Collagen is the glue that holds the body together.
Collagen is the most abundant protein found in your body. It’s the primary substance of connectives tissues that provides structural support holding your body together and is essential for the health of your skin, gut, joints, ligaments, bones hair, nails, teeth, heart, and liver.
Collagen is needed just about everywhere in the body and makes up between 25-35% of the body’s total protein. There are actually as many as 29 different types of collagen however type 1-5 are the most common.
Type 1: Abundant in skin, tendons, ligaments, internal organs, bones and vascular system. Makes up 90% of the body’s collagen.
Type 2: Is our cartilage builder
Type 3: This teams up with type 1 to keep the walls of our arteries and other organs strong.
Type 4: ensures the health of our cell membranes.
Type 5: Needed for healthy hair and also the placenta during pregnancy!
Whatever the type collagen is made up of molecules that each contain thousands of amino acids.
Age and illness your body’s natural collagen production slows down and requires help from outside sources. This is where nutrition and lifestyle come into play and this is why BONE BROTH is such an important food to include.
Cooking of collagen breaks down collagenous protein into GELATIN, which provides the amino acids the body needs to make the ‘glue’ we call connective tissue. This is essentially the main difference. When collagen is cooked it forms gelatin :)
When it comes to the benefits of Gelatin and Collagen they are very very very similar.
Both contain glycine, glutamine, proline and alanine the four amino acids your body uses to make new collagen to support joint health, skin health, and a robust gut lining. These amino acids are hard to come by unless you’re eating lots of organ meat and connective tissue.
Benefits of both:
- Strengthening bones and joints
- Improving skin quality
- Improving hair quality
- Providing plenty of healthy protein
- Boosting digestive function
- Helping weight loss
- Improving sleep
Why is BROTH SO IMPORTANT?
The organic tendons, bones, cartilage and ligaments that are used for Bone Broth are filled with beautiful collagen. When these are cooked for hours, low and slow you create a nutrient dense, gelatinous- rich broth! The gelatinous liquid contains all the essential building blocks to increase our naturally declining collagen levels in the body!