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Collagen plays a crucial role in your body for many different processes. Eat more of these 5 foods to increase collagen production.
Collagen is a kind of protein both made by our own body and found in food. It plays an important role in things like giving your skin suppleness, structure and stretch.
As we age our bodies have more and more trouble producing this protein. This can cause your skin to become more wrinkly and thinner in the aging process.
Keeping your collagen level high enough can also help you deal with after weight loss loose skin.
Collagen supplements or collagen increasing foods?
It’s clear that collagen plays an important role in your health.
One thing you’ll notice is that there are all kinds of collagen supplements available. Collagen supplements could potentially improve your skin health without any side effects (1). Collagen supplements can provide even more benefits than collagen increasing foods because of the higher concentration. Consuming your nutrients in whole food form is the safe way but certain supplements can do just that little bit more.
Eating these 5 foods increase your body’s natural collagen production, a great way to start boosting your collagen levels.
1. Bone broth
Research is a bit divided on consuming bone broth for collagen but it is one of the more popular foods consumed to increase collagen production.
Bone broth is a liquid made by simmering animal bones in water. This preparing process supposedly extracts collagen very well.
Bone broth contains all kinds of great micronutrients like calcium, phosporous, magnesium,… Of course not all bone broths are made equal. The quality of the bone broth depends on the quality of the bones used to make it.
2. Chicken
Plenty of collagen supplements are based on chicken and there’s a reason for that. Chicken contains great amounts of collagen.
It’s also a great source of protein if you’re looking to keep your calorie count low.
3. Fish
Most of these foods for more collagen are animal based foods and this one is no exception.
Fish could be a great source of collagen for you. The thing is that the body parts that will help you the most are not often consumed.
Fish head, scales, eyeballs and skin will help you the most with producing collagen.
4. Egg whites
While eggs don’t contain the same amount of connective tissue as a lot of other animal products, they do contain something called “proline”. This is one of the amino acids needed for collagen production.
Eggs also contain a wide variety of other beneficial nutrients.
5. Vitamin C foods
Vitamin C is another micronutrient that’s needed for the production of collagen. Citrus fruits, berries and tropical fruits top the list for vitamin C.
Processed foods can damage collagen production
Consuming the above foods will certainly benefit your bodies production of collagen. Even if you are not the biggest fan of this collagen food list you will still be able to get collagen from other food sources. Just in a smaller amount.
Sometimes it’s not just about eating more collagen producing foods. Eating certain kinds of food can reduce the amount of collagen being made in your body. These foods are mostly the common health-damaging ones like food high in sugar and other processed foods.
