Collagen is everywhere right now. All you need to do is scroll through Instagram or any wellness blog and you’re bombarded with lotions, creams, and powders all containing collagen. Collagen is almost considered a superfood with a host of benefits like improving digestion, strengthening hair, improving skin elasticity, relieving joint pain, and maintaining healthy bones.
Whether you follow a plant-based diet or not, you might be wondering, what about plant-based collagen? Is there a way to follow a plant-based diet and still reap the benefits of collagen without consuming an animal-derived product? The answer is a resounding Yes! In fact, plant-based collagen builders can even be better for you.
5 Benefits of Plant-Based Collagen Builders
Here are five benefits of plant-based collagen:
- Safer to Consume and More Sustainable
- Lower risk of allergies
- Strengthen skin, hair and nails
- Relieve joint pain
- Support healthy bones
What is Collagen and How Does it Work in the Body?
Before jumping into plant-based collagen, let’s take a closer look at what exactly collagen is and how it works in the body. Collagen is the most abundant protein in the human body. It’s often referred to as the “glue” holding everything together since that’s what it quite literally does. Collagen is a big component of the connective tissues that make up things like skin, ligaments, tendons, and muscles. It has a ton of functions and gives your body structure through your bones and skin.
Your body naturally produces collagen, but as you get older your body breaks it down faster than it can produce it. This results in a gradual depletion of collagen and contributes to changes in your joints, skin, and bones that are commonly associated with classic signs of aging. This process starts as early as your 30s. As well as aging, there are numerous reasons why your collagen levels might start to drop including:
Why Your Body Loses Collagen:
- Smoking
- Too Much Alcohol
- Low Amounts of Vitamin C
- Dehydration
- Lack of Sleep
- Unhealthy diet
- High amounts of processed sugar
- Ultraviolet (UV) rays
- Pollution
- Autoimmune diseases
Collagen supplements have become increasingly popular in recent years to help combat the signs of aging, strengthen hair, skin, and nails, and improve joint health. The majority of collagen supplements you see on the shelves are made from protein found in the cartilage, tissues and hides of animals and fish. Fortunately, there’s a plant-based clean alternative without hooves, hides or horns.
Boost Your Body’s Natural Production of Collagen
As the name suggests plant-based collagen builders are made entirely from plant-based ingredients. It doesn’t contain any animal products and it doesn’t contain collagen. Your body already produces collagen when it has enough of the vitamins and nutrients it needs to produce its own collagen naturally.
Related: Plant-Based Collagen Builder Vs Animal-Based Collagen Supplements: Which Is Best For You?
Collagen supplements aren’t a miracle solution to all your health problems. But, when combined with a healthy diet and regular exercise, they support your overall health. Your body can produce collagen from protein peptides and vitamin C, so you don’t need to consume animal-derived collagen to experience the benefits.
Although plant-based collagen builders can give your collagen levels the boost they need, it’s important to incorporate collagen-boosting foods into your diet as well.
Some collagen-boosting foods include:
- Dark leafy greens
- Mushrooms
- Garlic
- Berries
- Avocados
- Almonds
Related: 9 Foods To Naturally Boost Your Collagen For Healthier Skin, Joints, Bones, And Gut
The Benefits of Plant-Based Collagen Builders
1. Safer to Consume and More Sustainable
Plant-based collagen building ingredients are cleaner than animal sourced collagen due to the build-up of toxicity and heavy metals, concentrated in the tissues of animals. Animal-based collagen is a byproduct of the meat industry, which uses more water and land to produce compared to cleaner plant-based ingredients.
2. Lower Risk of Allergies
While one of the biggest benefits of plant-based collagen is that no animals are harmed to produce it, there are definitely other advantages to using it. For people with allergies, plant-based collagen builders presents a lower risk of allergies.
There’s some concern around the transmission of illnesses with animal-sourced collagen. If that makes you feel wary, then plant-based collagen builders would help to eliminate the problem as it’s created in a controlled environment where harmful substances and allergens can be removed.
3. Boost Skin, Hair and Nails
Collagen plays a huge role in the health of your skin, hair, and nails. Several studies have shown that collagen peptides can help to combat aging by reducing dryness and wrinkles. The wrinkle-reducing effects of collagen have been linked to their ability to help stimulate the body’s own production of collagen.
Related: Collagen for Anti-Aging & Beauty: Get Youthful Skin, a Glowing Face, Thick Hair, and Strong Nails
Collagen has also been found to increase nail strength by preventing brittleness. It may help to support and promote healthy hair in several ways. Your hair is mainly made up of keratin which requires several amino acids to produce. Some of the amino acids needed for keratin are found in collagen.
You can now experience the beauty benefits of collagen while following a plant-based diet. Even if you don’t follow a plant-based diet, plant-based collagen is a natural way to boost the systems in your body that already work to produce collagen.
4. Relieve Joint Pain
The connective tissues in your body like tendons and ligaments are primarily made of collagen. These connective tissues holds your joints together. As you get older, your collagen levels drop and you have a higher chance of developing joint disorders such as osteoarthritis. Some studies have found that collagen supplements may improve osteoarthritis symptoms and reduce overall joint pain.
Related: Collagen for Healthy Joints, Tendons and Ligaments
Another study found that adults who took collagen for 70 days noticed a major reduction in joint pain. They were also able to better engage in physical activity compared to the group who didn’t take the supplement.
5. Support Healthy Bones
Your bones are primarily made of collagen. It’s what gives them structure and strength. As your collagen starts to deplete, so does your bone mass. This loss of bone mass can lead to conditions like osteoporosis, which is characterized by low bone mass density. Collagen is very important for bone health as you age. Research shows that collagen supplements may help stop the breakdown of bones which results in osteoporosis.
One study found that women taking collagen daily for 12 months experienced a 7% increase in their bone mineral density (BMD) compared to the group who didn’t take a supplement. BMD is a measure of minerals in the bones such as calcium. A low BMD is associated with the development of osteoporosis and weak bones. So, incorporating a plant-based collagen supplement could help you be preventative when it comes to your bone density.
Sunwarrior Plant-Based Collagen
Instead of taking an animal-derived collagen supplement, opt for plant-based collagen. It gives your body what it needs to build more collagen. You don’t need to be vegan to use plant-based collagen building protein peptides, it can benefit everyone. Sunwarrior’s plant-based collagen is a clean and animal-free alternative to traditional collagen supplements. No more hooves. No more hides. And no more horns. The collagen builder contains organic plant-based protein and protein peptides to support and boost your body’s natural production of collagen.
Sunwarrior’s collagen also includes:
- Silica
- Organic spirulina
- Organic vitamin C
- Organic biotin
- Hyaluronic acid (HA)
- Organic sea buckthorn
- Organic leafy green blend
- Organic pea protein
- Trace minerals
- Organic tremella mushroom
Taking a collagen protein builder alongside a healthy lifestyle can help you reach your fullest potential, look younger, and feel youthful too. You no longer need to look to animal-derived collagen to combat things like wrinkles, joint pain, and bone loss. By giving your body all the ingredients it needs to produce collagen, you can use your body the way nature intended. Collagen builders take an inside-out approach to health. Nurture the inside, boost your collagen levels and feel the rewards.
Related Articles:
- Plant-Based Collagen Builder Vs Animal-Based Collagen Supplements: Which Is Best For You?
- 9 Foods To Naturally Boost Your Collagen For Healthier Skin, Joints, Bones, And Gut
- How to Heal a Leaky Gut & Improve Digestion with Collagen
- 14 Of The Best Foods For Joint Health And Fighting Arthritis
- What Are Protein Peptides?