:58

I haven't either.

Brianna: 14:59

You know, but I mean, it's an algae algae's. Interesting though, I I've, I've been going down a rabbit hole about algae, so there's that.

Baylee: 15:07

Yeah, it's like we, we get one thing in our.

Brianna: 15:10

Yeah, I'm like algae. This is so interesting to me. Mostly for all, it's like mitochondrial health benefits, but you know, neither here nor there. Maybe we'll do a deep dive on algae.

Baylee: 15:20

Yes. But yeah, you can definitely try collagen out, see how you like it. It's not really gonna hurt anything. It's great. There's nothing against it. It's just different than your animal protein. not so much the muscle building. It's more joints, skin, hair, nail. Gut health, some of those things rather than building muscle. So it's not that we don't recommend it, we just don't recommend it for muscle building benefits. So just use it how we said, use it at snacks, use it in addition to your animal protein. All right, everyone, have a great rest of your week and we'll be back next week with a brand new episode. Bye.