You’ve probably heard of collagen supplements before, but have you ever been curious about liquid collagen supplements specifically?
In this article, we’ll talk about the benefits of liquid collagen supplements compared to other kinds of collagen, and whether or not you should use them.
Why Collagen?
Collagen is a protein that’s naturally produced inside the body and can also be found in a variety of foods and substances.
Collagen is what aids in your skin’s youthful elasticity. It’s a protein that fights off wrinkles. Collagen also helps keep your nails smooth and strong while keeping your hair shiny and healthy! Recent studies have linked an increase in join health and overall quality of life to the supplementation of collagen [1] - which is another huge plus.
Liquid Collagen Benefits
Liquid collagen is one way to supplement your body’s natural collagen production. Consuming more collagen will give your body more amino acids (basic building blocks of protein).
The more amino acids you have, the more collagen your body can produce. The more collagen your body produces, the more it can send to where it’s needed.
But what does that mean for you? As you get older, your body’s collagen production naturally decreases. That means thinner hair, weaker nails, wrinklier skin, and more. But if you supplement your slowing collagen production with a collagen supplement, you stand a chance of prolonging those signs of aging.
So clearly taking a collagen supplement is helpful. But what’s the best way to take collagen?
After all, there’s more than one supplement out there to choose from.
What’s the difference between powder, capsule, and liquid collagen supplements?
Collagen supplements usually come in one of three forms. There is powder, capsules, and liquid collagen supplements. Each one of them provides similar effectiveness as well as similar absorption rates - but they are a little bit different from each other.
The difference is in the form that they are delivered to your body.
Liquid Collagen
Liquid collagen is already in a solution that is ready to drink. Often the pre-mixed collagen liquid supplement drinks have less collagen per serving and could have unwanted artificial flavorings including empty calories from sugar.
Liquid collagen can be very convenient, but you're oftentimes trading quality for that convenience. Make sure you check the information on the packaging so you know what other ingredients are included in your liquid collagen drink. To get the best results for your hair, skin, nails, and joints you’ll need all the types of collagen.
Capsulated Collagen
Unlike liquid collagen, capsules are typically an isolated form - so they don't contain any other unwanted, filler ingredients. Capsules are encapsulated pills that you can take just like any other capsulated supplement.
It’s convenient and easy, but hard to adjust the amount you take without adding a whole second pill to your diet. Also, unlike liquid collagen or powder collagen, their flavor isn’t customizable.
Powdered Collagen
Powders are meant to be mixed with liquid, like water, juice, protein, coffee, etc. It’s almost always more potent than liquid collagen and more cost effective as well. Powdered collagen is concentrated, allowing you to have more collagen per serving and prioritize your collagen intake over empty sugars and added ingredients.
Powdered Collagen has more flexibility - allowing you to change potency, split servings, drink multiple times a day, or change up what you mix it into, unlike liquid collagen or collagen capsules.
Capsules are encapsulated pills that you can take just like any other capsulated supplement. Powders are meant to be mixed with liquid, like water, juice, protein, coffee, etc.
Ultimately, 1st Phorm offers both capsuled and powdered supplements. We want to give you the nutritional convenience you need.
Life is fast-paced and stressful. You need supplements that can easily move with you.
The good news is, collagen doesn't rely on the speed of delivery to be effective. The main factor is the quality of the product.
Things such as quality of sourcing, how it is processed, total amount of collagen, and variety of different types of collagen that the product contains all play a role in how much the collagen supplement can possibly help.
What are the best ingredients to look for in a collagen supplement?
Not all collagen supplements are created equal. That’s because not all of them use the same ingredients.
You can’t expect good results with bad ingredients. And you can’t get the best results without the best ingredients.
So here are some of the ingredients you should look for in either a liquid collagen supplement, or any other collagen supplement for that matter.
• Hydrolyzed collagen
• A phytonutrient blend
• Diverse sources
Now let’s talk about each of these ingredients in more depth.
Hydrolyzed collagen - Hydrolyzed collagen is a specially formulated kind of collagen. The collagen molecules are actually smaller than those found in food like gelatin.
Their comparatively smaller size means they’re more easily digested and absorbed into the bloodstream. That means you’re getting the most out of what you’re taking.
A phytonutrient blend - Phytonutrients are a chemical compound that helps prevent damage caused by oxidative stress. Oxidative stress not only damages skin, hair, and nails, but it also causes undue swelling and soreness. Obviously, for ideal results, you want to make sure to protect your hair, skin, and nails from deterioration as well as help promote their growth and health.
Phytonutrients help block the free radical chemical compounds that cause oxidative stress in your body.
Combining the protective powers of phytonutrients with the healing power of collagen supplementation is what really separates average supplements from great ones.
Diverse sources of collagen - Clearly, the main ingredient in your collagen supplement should be collagen, but getting that collagen from a variety of different sources is also a good thing.
Ultimately, the collagen in your supplement is just a combination of different amino acids, so the more sources of collagen, the better the variety of amino acids are in your body.
Biotin - Biotin is a B vitamin also known as “Vitamin H.” It plays an important role in converting nutrients into energy that your body can run off of. Biotin also plays an important role in the health of your hair, skin, and nails.
How much collagen is enough?
So how much collagen is enough? That’s a hard question to answer.
That’s because the real answer is, “It depends.”
It depends on how much collagen your body naturally produces. It depends on how much you get from your diet. It even depends on what the rest of your nutrition looks like.
That’s because if you’re not getting enough protein to fuel your muscles, your body is going to use those amino acids for muscle maintenance and not for collagen production.
Our collagen product contains approximately 15 grams of high quality collagen per serving. 1st Phorm Collagen with Dermaval is an excellent point of reference when looking at a product.
1st Phorm can help you with your collagen needs
1st Phorm offers two collagen supplements. First, there’s 1st Phorm’s Hair, Skin, Nail Essentials, and then there’s our Collagen with Dermaval powder. Both can help you improve your body’s collagen levels.
Give either a try, I know you’ll love them!
References:
[1] Czajka A, Kania EM, Genovese L, Corbo A, Merone G, Luci C, Sibilla S. Daily oral supplementation with collagen peptides combined with vitamins and other bioactive compounds improves skin elasticity and has a beneficial effect on joint and general wellbeing. Nutr Res. 2018 Sep;57:97-108. doi: 10.1016/j.nutres.2018.06.001. Epub 2018 Jun 9. PMID: 30122200.
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