How does collagen really make you more beautiful from the inside out? Was it really the gelatin in Grandma’s chicken bone broth soup that gave it it’s healing powers? What’s the difference between Collagen, Hydrolyzed Collagen, Gelatin, and Collagen Peptides? Is all collagen the same? Why does “fat chance” and “slim chance” actually mean the same thing?

Oh wonderfully curious soul, you have come to the right place. In the following articles on collagen we will answer all these questions… except for the last one, that is simply unanswerable.

For now, let’s start at the top and give an overview of what collagen is and why you should care about it…

Collagen, The Glue That Holds Us Together

Collagen is a protein found only in animals. Yep, us humans – we are one of those animals who have collagen all over our body. The most abundant protein in our body? If you said collagen, you win a free bowl of bone broth!

Collagen is found in pretty much every part of our body – in our bones, tendons, ligaments, skin, muscles, cartilage, and more. In fact, the only thing our body has more of than collagen is water!

As with all proteins, collagen is made up of amino acids. We will get more into the exact amino acid profile of collagen later, but for now, just file in the back of your brain that collagen is rich in three key amino acids – glycine, proline, and hydroxyproline.

Hey, you never know when you will wake up and find yourself on a game show where the final question is – Name three key Amino Acids found in Collagen. When you win your million dollars, we only ask for a 10% cut.

Collagen’s Health Benefits Are More Than Just Skin Deep

When many people hear collagen they think of beauty and younger looking skin. No doubt, collagen can help with making your skin look healthier and younger, but the health benefits of collagen go well beyond youthful looking skin.

We will discuss this more in our article on the Health Benefits of Collagen, but just to wet your appetite, here are some of the ways collagen can help:

• Improve Skin Health
• Promote Younger, Firmer Skin
• Support Joint Health
• Improve Gut Function and Digestion
• Keep Excess Inflammation in Check

• Build and Restore Muscle
• Support a Healthy Metabolism
• Keep Appetite In Check
• Promote Healthy Brain Function
• Promote Deeper Sleep

As you can see, collagen has a major impact on our overall health and well being! It is for this reason that collagen and gelatin are staples of diets such as the Paleo Diet and the Weston A Price diet.

Collagen Is Good For You, And We Have Plenty of It. Are We Done Now?

Not exactly. It’s sort of a good news, bad news situation…

Good News: Collagen is the most abundant protein in the body.
Bad News: Our Collagen levels start to decline at age 20.

Good News: If your diet is rich in animal connective tissues, animal bones and bone broth – you can get collagen in your diet.
Bad News: You tend to get weird looks if on the way to dropping the kids off at school, you try to catch wild bison and then gnaw on its bones.

Sorry, but we need to learn more about collagen. How does it work in the body? How can we get more into our diet? Is all collagen the same? Don’t worry, we have just topped off our collagen levels and are now prepared to explain it all to you, one step at a time.

Let’s start by learning more in part 2- The differences between Collagen and Gelatin.