When looking for ways to incorporate protein into your diet there can be many avenues to choose including plant based, whey and a surplus of many other proteins. A protein on the rise is collagen, but why exactly is this?
If you’d like to know more about what collagen is, check out our previous blog here. For now, we’re going to discuss how useful collagen is as a protein source.
Amino Acid Profile
A little-known fact about amino acids is that complete or complex proteins, that contain all nine amino acids, are unfortunately hydrophobic, meaning you can’t stir them into a nice hot protein coffee and off you go, you’ll end up with a cake like mixture fit only for the bin. The major difference with collagen is the absence of Tryptophan, the hydrophobic amino acid causing all these issues. This just means you’ll lean on the rest of your healthy diet that include tryptophan to take the full, muscle-building benefits of collagen.
Benefits Beyond Muscle Building
Whilst collagen is a low-calorie source of high protein, it also boasts other attractive properties such as gut function, skin elasticity & joint health, meaning you might just benefit from a lower biological ageing process as you build some new lean muscle mass. Where do I order?
The Summary
How do we rate Collagen as a source of protein? This will depend slightly on your diet, as you’ll need foods rich in tryptophan such as eggs, fish, peanuts, turkey or tofu in order to complete the amino acid profile and utilise collagen for muscle building. If you find it easy to incorporate foods such as the above mentioned, that look no further than collagen as a top source of daily protein.
