Once your body stops naturally producing collagen in your 20s, you may be wondering how you can obtain collagen elsewhere…
Collagen is found in animal and vegetable sources, with beef being the most popular source. Collagen is typically found in the bone marrow, ligaments, and grisly parts of meat that most people tend to avoid. This is what makes a collagen supplement the ideal choice: You get all the benefits of collagen, without the hassle of eating a bunch of grisly meat every single day.
That said, when purchasing a collagen supplement, there are three things to look for on the label…
1. Certified Grass-Fed Collagen
When looking for the best collagen, make sure you find one that is from a grass-fed source. Diet can greatly affect the quality of the collagen. It can also affect the absorption, effectiveness, and even safety of the collagen supplement. The best collagen supplements are from Certified Grass-Fed sources that have never been exposed to toxins such as pesticides, hormones, chemicals, or antibiotics.
2. Hydrolyzed Collagen or Collagen Peptides
You want to make sure your collagen is in a hydrolyzed or peptide form. This simply means that the collagen has been broken down into the smallest available proteins, making it easier for you to digest and easier for your body to start seeing benefits.
Hydrolyzed/peptide collagen is also much easier to mix. It dissolves quickly so that you won’t even notice a difference in your favorite hot or cold beverage. You’ll know right away if your collagen supplement isn’t hydrolyzed…it’ll be like a sticky, gelatin-like clump floating in your beverage.
Hydrolyzed collagen benefits your skin in two ways:
- By being a tiny building block for collagen and elastin.
- By stimulating the synthesis of collagen, elastin, and hyaluronic acid. (It does this by binding receptors in fibroblasts (a type of connective tissue that provides structure to your skin) to make more collagen and improve skin health.)
Long story short, taking a hydrolyzed collagen supplement improves skin health by increasing collagen production and suppressing the enzymes that actively break collagen down.
3. Type 1 and 3 Collagen Fibers
Collagen is made of nearly 30 different types of fibers found all throughout the body. However, Types 1 and 3 are the two most abundant types, making up over 90% of the collagen in your body (5).
Type 1 is the most prevalent and can be found in the skin, bones, teeth, ligaments, and other tissues; while Type 3 can be found in the skin, muscles, uterus, bowel, and large blood vessels (6, 7). Type 1 and Type 3 have both been studied and are thought to be the most effective in addressing joint, bone, and skin health.
The best collagen supplements use these two highly effective collagen fibers and don’t add any additional filler collagen (like Type 2, 4, 5, and so on).
