Can eating collagen really help us to supplement collagen？

2026年7月5日 | admin | C3
"Source of this article: Beiqing Net"
Collagen is an important structural protein in human skin and tissues. Collagen has the effects of moistening skin, keeping skin elastic, strengthening bones and maintaining joints. Supplementing collagen has always been the obsession of fairies who don’t want to get old.
Injection sounds dangerous and expensive, so many people have the idea of "food supplement". So, can eating collagen really help us supplement collagen?
These "supplementary" methods are not reliable.
1. Eating trotters can’t supplement collagen.
Collagen needs to be digested and decomposed into amino acids or "peptides" before it can be absorbed into the blood; The absorbed amino acids regroup to synthesize the protein needed by human body, which will not appear directly in the form of collagen. In other words, eating food rich in collagen such as pig’s trotters and fish skin only provides raw materials for synthesizing protein, but it may not be converted into collagen.
Tip:
Protein of human body needs to be synthesized by itself, and protein ingested from food only provides amino acids as "raw materials". The human body has different demands for different amino acids, and the scientific community measures the quality of an edible protein by digestion and absorption rate. There is no tryptophan in collagen (one of the essential amino acids for human body, which can only be taken from food). If you only eat collagen, then how much you eat can’t meet the needs of the human body, so it is considered as a kind of "inferior protein".
2. There is no collagen in plants.
For women who don’t eat meat or are afraid of being fat, it is perfect if they can eat vegetarian food to supplement collagen. So peach gum, bird’s nest, tremella, etc. have become favorites.
Unfortunately, only animals have collagen, and there is no collagen in plants. After cooking, those sticky liquids are not collagen, but the solution formed by polysaccharides in plants after high temperature.
Therefore, "plant collagen" is purely a bluff.
How to protect collagen
The most effective way to maintain skin is to improve diet, pay attention to rest and keep exercising.
If you want to keep the collagen in your skin, don’t forget to apply moisturizing ingredients, such as glycerin and hyaluronic acid, in time.
The most important thing is to apply sunscreen and physical sunscreen in time to prevent the skin from being damaged by ultraviolet rays and the collagen from breaking.
In nutrition, vitamin C not only provides essential amino acids for human body, but also helps human body to synthesize collagen in theory. Eating more fruits and vegetables, supplementing antioxidants (vitamin E, lycopene, etc.), limiting sugar and preventing vitamin B deficiency are also helpful.
Do not smoke.
Viewpoint source: nutritionist Gu Zhongyi, Life Times.
[1]https://weibo.com/1774057271/KySxk45MRtype=comment#_rnd1632366377986
[2]https://weibo.com/1400776392/I3w4b5NUU
Reporting/feedback