What is collagen powder?
Your body naturally builds a network of fibrous structural protein called collagen. Collagen makes up the majority of the dry weight of your skin and provides the volume that keeps skin firm and fine lines at bay. While your body makes its own supply of the abundant protein collagen, your collagen clock starts winding down at the ripe old age of 21, and production decreases even more after menopause. Add in a high sugar diet, smoking, or even exposure to sunlight and your collagen levels could be even more compromised. Collagen powder is the perfect dietary supplement to support the collagen you already make while helping your body through the collagen-depleting activities that may come your way.
We get it, aging feels like it happens overnight. One minute you have youthful, bounce-back-from-anything, early 20s skin. The next moment you wake up feeling like you’re trying to smooth the lines of the Crypt Keeper with every new potion and serum that hits your favorite beauty bar.
While starting from the outside seems like the best solution, the secret we’ve found to great-looking skin starts from within. In today’s survival game of stress, over-caffeinating, dehydration, and sleep deprivation, your skin needs a sure thing, and it gets it with collagen powder.
Collagen powder is a protein that is naturally rich in amino acids, the building blocks your body needs to help support your skin goals.
Benefits of taking collagen powder
Research consistently shows results when taking a collagen powder. According to a 2014 study, supplementing with a collagen powder improved skin elasticity in women aged 35-55, improved skin moisture retention, and reduced fine lines and wrinkles in as little as eight weeks. Why eight weeks? Your skin goes through a full skin cycle every six to eight weeks, so to see the benefit of any new skin regimen, you normally have to wait until you get through a skin cycle to start noticing results.
The benefits of collagen powder go beyond skin health. Collagen amino acids also provide the building blocks for healthy hair, skin, nails, and joints.
Impressively, a study done on elderly men who had experienced muscle loss showed they were able to gain significantly
more muscle mass and had more weight loss (fat) by taking collagen in addition to their exercise program than those who only lifted weights.
How does collagen powder work?
Taking a hydrolyzed collagen supplement works similarly to how your own body’s collagen works. Hydrolyzing means the collagen has been broken down so it’s easier for your body to absorb. While there are 28 different types of collagen, your body takes the collagen building blocks you give it and sends it to where it’s needed, including your skin, hair, tendons, organs, and even your eyes.
Bone broth gained steam as a collagen-rich food, but recent research shows that bone broth may not be the most reliable source of collagen. By contrast, a study on hydrolyzed collagen showed participants utilized 90% of the collagen digested and that it was available as small peptides in the blood stream within one hour!
How to choose a collagen powder
While most collagen powders are hydrolyzed, which is good, many fall short on sourcing. Unfortunately, there is no vegan source of actual collagen available, so it’s important to look for a responsibly sourced collagen. You want to ensure the cows and chickens have been humanely treated, grass-fed, and pasture-raised and had cage-free, antibiotic-free, hormone-free lives. That’s a tall order that many collagen brands aren’t able to achieve. But we believed humanely raised collagen should be the standard, and that’s exactly why New Chapter’s Collagen formula checsk off each and every one of these boxes.
Using our collagen is easy! If you start your morning with a protein-rich smoothie, think about adding a scoop of our collagen powder, New Chapter’s Collagen Glow, which includes complementary Sea Buckthorn berry. Collagen Glow delivers 12 g of paleo-friendly collagen peptides in types I, II & III. Why three types? Because each source of collagen brings something to the table for the benefits you want:
Type I (Beef): Supports connective tissues including skin, hair, nails, and joints; improves skin elasticity & hydration; helps minimize fine lines & wrinkles.
Type II (Chicken): Supports the strength and elasticity of cartilage and soft tissue within joints.
Type III (Beef): Best when combined with Type I collagen for gut health & skin benefits like plumping, hydration, and elasticity.
An important addition: Vitamin C
If you want to help your collagen to work well, you can include a high-quality Vitamin C supplement, like New Chapter’s Fermented Activated C Complex. Without adequate amounts of Vitamin C, you may have trouble storing, utilizing, or producing your own collagen. Fermenting Vitamin C has been shown to up Vitamin C’s antioxidant capability, as well, and is another great nutritional supplement to boost your collagen game.
