What to Look for When Buying a Collagen Supplement

Key things to consider when you are buying collagen supplements.

So you’ve done your research and you now know that collagen is the skin, hair and nail care from within - so you want to buy collagen.

What are the top five things you should be looking for when choosing a collagen supplement to buy?

This article shares the top things to look out for - and, equally importantly - what to avoid.

"It is imperative that you realise that buying a good quality, hydrolysed marine collagen supplement is far superior than trying to make your own via bone broths at home." - Maxine Laceby

This is because although gelatin (the collagen substance emitted when collecting bone broth) is moderately bioavailable, it is not as bioactive as collagen peptides - which are formed when the gelatin is broken down further and creates a lower molecular weight which is absorbed directly into the bloodstream.

Gelatin is obtained by the partial hydrolysis of collagen. This is when collagen triple helices are broken down to the point where they have pulled apart into individual strands.

Gelatin will only dissolve in hot water and will jellify when it is cooled (this is the same gelatin you would get in the bone broth you prepare at home).

Gelatin is often used in cooking - jellies, sauce thickeners etc. It is also used for making soft and hard capsules in the pharmaceutical world. Gelatin has a molecular weight of 50kDa.

However, collagen peptides have a molecular weight of less than 5000Da. The lower the molecular weight - the more easily absorbed. Collagen peptides are soluble in cold water, highly digestible and ready to be absorbed by our bodies.

So now you understand why buying and ingesting hydrolysed collagen is most effective - here are the things to look out for.

1. The type and origin of collagen you are looking for:

Collagen is the main structural protein in the human body - constituting 70% of our dry-mass skin content. However it’s a little known fact that there are at least 16 different types of collagen within the human body! However, around 90% of this collagen consists of types 1, 2 and 3.

When looking for a collagen supplement to buy, you should be looking for Type 1 collagen. This can be found from porcine (pig), bovine (cow), fowl (chicken) and marine (fish) collagen sources.

Fish collagen is absorbed up to 1.5 times more efficiently into the body and has superior biovailabilty over bovine, porcine and fowl collagens. This is due to their smaller particle size. In Absolute Collagen, we use only high-grade hydrolysed marine (fish) collagen peptides.

2. The amount of hydrolysed collagen contained:

Each supplement you come across will have differing amounts of collagen contained within it, usually measured in grams.

It is important to know before you buy collagen that only around 7.5 grams of collagen can be absorbed and used effectively by the human body at any one time.

This means that your one dose should not contain more than 8 grams of collagen as it’s essentially waste.

You can take more than 8 grams of collagen in one day, ie: over a 24-hour period, but only consume 8 grams at any one time and space doses by several hours.

3. The constitution of the collagen supplement:

The high amount of small peptides of hydrolysed collagen in liquid form absorbs better into the bloodstream when compared to powders or tablets.

In fact - it’s around 90% plus absorption for liquid compared to just 65% tablet form. Additionally, liquid formulas are kind to the lining of the stomach and contain no plastic casings or binders.

Absolute Collagen is a ready-mixed, pure liquid, ready to take 8 gram marine collagen shot.

4. What else is in the supplement:

In order to perform at it’s best, collagen requires the presence of Vitamin C which works synergestically with collagen in the absorption process for optimum skin rejuvenation.

So it’s really important when you buy collagen it has Vitamin C in the ingredients list. Collagen is also naturally quite a bitter tasting substance, so a natural sweetener and some flavouring is pretty important too!

Anything else is merely a by-product and won’t affect the way in which the collagen works.

5. How you take the supplement:

As we have already mentioned - liquid form collagen is far superior to tablet or powder form. Additionally - some collagen supplements are designed to be mixed with other liquids before taking.

Absolute Collagen’s handy, ready-to-use 10ml sachets take the hassle out of collagen supplementation - you simply twist off the top - take, and go!

Ready to buy collagen? Click here and start your Absolute Collagen journey!