Do you know which is the most important substance in your skin? Collagen. It is the substance that makes your skin healthy, supple and elastic, and the loss of these protein strands is why you age; you lose your youthful appearance and elasticity and get wrinkles. When you are in your 30s, your body starts reducing collagen production, hence resulting in early signs of aging. Don’t fret! Luckily you have the solution to fix it. Collagen protein supplements are the most viable options to help reduce signs of aging and improve your hair, nails, bones, ligaments, and more.
But as you know, whenever a health supplement gains popularity, poor quality mass-produced knock-offs pop out in the market that promise much but deliver less or, at worst, nothing at all. Thus, making the process of choosing a high-quality supplement much more difficult. Therefore, to aid your decision making and save you from wasting your hard-earned money on such fake products, here are five critical guidelines on finding a quality collagen supplement. Read on!
#1 Key Guidelines: Pills or Liquid collagen?
The market is flooded with many collagen supplements available in both forms of liquid (which is hydrolyzed and made available to you in hydrolyzed form) and pills. This would be the first choice you will have to make when you step out to buy collagen protein supplements. While it purely depends on your personal preferences, it is said that powdered/ hydrolyzed form is the best form of collagen. Why? It provides you with a much higher concentration of collagen protein; it is easy to take, easy to digest, and easily absorbed in the body. Further, studies show that powder supplements offer quicker and better results than their counterparts.
#2 Key Guidelines: Reddish gold or rich coppery colour
Though it is tough to find out if a collagen pill or powder is original or not, liquid collagen supplements can be identified by their appearance. It has to be reddish-gold or coppery in hue. If you find any variation from these colours, it indicates that there is a presence of some additives to colour the protein artificially. The manufacturers usually do this to hide a lack of collagen content and earn more profit with a lesser amount of collagen extract.
#3 Key Guidelines: Viscosity and thickness of the liquid
Again, this test can be done on the liquid form of collagen protein. Type I and type II liquid collagen appear more like a semi-thick syrup than a watery mixture. So if you see the thin or watery consistency of your supplement, stop using it. This means it is not pure collagen and is added with fillers.
#4 Enzymatic Hydrolyzation process
You will probably nowhere find liquid collagen supplements suitable for direct consumption. It is said that liquid forms should be hydrolyzed before consumption to ensure maximum absorption by the body. Hydrolysis is the process in which protein molecules are broken down and pre-digested (a process that is usually done by your digestive system). Further, hydrolysis is of two types- acid hydrolysis and enzymatic. In acid hydrolysis, collagen protein does not break down completely; on the other hand, in enzymatic hydrolysis, natural enzymes are used, which break down the protein entirely and makes it ready for immediate absorption.
#5 Key Guidelines: Bovine sourced collagen protein
It is widely known that collagen obtained from bovine sources (cows and cattle) has superior and high nitrogen amino acid content. Moreover, bovine sourced collagen helps the human body more effectively than the proteins obtained from fish, chicken, pork or porcine sources. Don’t forget to check the label while making your purchase.