Vegan collagen supplements - Do they work?

Collagen is hot on the lips of everyone and is the current buzzword within the health and beauty market! Many people are always looking for that product or procedure to look and feel their best with many turning to the daily routine of using supplements to enhance their health making them feel and look younger.

We at Skinni V always say “your health is your wealth” because no matter what you have in your world unless you have your health everything else just seems pointless. We are all living longer and are becoming more conscious of what we feed our bodies to maintain a healthy and active lifestyle for as long as possible while looking the best that we can.

So, what is collagen, what does it do, and do I need it are normally the first questions that most research so let’s dive into these questions and more so you can make a more informed decision as to what you do next?

What is collagen?

Collagen is a protein made up of amino acids glycine, proline, hydroxyproline, and arginine — all of which help our body's connective tissue, skin, hair, and nails stay as healthy as possible. Collagen is the main component of our skins tissue, bones, muscles, cartilage, tendons, blood vessels, and gut.

Many just associate collagen with the skin but it plays a huge role in joint health.

Do we create collagen?

Yes, we do create collagen but over time and as we age our collagen stores reduce and our body makes poorer quality collagen. It has been found that genetics, the environment, and our lifestyle choices like smoking and poor diet all play a contributing factor in how our bodies store and create collagen.

Exposure to high levels of UV rays and pollution also plays a role in our collagen stores so you will visibly see those who have had high exposures to the sun in later life will have wrinkly skin as do those who smoke especially around the mouth.

What are collagen supplements made from including vegan collagen?

Let’s start with the normal collagen supplements, there aren’t many foods high in collagen so to produce the supplement of collagen they boil up the bones, tendons, skin from cows and sometimes pigs and or chickens to create a broth which then goes through a process of extraction, filtration, evaporation, sterilization and drying to create an odourless powder. This can also be created with fish for marine collagen.

As veganism and plant-based diets are rising rapidly these supplements are a big no-no for those who choose a plant-based diet as well as those for religious reasons.

So, what is vegan collagen made up of?

There are a couple of types of vegan collagen on the market, firstly you have genetically engineered collagen which scientists have created by using genetically modified yeast and bacteria with added pepsin to help structure and create the building blocks into collagen molecules with the exact structure of human collagen.

The other option just like our own amazing Skinni V Vegan Collagen which has been specifically developed by our expert nutritionists has been blended and is formulated with collagen-specific amino acids, plant proteins, bamboo extract, and Vitamin C to support normal collagen function.

So, which is best, vegan or animal-derived collagen?

Animal-based collagens do very little to aid the natural production of collagen in your body, you ingest animal-based collagen which so far has a lack of evidence in independent scientific studies and also no validated results in the EU’s health and nutritional claims register.

Whereas the same register conclusively agrees that plant-based nutrients help your skin, hair, nails and connective tissue produce their collagen effectively. Many independent scientific studies also agree that plant-based nutrients found in vegan collagens like our own Skinni V Vegan Collagen have a tremendous effect and impact not only on the self-production of collagen but also the added benefits of protecting our collagen stores from external environmental factors.

 

 

So rather than trying to simply ingest animal collagen, we at Skinni V believe that it’s better to aid and boost your production of collagen with quality ingredients that benefit you in more ways than one.

Taking an oral collagen supplement supports the skin structure from the inside out. When the collagen is absorbed in the bloodstream, the collagen reaches the underlying layers first.