You may have heard about Collagen and its age defying, skin beautifying abilities. Whether in supplements, putting on your skin or injecting it. So whats all the hype about? And what can you do naturally to support it.
Collagen is our intracellular matrix, it is the framework that supports healthy skin, bones and joints, arteries and veins, the gut lining and muscle maintenance.
Recent studies have shown some short term benefits in skin, joint and gut health from Collagen supplementation. When you take a collagen supplement it needs to be broken down in the gut into the proteins which the body can absorb and then rebuild collagen from.
The good news is these proteins are available already in a well balanced primarily plant based diet;
- Glycine (produced from serine, choline and threonine) is available in eggs and legumes
- Proline (produced from glutamate) is available in egg white, soy and cabbage
- Hydroxyproline (produced from proline) is available in alfalfa sprouts
- Arginine (produced from glutamine) is available in seeds, grains, legumes and nuts
Alongside the proteins needed we also need adequate digestive enzymes, vitamin C and good balance of gut microbes for fermentation with natural sugars for the conversion of these proteins to collagen.
It is also important to reduce or eliminate stress, refined sugars, UV light exposure, smoking as these destroy collagen rapidly.
If you would like to know more about this topic, join Maddison Nusdorfer and myself at our next workshop ‘Spring Cleanse’ in September or message me about a private consultation.
Yours in wellbeing Odonata Ky