How Much Collagen Should I Take a Day?
Collagen is a powerhouse protein that provides the foundation for the strength, elasticity, and structure of various tissues in the body. It’s no wonder collagen supplements have exploded in popularity, given their ability to support the skin, joints, bones and muscles.
But here’s the catch: with so many collagen supplements on the market, it can be difficult to determine just how much collagen you should actually be taking. How much is too little, and how much is too much?
We’ve got you covered. In this post, we’ll dive deeper into the world of collagen, explore the optimal daily dosage, and share some tips on how to easily incorporate a collagen supplement into your daily routine.
What Is Collagen?
Collagen is a crucial protein that plays a major role in providing structure, strength, and elasticity to various tissues in the body. It’s the reason why your skin stays firm, your bones stay strong, and your organs stay in place.
The protein is produced in abundance within connective tissues like ligaments, cartilage, and bone, but it’s also found in other organs and tissues throughout the body. With its triple helical conformation of amino acids such as glycine, proline, and hydroxyproline, the unique molecule is synthesized from specialized cells known as fibroblasts. Collagen fibers act as a physical scaffolding system for your body, keeping everything structured and in its proper place.
Which Parts of the Body Rely Heavily on Collagen?
Collagen is one of the most common types of protein found within the body. It is estimated that approximately 30 percent of all the protein in the body is collagen.
Even though collagen is ubiquitous throughout the body, a number of tissues and parts rely more heavily on the structural qualities of collagen than others. Here’s a closer look at some of the parts of the body that rely heavily on having a steady supply of collagen to function optimally.
Skin
Your skin is not only the largest organ of your body but also the most visible one. Collagen is a key protein in your skin that plays a vital role in maintaining its firmness, elasticity and hydration. It’s what provides the ‘youthful appearance’ that helps you glow from the inside out.
The skin is comprised of many layers, and the bulk of collagen resides in the middle layer of skin known as the dermis. The dermis is where hair follicles, glands and capillaries reside, and having a network of collagen in this layer helps to anchor these structures and provide a solid yet flexible structure.
Wrinkles and fine lines tend to occur due to an age-related decline in collagen production. As the production of new collagen declines, it can reduce the amount of collagen in the skin, causing it to sag and wrinkle. This is completely natural, but not always welcome as we age.
Additionally, slowed production of collagen can cause an increase in wound healing time as your body takes longer to replace damaged collagen fibers in the skin. Collagen consumed in the form of a collagen supplement can make the journey through your body to the skin, supporting skin health and appearance.
Blood Vessels
Blood vessels play an important role within your body as they act as the highway for your blood to travel throughout your body. Blood vessels resemble hollow tubing, and their walls need to be strong enough to handle the pressure of blood that is forced out of the blood yet flexible enough to constrict and dilate.
Bones
When people think of bones, they normally envision solid mineral structures within the body. In actuality, they are fairly porous and utilize proteins like collagen to aid their structure. Collagen makes up more than 90 percent of the organic matrix of bone.
Consuming enough daily collagen peptides can be an invaluable way to help support bone health and improve bone density.
Joints
Joint health is something that is important to maintain, especially as you age, as joint pain tends to be a major complaint as people get older. Joints are composed of ligaments, tendons and cartilage, all of which require a significant amount of collagen.
A Penn State Study of athletes with joint issues supplementing collagen hydrolysate, a form of hydrolyzed collagen, found that it could soothe discomfort and help support joint health.
How Much Collagen Should You Take?
Collagen supplementation is indeed quite common in today's world. The wide array of tissues that need collagen makes it a great molecule to supplement your diet. Paired with the fact that supplemental collagen intake has no major side effects, its use has gained immense popularity in recent years.
Collagen peptide supplements like bovine collagen or marine collagen consist of the major building blocks of protein known as amino acids. While collagen is a rich source of amino acids necessary for collagen production, it does not contain all the essential amino acids your body needs.
Consuming collagen contributes to your daily recommended intake of protein. Since collagen is not a complete source of protein, some of your recommended daily amounts must come from other sources of protein that can help fill those gaps.
A 2019 study found that consuming 2.5 to 15 grams of collagen peptides per day was a good target to shoot for to allow enough room in your daily allowance of protein to get those missing amino acids and maximize collagen's health benefits.
How Do I Incorporate Collagen Into My Diet?
Collagen is an important protein for your overall wellness, and regularly consuming it may help to sustain collagen levels to support your bones, joints, and skin. Below is a closer look at ways you can incorporate more collagen into your diet, whether it be through different collagen supplements or dietary methods.
Utilize a Collagen Creamer
Collagen creamers are an easy way to add collagen to your daily routine. Many people have a habit of drinking a cup of coffee first thing in the morning, so why not have a supplement that you can simply add to it?
COLLAGEN BEAUTY CREAMER from JSHealth Vitamins is a creamy vanilla coconut-based creamer powder that goes well with your favorite hot beverage. Not only is the creamer dairy-free, gluten-free and devoid of refined sugar, but it also contains pure marine collagen to help increase your collagen intake quickly and conveniently.
Utilize Green Collagen Powder
Collagen powder on its own can be a great way to increase your consumption of collagen, but it is also an opportunity for you to add some extra nutrition to your diet. GREENS + COLLAGEN from JSHealth Vitamins can provide you with pure marine collagen and a healthy dose of nutrition, including vitamin C, E, vitamin K, folate, phytonutrients and antioxidants.
The GREENS + COLLAGEN FORMULA can be mixed with water or added to your favorite smoothies to increase their nutritional value further. It blends well with fruits, vegetables and other ingredients and adds a creamy texture to the smoothie.
Consume Gelatin
One source of collagen that many people don’t consider is gelatin. Gelatin is typically derived from animal sources and is essentially matrixed collagen. Gelatin is typically enjoyed as a dessert, but it can also be used in the kitchen as a thickener.
While gelatin contains collagen, it tends to not be as potent as an isolated supplement and is less bioavailable. Collagen supplements typically hydrolyze collagen to aid in its absorption into the body, whereas the human body may have a harder time processing collagen from gelatin.
Bone Broth
Another way you can increase your daily intake of collagen is to consume bone broth. Bone broth is made by boiling the bones of animals like bovine. During this process, flavors and some collagen are extracted from the bone.
While you certainly won’t get the same amount of collagen as you would with an isolated supplement, using some bone broth in your soup could be a great way to aid your hydration while increasing your daily collagen dose.
The Bottom Line
Collagen supplements play a significant role in maintaining the structure, elasticity and strength of various tissues in the body. Collagen is abundant in the skin, joints, bones and muscles, and regularly consuming it may help to sustain collagen levels to support these areas.
The recommended daily collagen intake is 2.5 to 15 grams of collagen peptides per day to give you enough room in your recommended daily allowance of grams of protein to get all of the essential proteins into your diet.
There are many ways to incorporate collagen into your diet, such as utilizing a collagen creamer or consuming supplements like marine collagen — JSHealth Vitamins has you covered.
Sources:
Bone Architecture: Collagen Structure and Calcium/Phosphorus Maps | NCBI