Buzz
Collagen powder has gained significant popularity as a supplement—not only for improving skin health but also as a go-to for athletes. This leads to a common question: If you're using collagen to benefit your tendons and joints, and you're also getting enough protein to support muscle growth or maintenance, should you include collagen supplements in your daily protein intake? To answer that, let's first take a closer look at what collagen is and how it functions in our bodies when we consume it.
So, what exactly is collagen?
Collagen is a protein present in our connective tissues. It forms key components of our tendons, ligaments, cartilage, skin, fascia, and more. While we don’t need to consume collagen directly through our diet, as long as we get the necessary building blocks, our bodies can produce collagen using the amino acids derived from various protein-rich foods.
(Fun fact: One of the reasons vitamin C is so crucial is because it helps in properly positioning collagen proteins within our connective tissues. Without vitamin C, our bodies can't link the collagen strands together, leading to scurvy. While the loss of teeth is a well-known symptom, old wounds can also reopen as the scar tissue fails to hold. And, well, everything hurts, and death can follow. But I digress.)
Gelatin, like what you use to make Jell-O or to add that homemade taste to store-bought chicken broth, is essentially all collagen. It's derived from the skin (not hooves, sorry) of animals like cows and pigs slaughtered for their meat.
However, when you buy a collagen supplement, it’s typically ‘hydrolyzed’ collagen, or ‘collagen peptides.’ This means that, unlike gelatin, the collagen chains here are broken down into smaller fragments. This process allows the collagen powder to mix into liquids without turning them into gel.
What happens to collagen once we consume it?
All proteins are made up of amino acids. When we consume something with protein—be it a steak or a soybean—our bodies break it down and use the amino acids to create whatever proteins we need, such as muscle fibers, digestive enzymes, or, indeed, connective tissue.
There is some evidence suggesting that, in certain cases, collagen peptides—short chains of amino acids—may not be fully broken down when we digest them. It's also possible that one of the amino acids in collagen, hydroxyproline, could serve as a signal to our bodies to produce more of our own collagen.
This is why I’m open to the idea that collagen powder might actually be a beneficial supplement, and not just a second-tier protein powder. I personally take a collagen supplement, hoping it might improve my joint health. That being said, I’m completely fine with the possibility that I could be wrong, and it’s just a placebo effect, meaning I've wasted my money. We all deserve a little frivolous gamble from time to time.
So, does collagen actually count as protein?
Collagen is a protein, but it’s also an incomplete protein. Among the amino acids our bodies use, about nine are considered essential, meaning we must obtain them from the foods we eat. A ‘complete protein’ is one that includes all nine essential amino acids. Meats, dairy, and tofu all provide complete proteins.
Typically, we don’t need to worry too much about whether proteins are complete. Vegetarians were once told they had to combine incomplete proteins (like eating rice with beans) to get all the essential amino acids. But as long as you eat a diverse range of foods and consume enough total protein, you’re unlikely to be missing anything.
A 2019 study published in the journal Nutrients directly examined the collagen question. Since collagen lacks tryptophan, how much of it can you consume in your diet and still get enough tryptophan from other sources? As it turns out, you can safely consume collagen up to 36% of your total intake.
The collagen supplement I use contains 20 grams in a double scoop. Based on this study, I could take four scoops, provided I’m consuming around 110 grams of protein in total (and I usually get more protein than that, anyway).
So: yes, collagen can be counted toward your total protein intake, as long as you're also consuming sufficient protein from other quality sources. Even with a total protein intake of 60 grams—on the lower end of what’s considered healthy—you could still have a 20-gram serving of collagen daily and get by with just 40 grams of protein from foods like chicken, yogurt, beans, and others.
And if you're aiming to be an overachiever, you can boost your tryptophan intake—the essential amino acid that collagen lacks—by including foods like quinoa, oats, and pumpkin seeds in your diet, along with the others mentioned above.
