Complete Protein vs Collagen Powder

Do We Need to Take a Collagen Supplement and Does it Matter That it is Not a Complete Protein?

Producer Potts  0:20  

collagen and collagen. Collagen is all over my social media feeds these days, but then I hear this thing, but it’s not a complete protein. So please, can you tell us what the deal with collagen is like the collagen powders we see everywhere? Is that really like a must have, especially for females? But like and then what’s the deal with Compute complete protein? Because I like Is it that bad that it’s not a complete protein? And also collagen? Like, do we need to have it basically?

Dr. Sarah  0:50  

This, there’s so many parts of this question. Let me start with what a complete protein is, because I will help us come down into talking about the Belgian lamb. I think this collagen is pretty cool, like it is legit a cool thing to get. So what a complete protein meat like that means is that that food has good amounts of all nine of the essential amino acids. So there’s 20 amino acids that our bodies use to make all of the proteins that we are made of. Proteins are like the basic, the basic like chemicals of life, like all the chemical reactions that are keeping us alive. They’re all words needed and orchestrated by proteins. Proteins are what do all of those cool things. And all proteins in our body are made up of the same 20 amino acids, just different orders and different lengths of chain. So of those 20 amino acids, nine are considered essential. So these are amino acids that we just can’t make. We have to get them from food, then the rest of them we can either make to some degree, so we still want to get them from food or we can totally make as much as we need no big deal. So we call a foodie complete protein, if it has good relative amounts of those nine essential amino acids, so all animal foods, other than collagen, are complete proteins. And there are a few plant fruit foods that are complete proteins like soy is a complete protein. I think hemp is, I believe I will please. I have a list in here. Complete plant proteins include soy like edamame, a tofu natto and 10, pe, buckwheat, quinoa, hemp, chia seed and amaranth. But it is kind of a shortlist, it’s really sad that it wasn’t already in my brain. So the reason why collagen is not a complete protein is because it has almost no tryptophan, which is one of the essential amino acids. It’s that’s not that doesn’t make it bad. So still talking about protein in general, and not necessarily about collagen. If we are getting enough protein, and we’re getting it from a diversity of sources, so we’re not eating or like a really restricted diet where we only are getting protein from a handful of foods, we typically don’t need to worry about complete versus incomplete proteins, because amino acids are like not that hard to come by. So just because collagen doesn’t have enough tryptophan, I mean, we can get tryptophan from a banana like we don’t, it’s not hard to get tryptophan from somewhere else. Okay, so as long as we’re getting our protein from a diversity of sources, and we’re getting enough, we typically don’t need to worry about complete versus incomplete. Even on a plant based diet. So even a vegan typically doesn’t need to worry about amino acid imbalances provided that they’re getting enough protein from a wide range of sources. That’s where the classic combination of beans and rice come in, I think it’s 13 or lysine that, you know, one has and the other one, you know, doesn’t have and they kind of complement each other to round out the collection of amino acids. But you don’t even have to have that at the same meal. So if you have rice at one meal and beans at the other meal, like our body goes I have I got these amino acids, I gotta wait for these ones. Okay, I got everything I need, I can make the thing. So, provided the day is supplying all of the amino acids like we’re good. So we don’t really see amino acids. Like a deficiency is like malnutrition due to not having enough of one of the amino acids it outside of like extreme malnourishment and starvation. So if you’re getting enough protein and the protein comes from more than a small handful of foods, you don’t have to worry about it. 

Producer Potts  4:59  

Typically, we’re good so typically, so not at all that collagen is not a complete protein, so we can set that to the side. But like these collagen powders, I feel like they are marketed to me all the time. And like, like, what’s the deal with them? Like, is it really that good and other other other ways that we can get it if we don’t want to, like buy a collagen supplement or whatnot?

Dr. Sarah  5:18  

Yeah, so collagen is kinda legit, cool. Um, but it’s cool for kind of a different reason than I think a lot of the marketing is. So what’s cool about collagen is all of the psychology, this type of protein that’s in our body, there’s like 29 different types. And collagen has two different roles in the US. So it’s either a structural protein, like most of the protein in our bones is collagen, our joint tissues mostly made out of collagen, or it’s like glue. So there’s a lot of collagen in our skin, there’s a lot of collagen in what’s called an interstitial or connective tissue. So all of the things that are holding us all of our cells together will have a lot of collagen in it. So collagen is very cool. It does a lot of really important roles. It’s the most common protein in our entire bodies. And it has a really, overall pretty simple amino acid structure. So it’s typically made of a glycine, then a hydroxy, proline, or Prolene, and something else. So Prolene, proline, glycine, proline, hydroxyproline, and then sometimes something else in there, but it causes this like spiral structure, which is how collagen gets its structural integrity from the three amino acids that collagen has in abundance. Glycine, proline hydroxyproline, are the amino acids that we need to make collagen. So when we eat collagen, we’re getting what we need to make collagen, but then we need the other nutrients that help with college information. So like vitamin C, it is a necessary nutrient for making collagen. So that’s another thing to keep in mind. Like we need, we need to also be getting enough vitamin C, so our body can use the amino acids in collagen. But as I already said, if we’re getting enough protein, we don’t need to really worry about amino acid imbalances, our bodies can make all of the things that it makes. So here’s what’s really extra cool about collagen, whether you’re eating it like a collagen peptide supplement, or you’re getting it from foods like seafood. In collagen, any kind of meat that you’re eating off the bone, like chicken wings is high and collagen, any like if you’re eating chicken skin that’ll have some collagen, bone broth that the protein and broth because it’s the protein from bones and joint tissues is collagen. So there’s food sources for college, and we don’t need to have a supplement. But however we get it, what happens in our digestive tract is we don’t just absorb single amino acids. So we break down proteins into amino acids, those amino acids get absorbed into our bloodstream. And then we use those amino acids to make the proteins that are us. But we can also absorb some what are called dye peptides. That’s two amino acids linked together with some tripeptides, three amino acids linked together, if I had a third hand, this would be a much better visual, or sometimes sometimes water. So for amino acids linked together, we don’t have to 100% break down a protein into individual amino acids to absorb them into our bloodstream. So typically, we’re still going to like to use those, we’re going to stick them into a protein. So what happens with collagen, there’s more studies definitely needed here. But this is where the science currently is at is that whether we’re eating it and breaking it down most of the way in our digestive tract, or we’re getting it as a collagen peptide, which is kind of like re re digested a little bit for us because it’s processed the proline and hydroxyproline dye peptide. So those two amino acids stuck together. They get absorbed like that, like two to two together in our digestive tract. And it turns out, or at least this is where the science is right now, that proline hydroxyproline is a really important signaling molecule that stimulates collagen synthesis in our bodies. So it’s not as much about the raw materials as it is about that, basically, the fact that that proline hydroxyproline dye peptide is telling our bodies to use those raw materials to make collagen. So that’s why there’s some pretty good studies showing that collagen does improve joint health in a variety of situations. There’s less good studies showing that it can improve skin and wrinkles and stuff like those are not quite as high quality as the joint of studies. And there’s maybe some indication that it can reduce cardiovascular disease risk, but that’s very, very preliminary. So the most rigorous, like, science that supports the health claims is the joint health stuff. But it’s very likely not just because of the raw materials and our bodies making the collagen, it’s because of that dye peptide. And here’s what’s cool. So I already mentioned vitamin C being really important for collagen synthesis. So we still want to make sure we’re doing that. But also, a really important stimulus for collagen synthesis is exercise. So they have studies where they’re like, Okay, we’re gonna give you this collagen supplement or this gelatin supplement, and it’ll either have vitamin C, or it won’t, and we’re gonna measure collagen synthesis and your body. And we’re going to stimulate that collagen synthesis by getting you to jump rope for three minutes or six minutes or whatever, right? 

Dr. Sarah  10:55  

I kind of like jumping rope. But, so if we’re looking to maximize the benefits of taking a collagen supplement, first of all, do you not need the expensive one, anyone? They’re all gonna have this die peptide in them. You don’t need all the fancy extra ingredients. So you don’t need the adaptogens and the type. Whatever collagen you like doesn’t need any of that. That’s good to know. Yeah, like super whatever’s the cheapest one you can just buy gelatin gelatin is like not quite as broken down collagen so you can make JellO and get your college in that way or make bone broth.

Producer Potts  11:32  

That sounds way better than jumping rope. I’ll do that.

Dr. Sarah  12:08  

It doesn’t have to be jump rope. But physical activity is really important as a stimulus for collagen synthesis. And, and that’s one of the reasons why being active is associated with stronger bones in our age, as well as younger looking skin.

Producer Potts 12:34  

I love that. Okay, so basically, if you’re eating like a Nutrivore  where you’re really getting a diversity of foods, you don’t actually have to be super stressed about this because you kind of have your bases covered when you’re doing that. But if you want to focus on vitamin C, collagen, take a walk. That sounds easy enough.