Animal-Based Collagen Supplements
Now, it’s time to talk about plant collagen vs animal collagen, and we’ll start with animal-based supplements. The majority of the collagen supplements you see on the shelves are animal-based collagen supplements. That means these supplements come from the ground up hooves, hides, bones, and joints of animals.
Most animal collagen is a by-product of factory farming, where pesticides and herbicides like glyphosate are stored in the bones.
Companies that make these animal-based collagen supplement powders transform the collagen of animals into mainly tasteless or flavored powders you can mix into your coffee or put into a smoothie.
The idea behind these supplements is that by taking animal collagen, you can replace the collagen levels in your body.
For example, as the collagen levels in your joints begin to deplete as you age, animal-based collagen powders are supposed to replace the collagen you’ve lost.
What Are The Negatives Of Collagen Supplements?
There are a couple of issues with these supplements, though. The first issue is contaminants are often found in animal-based collagen supplements.
These contaminants include antibiotics, prescription drug metabolites, steroids, insecticides, and parabens. None of these are good for your body.
The Consumer Wellness Center conducted a study that tested eight popular bone broths and bone broth products such as collagen supplements. They tested these products to determine if there was any presence of chemical pesticides, pharmaceuticals, industrial chemicals, toxicological chemicals, and food additive chemicals.
This study wasn’t biased because companies couldn’t pay to be included or excluded from the study. After they completed the testing, they found antibiotics, drugs, and chemicals in many animal-based collagen powders.
The company is still conducting research to determine the safety of these products.
One thing to keep in mind is the antibiotics in these powders can accelerate the risk that you might get an antibiotic resistance problem.
Because it is recommended that you take collagen supplements daily to truly feel the effects, antibiotic resistance can become a reality much faster than you think. That means if you become very sick and need antibiotics, taking a prescription antibiotic won’t be as effective.
Dr. Mark Moyad, who is the director of preventive and alternative medicine at the University of Michigan, is also worried about harmful heavy metals like copper and arsenic in collagen supplements. Also, when animal tissues are processed and broken down into powders, they typically exude creatinine which can be toxic.
Another issue that Dr. Moyad remarks in his book The Supplement Handbook is the likelihood of absorption of collagen supplements: “It’s not at all clear that eating collagen increases your body’s levels of it.”
The main problem with animal-based collagen is it doesn’t confront the root cause of collagen loss. It’s like putting Band-Aids over scrapes.
But, you don’t look down to see the things you keep tripping over that cause you to fall and scrape your knee in the first place.
Collagen production is influenced by several different factors. If you choose to take an animal-based collagen supplement or a vegan collagen builder, make sure you also take steps to make your lifestyle healthier overall.
In summary, the tightly twisted helix of full-form collagen (from animals) is difficult to break down during digestion and too large to cross the intestinal wall, so collagen from animals is not an effective oral supplement.
Vegan Collagen Builders
Vegan collagen peptide builders work in a very different way from animal-based collagen supplements. Vegan collagen peptide builders are not made from collagen.
Like the name suggests, these plant-based collagen supplements help your body build its own collagen.
Vegan collagen builders work in a similar manner as a food subscription box service. When you buy a food subscription box, all the ingredients of a recipe are delivered to your door.
Related: Is 'Vegan Collagen' As Good As Animal Collagen
You have the exact amount of each ingredient you need to make a recipe.
Then, all you need to do is cook the ingredients and voila! You have a delicious meal.
Essentially, vegan collagen builders give your body all the ingredients it needs to produce more collagen.
Your body already naturally makes its own collagen. But, if you don’t get enough of what your body needs, it slows down the production of collagen.
This happens more rapidly as you age. You need more nutrients in your diet to combat the effects of aging.
A vegan collagen supplement can help you meet those needs more easily.
That doesn’t mean you should substitute eating nutritious food and living healthy for mixing in some powder in your morning coffee. Collagen builders are a supplement.
They are supposed to supplement what you are already doing in your life to keep yourself healthy.
An important thing to note is you don’t have to be vegan to take a vegan collagen builder. Vegan collagen peptide builders are made without any animal products in them, but that doesn’t make them less effective.
As mentioned before, your body produces collagen from protein peptides and vitamin C. Neither of these has to be animal ingredients.
In fact, the best sources of vitamin C are going to be fruits and vegetables.
Sunwarrior Vegan Collagen Building Peptide Powder