Collagen is a protein found all over the body, in the muscles, skin, tendons, joints, and the digestive system. It’s is one of the leading considerations well-known to help the gut in the healing process! Your body naturally produces collagen, but your ability to make it drops as you age. So you should ensure you take enough amino acids to build, store and produce collagen.
So. what’s the ideal type of collagen for gut health? Let’s start with the different types and delve into the benefits and how to take the supplements.
Types Of Collagen
Although collagen types are many, the five main types of collagen are:
- Type I: The most abundant and potent protein in your body. 90 percent of your body’s collagen is type I.
- Type II: The primary collagen in elastic cartilage that provides joint support.
- Type III: Type III collagen is fibrillar collagen, the main component of your skin, arteries, muscles, and organs.
- Type IV: Typically found in the layers of the skin.
- Type V: Found in some skin layers, the cornea of the eyes, hair, and placenta tissues.
What type of collagen for gut health? Types 1 and 2 are the best collagen for your gut health. This is because your body requires them for healthy organ tissue and other tissues.
How Collagen Helps Your Gut Health
The two amino acids in collagen, glycine and proline, have been shown to help heal the intestinal wall and the stomach lining. Collagen can additionally regulate the secretion of gastric juice and inhibit the excess of those juices.
Collagen helps your gut health because it is also a great digestive aid. Collagen can provide relief of various gut complications, such as leaky gut syndrome, ulcers, and gut wall inflammation, and prevent them.
Does Collagen Cleanse The Gut?
Collagen helps to improve bacterial balance by offering a surface for good gut bacteria to attach to. It also encourages the growth of helpful bacteria, like bifidobacteria, cleansing the gut.
Does Collagen Help Leaky Gut?
Collagen repairs leaky gut. The amino acids in collagen work together to repair the damaged cells lining the wall of your gut. This helps to restore the integrity of the gut lining, like reducing permeability or ‘leakiness’ in your gut wall.
This super nutrient also helps cells to align well and strengthens the tight joints of the gut lining.
Benefits Of Collagen For Gut Health
Health benefits of collagen for gut health includes:
Repairs Strengthen And Soothes, The Gut Lining
Collagen contains many amino acids, including proline, glycine, and glutamine, that play an essential role in rebuilding and strengthening the gut lining.
Your immune system needs these amino acids to repair the digestive tract and other damaged tissues throughout your body.
Relieves Leaky Gut Symptoms
Collagen helps to relieve leaky gut symptoms in various ways. Since it supports gut lining repair, collagen can address the condition’s underlying cause.
It also supports glutamine production, an antioxidant that the body produces. The role of glutamine is to defend your body from free radicals, which cause oxidative stress. Antioxidants help lessen widespread inflammation, another symptom of a leaky gut.
Glycine, an amino acid in collagen, helps to tame inflammation, which is particularly essential for those with inflammatory gut conditions such as IBS.
Improves Digestion
Research shows that collagen helps to improve digestion and nutrient absorption. It is highly attracted to stomach acid and water found in the gut.
Improved digestion makes the food pass through easier to digest completely. Improved digestion can also lessen symptoms like indigestion, nausea, and diarrhea.
How Much Collagen Should You Take?
Adults should take between 2.5 – 15 grams of collagen a day to reap its gut health benefits. You can consume collagen any time during the day, depending on what will work for you. Make sure you have taken it consistently to reap the maximum potential benefits.
However, it is best to consult your doctor first to know the correct dosage.
The type of collagen supplement might, in addition, affect how regularly you require taking it.
Easiest Way To Take Collagen
Your body can produce more collagen by taking healthy foods. For your body to produce collagen, it puts together amino acids known as proline and glycine.
These acids are found in high-rich protein foods from animal or plant sources such as beef, dairy, chicken, fish, eggs, and beans. Other nutrients, like vitamin C, zinc, and copper, also play a part.
Eating foods rich in amino acids and vitamin C can help increase your body’s hyaluronic acid and collagen levels. Foods rich in vitamin C include oranges, red kale, peppers, Brussels sprouts, strawberries, and broccoli.
You can take oral collagen supplements in the form of powders and capsules. Supplements are another simple way to raise your amino acid consumption and boost your collagen levels.
Certain foods are thought to be absorbed more effectively by the body and can be sold as hydrolyzed collagen or collagen peptides. This is because the body absorbs them more easily. After all, they are broken-down forms of collagen.
Collagen peptide supplements have shown to be effective on digestive symptoms.
On the other hand, Collagen powders are an excellent choice for higher consumption levels and are easy to add to meals and drinks. Collagen pills provide a speedy way of taking collagen without mixing.
Foods Rich In Type 1 And 2 Collagen
Food rich in type 1 and 2 collagen include;
Bone Broth
Bone broth is an excellent and the leading source of collagen. It is made by boiling bones for a long time to help extract the beneficial nutrients of the bone marrow and get the flavor.
This process mines collagen from the bones and skin, placing it into the broth. The bone broth tastes good and is easy to add to your diet through stews and soups.
Egg Whites
Eggs don’t have connective tissues like numerous other animal products, but egg whites contain vast amounts of proline, one of the amino acids essential for producing collagen.
Fish With Skin
Another excellent source of collagen is fish, provided that you leave the skin on. Why? Much of the collagen in fish is stored in the skin. As a result, fish meat contains less collagen.
Fruits And Vegetables
Fruits and vegetables are rich in vitamin C. This nutrient encourages your body to produce collagen, keeping you healthy and strong.
Fruits rich in vitamin C include papaya, citrus, and blueberries. Vegetables include leafy greens, broccoli, and cauliflower.
Collagen Supplements
Collagen pills and collagen powders have accolades for their ability to heal gut problems. However, the difference between collagen pills and powders has nothing to do with collagen but more with how you get it.
Capsules are filled with collagen powder and require ingestion like any other pill. Powder, on the other hand, is loose and can be put in foods and drinks.
Which Source Of Collagen Is Better: Marine Or Bovine Collagen?
A marine collagen is a form of collagen protein derived from the skin, scales, and bones of fish and other aquatic animals like jellyfish. This type of collagen is categorized as type I collagen.
Bovine collagen is, on the other hand, derived from land animals such as cattle (cows), buffalo and bison59.
Marine collagen supplements provide the same benefits as bovine collagen supplements. However, marine collagen is better because it is one of the most easily absorbed supplements.
Marine collagen is moreover considered ‘cleaner’ than collagen from animals. This is because the fish source has no chance of contagious disease and a lower risk of contaminants.
Bottom Line
A healthy gut means a healthy life! Gut health is vital to living a healthy and long life. Although healing your gut might be a long process, it’s worth the effort.
If you combine the best collagen products for gut health with the best practices, gut problems will be a thing of the past. Collagen is pretty safe. It’s worth giving it a try.
Before trying collagen for gut health, you should first speak to your GP to make sure they are the right choice.