What are the marine collagen peptides benefits? Can taking it give you healthier skin, hair, bones, joints and hormones? Are there other reasons to take it?
If it’s healthy and radiant skin, thick hair and healthy bones and joints you desire, consider getting more sources of collagen in your diet.
Collagen is a protein. It’s the building material for connective tissue. It provides structure to more than your hair, muscles, skin and nails. This protein is important for healthy bones, teeth, tendons and ligaments.
You can eat foods that encourage collagen production. Foods rich in vitamin C help encourage it’s production. Animal protein also contains amino acids that support healthy levels.
But a real easy way to support the health of your body’s collagen is to supplement with collagen peptides. And there are notable marine collagen peptides benefits.
Before discussing the benefits of peptides, let’s get go over the basic facts about collagen….
There are at least 250,000 proteins in the human body. Maybe up to a million. And collagen is the most abundant protein in the human body. Collagen makes up about 25%-30% of the human body’s total proteins.
If you don’t have enough of this essential protein, your skin will look like a weathered prune. Your hair will look like straw. Your bones will be brittle as twigs. And, your joints will ache like that of a 90-year old arthritis sufferer.
Got the point? Collagen is important for your health, vitality and youthful good looks. Your tendons and cartilage need collagen to heal and regenerate. If you want to do a Zumba class or go for a long run, you need to “collagen up!”
What are collagen peptides?
Collagen peptides are also known as hydrolyzed collagen. The advantage is it’s super easy to use. You just mix some collagen peptide powder in water and drink. Collagen peptide powder is also very easy for your body to absorb. That’s because the proteins are already broken down for you.
The reason why you may want to consider collagen peptides, especially marine collagen (we’ll get to why marine collage is best shortly) is because you may not be getting enough essential amino acids in your diet.
Amino acids are the building blocks of protein. The average American, because of inadequate nutrition, is deficient in amino acids. Collagen peptide powder contains nearly all 20 (or 22, depending on who you’re asking) amino acids.
Even if you eat lots of veggies and grass-fed/free-range meats, you still may not be getting all the essential amino acids (18 of them) your body needs. This is mostly because most people don’t eat tendons, ligaments and other connective tissue that contains collagen and the few essential amino acids that are difficult to obtain in the diet.
That’s where collagen peptides comes into play.
Advantages of collagen peptide powder
Instead of gnawing on connective tissue tacos, collagen peptide powder makes it palatable — actually, there’s no taste or smell and virtually no texture — to obtain those otherwise hard to get essential amino acids that are crucial for building proteins in your body.
Collagen peptides are also a good alternative to whey protein powder. Even though whey powder is rich in amino acids, some people get tired of taking it day after day because of the chalky taste.
And some people have trouble digesting whey protein powder. Like hydrolyzed whey protein powder, collagen peptide powder (which is also known as hydrolyzed collagen) is super easy to digest because it has shorter chains of amino acids.
Another advantage of collagen peptide powder is that you don’t need to spend a lot of time in the kitchen making bone broth. You don’t have to get in touch with your caveman side and boil huge femur bones in a large pot to get collagen.
You’ve probably heard of gelatin. Maybe from when you were a kid and had Jell-O gelatin pudding pops. Or marshmallows.
Gelatin is the cooked form of collagen. So for those who don’t like to spend a lot of time in the kitchen, collagen peptide powder is super easy to use. No cooking necessary. You can add collagen peptide to virtually anything like your morning smoothie or coffee. Or just add to plain water….
Collagen from sea and land animals
Where do collagen peptides come from? This might make you a little queasy thinking about it, but collagen comes from the skin, bones and connective tissue of the bones (ligaments and tendons) of animals.
And in the case of fish, from their scales, or from other seafood sources such as oyster shells. Now, it probably doesn’t sound appetizing to eat processed fish scales. Definitely not as much as sinking your teeth into some yummy fish tacos.
Are you ok with the idea of supporting your amino acid profile with fish scales? If not, your other option for collagen peptide powder is sourced from the hides (skin) of a cow (or pig, or other animal).
Cow skin tacos not sounding like a gustatory experience you’d like to partake in either? Again, with collagen peptide powder, you wouldn’t know you’re consuming animal parts you wouldn’t normally eat.
But it does beg the question … which source of collagen peptides is best? Do the marine collagen peptides benefits outweigh the benefits you get from pig and cow derived powders?
Best form of collagen peptides
The amino acid profile amongst different animals is only slightly different. But the best source of collagen peptides appears to be marine collagen peptides. If you can stomach the thought of ingesting processed scales, skin, bones and even the fins of fish, there are many marine collagen peptide benefits.
As you learned above, collagen is the most abundant type of protein in the human body. There are several types of collagen. Type I is most abundant and most important for your skin.
Fish or other sea creatures may be the best source of collagen peptides (peptides, by the way are chains of two or more amino acids) because they have the highest concentration of type I collagen. It was also stated above that collagen peptides in general are easy to digest because they contain smaller amino acid chains. One of the marine collagen peptides benefits is that fish have the smallest particle sizes compared to beef, chicken or pork collagen.
More marine collagen peptides benefits
Studies, such as this one suggest marine collagen peptides (MCPs) offer numerous other benefits, including:
- Very similar in structure to human collagen
- Beneficial for metabolic disorders
- Great for skin and bone repair
- Improve type II diabetes
- Speeds up fat metabolism
- Protects the liver
- Normalizes blood pressure
- Scavenges free radicals
- Inhibits tumors
- Fights aging of the skin
With all these marine collagen peptides benefits, everyone should be consuming it!
Collagen peptides side effects
Hydrolyzed collagen (remember: that’s another name for collagen peptides) is a processed supplement. And, there are a few potential negative side effects from collagen peptides. This is especially true of marine collagen peptides that come from shells.
These aquatic shells are high in calcium. For the same reason health experts are now generally advising against calcium supplementation.
Marine collagen sources may theoretically cause somebody to have too much calcium in the body, which can lead to several health problems. So, although there are many marine collagen peptides benefits, this should be kept in mind.
If you know your calcium levels are normal and only take one serving of collagen from time to time, you’re most likely in the clear. However, to be sure, always check with a health professional before supplementing with something that can elevate calcium.
Collagen peptides vs protein
A couple other things mentioned above worth repeating to refresh your memory about collagen peptide benefits. And these benefits reveal comparisons between collagen peptide supplements and other sources of protein.
First, collagen peptide powder is a good alternative to whey protein powder. It also provides your skin, hair, muscles and connective tissue with the building blocks they need that don’t come from only eating the muscle and fat of animals (steak, chicken thighs, bacon and the like).
One amino acid that collagen peptide powder is high in is hydroxyproline. Animal protein of the usual sources lack hydroxyproline. Your skin and hair and nails will thank you for consuming the hydroxyproline-rich source of collagen peptide powder.
Other collagen peptide benefits: collagen peptide powder contains no cholesterol and fat but is high in protein. It’s super easy to use collagen peptide powder, compared to cooking. You can mix collagen peptide powder in either hot or cold beverages and foods. With gelatin, the by-product of collagen, you need to dissolve it with hot liquid.)
Is Collagen Peptides Good for Health?
Several research studies support the suggested marine collagen peptides benefits. This study, published in Current Medical Research and Opinion, concluded, “A growing body of evidence provides a rationale for the use of collagen hydrolysate for patients with osteoarthritis.”
And this study, in the Journal of Clinical Pathology, concluded when collagen is supplemented, digestive problems like IBS, leaky gut and acid reflux become less problematic.
Finally, if you want nice hair, nails and skin, this study demonstrated that taking a collagen peptide supplement for 8 weeks significantly improved skin elasticity and other beauty markers in women.
Considering these facts, what’s there not to like about collagen peptides? Well, besides the potential for the hypercalcemia (too much calcium) side effect. Also, because collagen peptides are so easy to digest, this supplement won’t make you feel as full as eating a portion of grass-fed steak.
Looking for other ways to get essential amino acids? Check out:
L-Tyrosine Benefits and Side Effects
