Why Collagen & Gelatin Are Essential

Gelatin is basically the cooked form of collagen. Traditional diets were naturally rich in gelatin. Muscle meat was not generally eaten on its own like it is today; a whole joint was stewed - the muscle, bone, skin, connective tissue, cartilage etc altogether, with the full spectrum of amino acids in one meal.

These days we throw away all the good bits. Incorporating bone broths is one way to replace the missing nutrients, and powdered gelatin or hydrolyzed collagen, is also a handy addition to your pantry, to improve the amino acid profile of your diet to discourage inflammation. 

The easiest way, however, is to regularly consume Hydrolyzed Collagen Powder, and for example drink it with a few 100 ml of boiling water, and a generous tablespoon of honey, for wonderful taste.

Another convenient, healthy & effective way of eating collagen, is through making your own 'fruit juice gelatin gummies'; you simply combine fruit juice with gelatin, and let them set for a couple hours, to a jello-like consistency, or overnight for a gummy consistency.

Collagen cooked down becomes gelatin. Gelatin processed further (hydrolysed) becomes what's known as Collagen Hydrolysate, also referred to as Collagen Peptides, or Hydrolyzed Collagen Powder.

Some of The Main Benefits of Gelatin

The major amino acid in gelatin is glycine, which is low in muscle meats. It is anti-inflammatory, hydrophilic (hydrating), pro-thyroid, heals damaged intestinal lining (aka 'leaky gut' and allergies) and improves hydrochloric acid insufficiency (weak stomach acid).

This anti-inflammatory amino acid balance helps also to regulate metabolism, maintain lean muscle mass, regulate cellular health, preserve bone strength & joint mobility, and regulate cellular health.

Both glycine and proline (another amino acid that gelatin is rich in) are very Liver-protective (aids in Phase 2 Liver detoxification), increasing albumin and halting oxidative damage.

Used as a major source of dietary protein, it's an easy way to restrict the amino acids associated with premature ageing.

Restricting dietary cysteine, while increasing dietary glycine produces a greater extension of lifespan than achieved in most studies of total caloric restriction.
This is possible through a diet which emphasises things like broths & stews, alongside collagen supplements like powdered gelatin & hydrolyzed collagen

Hormonally, glycine opposes estrogen and favours progesterone sparing (a very good thing).

Gelatin balances the inflammatory protein makeup of muscle meat (eg: a gelatinous stew or steak + homemade jelly). Gelatin is a nice change from 'beefy'-tasting broth: neutral in flavour you can add it to anything: sweet or savoury.

Consuming dietary gelatin / collagen hydrolysate supports your body in normalising its own collagen production, which results in prevention and reduction of skin wrinkling. Also, having red light bulbs in your house, for after sunset, and wearing Blue Light Blocking Glasses, when in environments with high amounts of artifical blue light; will optimize your sleep and thereby also your bodies collagen production.

How to Incorporate Gelatin/Collagen Into Your Diet

Collagen Hydrolysate is the most convenient way to get all the benefits of gelatin, and it's as easy as mixing 10-40 grams, with a couple 100 ml boiling water & a big tablespoon of honey.
You can also add it to juice, tea, smoothies or coffee. It won't 'gel' however, so if you want to make things that set like jelly, panna cotta, marshmallows etc, you need a more basic unprocessed gelatin powder or 'leaves'.

When eating meats, you can go for more gelatinous dishes like osso buco, lamb neck stew and oxtail soups rather than just 'refined' muscle meat all the time (steak or chicken breast).

When you do have muscle meats, you could "balance them" by sipping on some hydrolyzed collagen, with boiled water & honey, a home made bone broth, or maybe making a gelatinous dessert.

Incorporate gelatine into custards (with organic egg yolks), mousses, panna cottas, soups, home made marshmallow, or simply mixed with fresh fruit juices to make jelly (jello) or chewy jubes.

When making bone broths (a good source of some of these non-inflammatory amino acids including glycine), it's important to simmer for no longer than 3 to 4 hours or you'll degrade delicate amino acids, while increasing toxic free-radicals. 

Make sure to dissolve gelatin until completely clear before using in food or it may cause gas / bloating. If your metabolism and/or gut lining is extremely damaged, use home-made bone broth first: 1-3 cups per day minimum.

Start with 1 tbsp gelatin daily. If eating a large serve of meat, a good rule of thumb is to have 5-10 grams of gelatin at roughly the same time so that the amino acids enter the blood stream in balance.
Alternatively, you don't have to worry about "balancing" your meals ... as long as you meet your daily goal of collagen-protein intake (how high your goal should be depends on your basal metabolic rate).

For an adult, gelatin can be a major form of protein in the diet, since the essentiality of (need for) cystein and tryptophan decreases when growth stops. Note however that it should not be relied on as the primary protein during pregnancy or adolescence as it doesn't contain sufficient amino acids for these growth periods.

Our Collagen is the highest quality available, sourced from grass-fed bovine hide, is unblended (unlike many products on the market), and is completely soluble. No fillers, flow-agents or any other additives.

Read how you should proceed to best take collagen as a dietary supplement.

Proven Health & Beauty Benefits From Regular Long-Term Use

• Joint cartilage regrowth

• Reduced inflammation

• Improved body composition

• Increased bone density

• More youthful, hydrated skin

• Healthier hair and stronger nails

• Improved gut integrity and digestion

Glycine - The Amino Acid Against Aging

We’ve already covered a range of incredible benefits of the amino acid glycine, but there’s even more to it…

To start with, glycine increases the relaxing neurotransmitter GABA in your brain, promoting deeper sleep, a calmer nervous system, and more stable mood— all thanks to the high glycine content in collagen/gelatin.

Another thing glycine does in your body is reduce the risk of catching a cold or flu by up to 95% (according to studies), as it supports the extracellular matrix (collagen), which acts as a physical barrier against infections.

Collagen/gelatin is naturally anti-inflammatory, meaning it helps you recover from illness. It’s an alternative to synthetic medicine, which most people unfortunately forget about, don’t know about, or simply don’t believe in… and that’s why we’re explaining and proving it, with the use of logic & science, in this blog post …

Regular intake of the amino acid glycine (easiest through hydrolyzed collagen or powdered gelatin) could be the key to avoiding sickness in the winter and escaping the classic "winter flu." Wouldn’t that be something!?
Plus, you’d avoid the thought of taking heavy metal-filled, synthetic vaccines for this… among other things …

Now You Know: Collagen supplements are good for so much more than just reducing wrinkles.

Raymond 'Ray' Peat: The Legendary Forefather of The Bioenergetics Movement

"People have asked me why I recommend gelatin since I recommend eating only whole foods. That is right, but we rarely eat whole foods, including whole animal foods. We throw away the bones and skin and are told not to eat the skin because it has fat in it. However this is precisely here where the gelatin is found. Gelatin contains thyroid-protective amino acids which can help balance the anti-thyroid (thyroid-suppressing) amino acids prevalent in muscle meats (beef, lamb, poultry and fish), mainly cysteine and tryptophan. In addition, the anti-thyroid amino acids are released in large quantities during stress and hypothyroidism itself increases the catabolism (tearing down) of protein even though general metabolism is slowed down." - Dr Ray Peat: Gelatin, stress and Longevity.

Therapeutic Effects of Collagen & Gelatin

Good X post on The Potential Therapeutic Effects of Collagen/Gelatin

'Collagen Supplementation in Skin and Orthopedic Diseases: A review of the Literature'

Conclusion

'The loss of collagen can be influenced by intrinsic factors, such as genetics, or extrinsic factors, such as nutrition, sun exposure, infrared radiation, visible light, air pollution, and strenuous physical activity. The loss of collagen in osteoarticular tissues and skin is related to senescence, hormonal profile, adiposity, inflammatory processes, immobility, mechanical overload, and joint damage. The literature shows that collagen supplementation can be beneficial in the treatment of skin changes, reducing wrinkles; increasing skin elasticity, hydration, firmness, and brightness; decreasing pores and solar elastosis; and increased collagen synthesis density and skin content. The use of collagen in the treatment of orthopedic alterations increases bone strength, density, and mineral mass; decreases extracellular matrix degradation; inhibits inflammatory cytokines; improves joint stability, functional capacity, and stiffness/mobility, and muscle recovery; reduces pain; and mitigates markers of joint cartilage degradation. These results show the economic and health-promoting potential of this product extracted from food industry by-products. We emphasize that future studies should address remaining gaps regarding signaling pathways and obtain bioactive peptides from intact collagen for health promotion.'

'A Review of the Effects of Collagen Treatment in Clinical Studies'

Conclusions

'Collagen is the most abundant protein in the human body that has many multi-functions. The loss or defect of collagen can cause skin aging and other diseases. The collage treatments have demonstrated effective improvements in skin hydration, skin elasticity, medical scaffold treatment, GERD, OA and RA in many clinical studies. In addition, the collagen treatment for GERD in COVID-19 patients is also discussed in this study. Collagen therapy can reach good improvement and does not cause any serious adverse reactions. Collagen-based materials and products are the potential to be used in more applications, and they are the one of most important supplements for aging people.'

'Collagen peptide supplementation before bedtime reduces sleep fragmentation and improves cognitive function in physically active males with sleep complaints'

Abstract

'Effects of Collagen Hydrolysates on Human Brain Structure and Cognitive Function: A Pilot Clinical Study'

Abstract

'This study investigated the effects of collagen hydrolysates (CH) on language cognitive function and brain structure. In this open-label study, 5 g CH was administered once a day for 4 weeks to 30 healthy participants aged 49–63 years. The primary outcome measures were the brain healthcare quotients based on gray matter volume (GM-BHQ) and fractional anisotropy (FA-BHQ). The secondary outcome measures were changes in scores between week 0 and week 4 for word list memory (WLM) and standard verbal paired associate learning (S-PA) tests as well as changes in the physical, mental, and role/social component summary scores of the Short Form-36(SF-36) quality of life instrument. CH ingestion resulted in significant improvements in FA-BHQ (p = 0.0095), a measure of brain structure, as well in scores for the WLM (p = 0.0046) and S-PA (p = 0.0007) tests, which measure cognitive function. There were moderate correlations between the change in WLM score and the change in GM-BHQ (r = 0.4448; Spearman’s rank correlation) and between the change in S-PA score and the change in FA-BHQ (r = 0.4645). Daily ingestion of CH changed brain structure and improved language cognitive function.'

1. Introduction

'Dementia is an important health concern. The substantial increase in the proportion of the population aged over 65 years in Japan has been associated with an increase in the prevalence of dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease [1]. The global incidence of dementia was 46.8 million in 2015, and it is expected to increase to 74.7 million by 2030 and 131.5 million by 2050 [2]. Therapeutic interventions to target the modifiable risk factors of dementia are critical in the context of this increased prevalence of dementia. One major modifiable risk factor is diabetes mellitus, which is an attractive target for the development of such interventions. At the 2017 International Conference of Alzheimer’s Disease, the following risk factors were identified as modifiable factors in dementia: depression, obesity, diabetes mellitus, decreased social interaction, and low levels of physical activity [3].'

...

5. Conclusions

'The findings of this study suggested that an intervention involving the regular ingestion of CH may have a positive effect on brain structure and may improve cognitive language ability.'

'The Impact of Collagen Protein Ingestion on Musculoskeletal Connective Tissue Remodeling: A Narrative Review'

CONCLUSIONS

'Musculoskeletal connective tissue networks are in a constant state of remodeling. Exercise increases intramuscular connective tissue protein synthesis rates, demonstrating that connective tissue protein possesses a high level of plasticity. Despite the anabolic properties of dietary protein on muscle tissue remodeling, no study has demonstrated the impact of dietary protein ingestion to increase connective tissue synthesis rates. However, these studies have only evaluated the connective tissue protein synthetic response to essential amino acid and dairy protein ingestion. It has been suggested that the ingestion of collagen-derived protein sources, such as collagen peptides or gelatin, may be more suitable for stimulating connective tissue protein synthesis. Collagen-derived proteins contain ample amounts of glycine and proline, which may facilitate an increase in connective tissue protein synthesis rates. Some have speculated that collagen-derived protein sources also contain peptides with stimulatory or inhibitory properties. Although some in vitro evidence exists to support this hypothesis, there are no data, to our knowledge, to support the claim that the ingestion of collagen-derived peptides may stimulate connective tissue protein synthesis rates. Research is warranted to establish the proposed benefits of collagen-derived protein ingestion as a means to support connective tissue remodeling within musculoskeletal tissues. Such evidence is necessary for the potential development of nutritional intervention strategies to increase muscle strength and function in a variety of populations, including athletes and older individuals.'

Above are 5 different studies - logically proving tons of different positive effects of long-term, regular collagen/gelatin consumption ...

Don’t forget: Information on this website is not medical advice.