In order to achieve supple and glowing skin, 8 out of 10 women have purchased collagen supplements. If you’re reading this, you’re probably one of the 8.

Collagen supplements come in various forms – beverages, powders, and pills.

1. What are collagen products made of?

The active ingredient in collagen supplements falls into 2 categories – Collagen and Collagen Peptides. Their main difference lies in their size.

What is Collagen?

Collagen is a structural protein that forms the building blocks of our skin, connective tissue, and bones. Inside every collagen particle is a chain of amino acids, and it is these amino acids that give the chain its identity.

If you look at collagen under a microscope, it’ll resemble a gigantic, long, twisted chain.

The large size and twisted shape are crucial in order to build a strong structure for our skin and bones. But this large chain of collagen cannot be broken down easily by our body to be absorbed by our bloodstream.

That is the main problem with ingesting collagen supplements.

What are Collagen Peptides?

To get past the size problem, scientists invented a wonderful technology called enzymatic hydrolysis.

Ignore the fancy name and just think of enzymes acting like a pair of scissors, cutting up the gigantic collagen chain into tiny bits. These tiny bits are now called collagen peptides or hydrolysed collagen.

Since they are tiny enough, collagen peptides can be transported to where they are needed – into the cells of our skin, connective tissue, and bones. Inside these areas, the tiny collagen peptides will reunite with one another and combine into collagen’s original long, twisted chain structure.

Amazing, huh?

2. Size does matter

Many collagen supplements on the market will state the size of their collagen peptides. This size is represented by numbers like 900D, 700D, 400D. The smaller the number, the smaller the size of the collagen peptides.

So is smaller necessarily better?

In short, no.

Remember that in order to build a strong structure, collagen peptides need to recombine into a long, twisted chain. If the collagen peptides are too tiny, they won’t contain enough amino acids to serve their function. Also, our body won’t be able to recognise these collagen peptides because their identifiers have been destroyed.

Therefore, the best collagen peptides are a combination of small molecules and macromolecules. In numbers, this is represented by 700D to 3000D.

3. Which formulation is best?

Collagen products can be found in every drugstore. They exist in liquid form, capsules, powders, and so on. But which is the best?

Liquids

Firstly, we do not recommend liquid collagen. This is because collagen is a protein and often loses its stability when mixed into liquids.

Furthermore, liquids tend to have a shorter shelf life and are easily affected by light and high temperatures. In Singapore, this poses a problem.

That’s why manufacturers often add preservatives in order to ensure a long shelf life.

On another note, have you wondered why collagen drinks often come in rich fruity flavours? This is because fish collagen, especially those that originate from poorer quality fish, have a fishy stench. Therefore, strong flavours are needed to mask the stench.

Pills and tablets

Do you remember having difficulty swallowing pills and tablets when you were a child? Almost all pills were bitter and triggered a gag reflex.

But magically, pills nowadays are often tasteless. Have you wondered why?

In order to combat the awful taste of pills, manufacturers have come up with a solution – coating. Sadly, these coatings are of chemical origin and as such, we do not recommend long-term usage.

Powders

In our opinion, powder formulations are the safest and most effective. This is because powders are dry in nature and dry environments do not encourage the growth of germs. This ensures a long shelf life without the need for preservatives.

Powders are also unaffected by light or heat, allowing them to remain stable and effective over long periods of time. Finally, powders rank higher in terms of purity and are non-greasy.

We hope that you’ve found this article useful.