The Great Importance Of Collagen And Glycine

Collagen is the most abundant protein in our bodies, accounting for 25-35% of all our protein. (1, 2, 3) It’s found in connective tissues like joints, ligaments, and tendons; as well as bones, skin, and tough frequently used muscles. When collagen is cooked it’s often referred to as gelatin. Glycine is the most prominent amino acid in collagen. (1, 2, 3)

Since collagen and glycine make up such a large portion of our bodies, it’s extremely beneficial to regularly consume foods high in collagen and glycine like bone broth, shank, oxtail, slow cooked tough cuts of meats, skin-on and bone-in poultry, pork rinds, and bone marrow. Like heals like after all!

Now a days, many people do not get adequate collagen and glycine because the majority of meat consumption is lean tender muscle meats like steaks and boneless skinless chicken breasts, not the collagen rich cuts I listed above!

This greatly contrasts to what our ancestors did. Our ancestors ate the whole animal because they couldn’t afford to waste any part and it was a sign of respect to the animal to use every part. Eating this way is commonly known as nose to tail eating and in my opinion it’s the best way to balance and optimize your nutrient intake!

To get the most out of nose to tail eating, it’s important we try to match our proportions of each animal part we eat to the proportions of the animal itself. Remember that collagen makes up 25-35% of the protein in our bodies. Well for some animals it can get as high as 50%. (2) Therefore it’s good to aim to get about 1/4 to 1/2 of your protein from collagen rich sources. You will better understand the reasoning for this after learning about the functions and benefits of collagen and glycine, which I discuss below.

Benefits Of Collagen and Glycine:

1) They’re Anti-Inflammatory

When it comes to balancing amino acids, you often hear about complete proteins that contain all the amino acids (these are almost always animal foods) and incomplete proteins that don’t contain all the amino acids (these are almost always plant foods).

While complete proteins are much better than incomplete proteins when it comes to balancing our amino acid intake (which is very important for synthesizing new proteins and for preventing muscle wasting), eating the complete animal will balance your amino acids even better!

This balance helps properly nourish all your tissues as well as prevent inflammation. Collagen has a unique amino acid profile, containing the high amounts of the anti-inflammatory amino acids alanine, hydroxyproline, proline, glutamic acid, and especially glycine. (1, 2) It also lacks the amino acids cysteinre, methionine, and histidine, all of which can become pro-inflammatory in excess. (1, 3) On top of that excess methionine reduces glycine stores. (3)

If you only eat lean muscle meats and don’t include collagen rich cuts, you may have problems with inflammation.

2) They Improve Gut And Digestive Health

Collagen helps the digestive system in many ways. Firstly, it attracts more digestive juices, enzymes, and bile to the food and increases stomach acid production. (1, 4) All of these improve the breakdown of the food and therefore lead to greater nutrient absorption. Higher stomach acid also prevents acid reflux. Collagen consumption is also believed to protect against stomach ulcers. (1, 4)

Collagen also plays a key role in maintaining the integrity and tightness of the gut lining. Collagen is comprised of several amino acids (such as glycine and glutamine) that help build the gut lining. (4) This makes collagen rich foods particularly helpful for resealing and repairing the gut lining in cases like leaky gut and IBD. (1, 4)

Lastly, collagen absorbs and retains water and therefore increases fluid in the intestines. This helps to encourage regular bowel movements. (4)

3) They’re Important For Pregnancy

The amino acid glycine is considered conditionally essentially. Meaning that your body can make a decent amount of it, but not quite enough to thrive especially in situations when the demand increases like in pregnancy or stressful times. (2, 3)

During pregnancy, glycine is critical for the synthesis of fetal DNA and collagen; cardiovascular development; bone health; and growth of the baby’s skeleton, teeth, internal organs, skin, hair, and nails. (3)

It’s also necessary to support a woman’s own stretching skin, growing uterus, placenta, and to help her circulatory system adapt to the demands of pregnancy. In fact by the end of pregnancy, a woman’s uterus contains 800% more collagen than it did pre-pregnancy. (3) Getting plenty of dietary collagen and glycine is therefore crucial to best support the health of your growing baby as well as yourself!

4) They’re Important For Joint And Bone Health

There is a principle in ancestral nutrition called “like heals like.” It means that whatever part of the animal you eat is good for the same part of you. This makes sense since animal parts like bones and joints for example, contain the same nutrients you need to support your bone and joint health. In this case collagen, minerals, glucosamines, and glycosaminoglycans.

Collagen is the main structural protein of all connective tissue. It provides structure, strength, and stability to our joints, tendons, ligaments, and bones. (1, 2) Therefore eating collagen rich foods (like broth made from joints and bones) improves your joint and bone health! The anti-inflammatory amino acid profile of collagen also makes it helpful for decreasing joint inflammation and arthritis. (1)

5) Other Benefits

Collagen and glycine have also been shown to:

• improve sleep
• increase insulin sensitivity
• help stabilize blood glucose levels
• improve memory
• improve wound healing
• improve liver detoxification
• improve the health of your skin, hair, and nails
• help with diabetes
• increase heme synthesis (which allows the blood to carry more oxygen)
• protect against oxidative stress
• synthesize creatine which helps supply energy to the heart and muscle cells

(1, 3)

Some Of My Favorite Collagen Rich Recipes Are:

• Bone Broth
• Bone Marrow
• Tom Kha Gai Soup
• Chuck Roast

Feel free to experiment with others as well. Oxtail, shank, bone-in skin-on poultry, and slow cooked tough cuts of meat are all great ways to get more collagen in. You can also use good quality collagen or gelatin supplements if you wish. Anyways I hope this article helped you learn the importance of collagen and gave you some helpful ideas on how to get more collagen into your diet!

Work Cited

1) Deering, Kate. “How To Heal Your Metabolism.” 2015: Print.

2) Sarah and Ashley Armstrong. “Collagen.” The Strong Sistas. Accessed 24 November 2021. https://www.instagram.com/p/CV8iNFmvV_U/

3) Nichols, Lily. “Real Food For Pregnancy.” 2018. Print.

4) Sarah and Ashley Armstrong. “The Beauty of Bone Broth: Gut Nurturing Nutrients.” Armstrong Sisters. Accessed 25 November 2021. https://www.armstrongsisters.com/post/the-beauty-of-bone-broth-gut-nurturing-nutrients