(via Butternutrition.com) A little over three years ago I was introduced to gelatin, and its protein powder like cousin collagen by Dr. Ray Peat. Since then it’s been smoothie filled love affair with the powered convenience food that helps me get more of the amino acids that are typically missed in the American diet. You see, one of the greatest benefits of using collagen is to aid in balancing your amino acid intake to help reflect eating the “whole” animal. Because collagen makes up approximately 50% of the whole animal, collagen protein can be used to help create a more complete protein balance in your diet. The typical American eater tends to eat a higher consumption of muscle meats (such as beef, chicken, pork, lamb and turkey), which when not balanced by other proteins (such as eggs, fish, dairy, shellfish, organ meats, collagen) can contribute to inflammation.
If a person eats a large serving of meat, it’s probably helpful to have 5 or 10 grams of gelatin at approximately the same time, so that the amino acids enter the blood stream in balance.” -Dr. Ray Peat
Collagen protein has a unique and very non-inflammatory amino acid profile, primarily consisting of glycine, glutamic acid, proline, and alanine. Even though your body can make these amino acids (called non-essential), if you’re eating a low nutrient diet or have a stressed out liver, chances are you are not able to manufacture all the non-essential amino acids that you body actually demands. In particular, the liver needs an abundance of glycine (the biggest constituent of collagen) to fuel phase 2 detoxification in the liver and help your body “take out the trash.”
BENEFITS OF COLLAGEN PROTEIN
The benefits of collagen are astounding, but I’ll try to be brief…
-Supports Liver Detoxification: Collagen is rich in glycine, an amino acid needed to support neutralization of toxins in the liver. In today’s über toxic world, often the body cannot make enough glycine to keep up with your detoxification needs (a toxin is anything from chemicals, food additives, alcohol, recreational drugs, RX drugs, BC pill, etc).
-Fights Aging: According to Dr. Ray Peat, “It happens that gelatin is a protein which contains no tryptophan, and only small amounts of cysteine, methionine, and histidine. Using gelatin as a major dietary protein is an easy way to restrict the amino acids that are associated with many of the problems of aging.” (source)
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