Healthy Benefits of Collagen

Did you know that collagen is the most abundant protein in your body? It accounts for about 30% of its total protein. In today’s article, we want to talk about what exactly is collagen, the health benefits of collagen, and also share with you the best collagen chocolate smoothie recipe.

What is collagen?

As we’ve mentioned early, collagen is the most abundant protein in your body. It accounts for 30% of the total protein in the body. It is the primary building block of your body’s skin, muscles, bones, tendons, ligaments, and other connective tissues. It is also found in your organs, blood vessels, and intestinal lining.

Proteins are made from amino acids. The main amino acids that make collagen are proline, glycine, and hydroxyproline. These amino acids group together to form protein fibrils in a triple helix structure. Also, to make the triple helix, your body needs the proper amount of vitamin C, zinc, copper, and manganese.

Health benefits of Collagen

Without collagen, your skin would be dry and thin, your nails would be brittle, your muscles couldn’t grow, and your bones would be extremely fragile. Also, as we age, our body has a harder time producing collagen. Stressors like smoking, alcohol, sugar, processed foods, unhealthy habits, and stress, can impact collagen production and make us look and feel older than we are. This is why, in case you’re not getting enough collagen from your diet, it would be a great idea to consider taking a collagen supplement.

Collagen for skin and hair

Collagen is a major component of your skin. It plays an important role in strengthening skin, as well as in elasticity and hydration. The amino acids found in collagen help the skin’s texture because collagen promotes healthy tissue formation, which speeds up the healing process so your skin can naturally repair itself. Having a proper intake of collagen peptides (or supplements containing collagen) may:

• help slow the aging of your skin by reducing wrinkles and dryness
• keep your skin looking smooth, even, and healthy
• minimize dark spots and scars from acne or other skin issues
• increase the strength of your nails by preventing brittleness
• help your hair and nails grow longer and stronger

Collagen for a leaky gut

Collagen helps repair skin and organ tissue. So when we have a leaky gut it can be really helpful, since the collagen peptides are deposited in inflamed and damaged areas of the intestine, helping it heal and making the gut membranes strong. To see better results is also needed to adjust your diet to a gut-friendly diet and fully heal your leaky gut.

Since most collagen supplements also have pre and probiotics, they’re also quite helpful when it comes to having better digestion, improving gut health, and fighting inflammation.

Collagen for muscles, bones, ligaments, and joints

Collagen helps maintain the integrity of your cartilage, the rubber-like tissue that protects your joints. As you age, the amount of collagen in your body decreases, so your risk of degenerative joint disorders such as osteoarthritis increases.

It gives strength, structure, and elasticity to our skin, bones, muscles, tendons, cartilage, and blood vessels. This helps maintain your muscles in good health, and, if you’re doing strength training, it promotes muscle growth. Collagen is also great for faster muscle recovery, so goodbye to sore muscles as it provides relief from joint and muscle pain.

Collagen improves flexibility. How? Well, joints are complex structures, made up of bone, muscle, ligaments, cartilage, and synovial fluid sacs. These tissues are the ones that give us flexibility, mobility, and elasticity. If we lose that, we can feel stiff and achy when moving.

Collagen chocolate smoothie recipe

If you don’t know how to consume your collagen supplement, don’t worry we’ve got you covered. There are plenty of ways to take collagen supplements in different forms. powdered is one of our favourites as you can add it to your morning coffee or tea, to your pancakes, or add it to your smoothie. Some are unflavoured and others contain chocolate or vanilla flavouring which gives way to makes way to make fun combinations. And we want to share our favorite collagen smoothie recipe with you so you can also make it and enjoy it as much as we do!

This is the best keto chocolate smoothie that we’ve tried, low-carb and sugar-free. Is perfect for those mornings when you have a long workday ahead of you and need that energy to last throughout the day and keep you satisfied. It’s also absolutely delicious! Maybe you’re not a big breakfast kind of person and want a quick bite that will keep you satisfied and won’t mess up your hormones cause, ain’t nobody got time for glucose spikes. It can also work perfectly fine as a midday or afternoon snack. 

It’s pretty easy to make. We love it with our coconut Funky Fat Chocs but you can choose whichever flavour you prefer from our variety sampler pack. Or you can even try one flavour each time you make it and then decide on your favourite!

Ingredients:

• 60ml full-fat coconut milk60g heavy whipping cream (or coconut yogurt if you’re vegan)
• 15g melted Funky Fat Choc Coconut
• ⅓ cup frozen raspberries
• 1 scoop collagen powder
• Erythritol or stevia to your choice (optional)

Optional: You can also add 1 scoop of your favorite protein powder (one with chocolate flavour is our favourite)

To prepare the chocolate smoothie:

1. Melt the chocolate bar in the microwave for a few seconds
2. Add all the ingredients to the blender and mix them well
3. Check for consistency; if it’s too thick for you, add a bit of water
4. Enjoy and share the recipe!

If you liked this recipe, we have plenty more for you on our recipes page. All of them are delicious, healthy, and low-carb-focused.

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