The body produces its own collagen; however, aging causes its production to reduce considerably. This typically results in natural but unwanted side effects of growing older such as dull hair, wrinkles, sagging skin, and even weaker bones.
In attempts to counter these effects, most people have turned to animal-based collagen supplements. However, for people seeking alternatives to the popular stuff, options have been limited up until now when plant-based collagen options have finally emerged.
Do plant-based collagen options stack up to their animal-sourced counterparts?
There’s been a lot of hype around your skin and collagen supplements, and you have probably heard it by now. A lot of research about the benefits as well as the downsides of animal-sourced collagen supplements has been conducted and most beauty-conscious people believe collagen is not vegan.
This is mainly because collagen mainly comes from animal sources, such as the skin, hooves, and bones of fish, beef, and other animals.
Can collagen be vegetarian and how does it compete with animal-sourced collagen?
New ways of making vegetarian collagen have been discovered and collagen can now be made using other scientific methods such as genetically modified bacteria and yeast.
Research shows that bacteria P.pastoris specifically, is highly effective in making high-quality genetically engineered collagen.
The production of genetically engineered collagen requires 4 human gene codes for collagen to be added to the structure of the yeast or bacteria. This initiates the process of producing building blocks required for human collagen.
A digestive enzyme known as pepsin is added to aid in the structuring of the building blocks into the exact structure of collagen molecules. This process produces vegan collagen once it’s complete.
What are the advantages of vegetarian collagen?
The ability to produce safe, inexpensive collagen sourced from bacteria or yeast (microbes) instead of animals has numerous promising applications, particularly for human health.
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Lower cost
Using microbes to make collagen has proven to be highly scalable and cost-effective in lab environments. Since rolling out as mass-produced products, vegan collagen options such as Amazing Grass Glow Vegan Collagen has lowered the cost of collagen for all consumers including vegans, and made it widely available for many uses from supplements to medical treatments.
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Lower risk of side effects such as allergies for vegans
In addition to the biggest benefit which is that animals are not harmed, there’re other benefits to vegan collagen, particularly for people who have allergies. For instance, there are some concerns when it comes to the risk of transmission of diseases via animal-sourced collagen.
Collagen produced using microbes eliminate this issue because it is made in controlled environments where harmful substances such as allergens are eliminated.
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Higher safety profile
Lab-controlled settings give producers the ability to enhance the safety profile for products. Easily traceable sources make products safer for consumers.
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Cheaper and more availability especially for medical producers
There’re numerous medical benefits to vegan collagen options and the technology used in its production, as it can be used for more than dietary supplements.
Genetically engineering collagen effectively and safely is beneficial for a wide range of medical procedures including:
- Stimulating tissue and skin growth
- In dermatology
- To aid in wound healing
Vegan collagen can also be used as a medium for delivering drugs in treating certain tumors.
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Beauty benefits
Most collagen supplements available on the market are sourced from animals, which means these products are inaccessible to folks who live a vegan-friendly or environmentally-friendly lifestyle.
What is Amazing Grass GLOW Vegan Collagen Support?
With vegan collagen options such as Amazing Grass GLOW Vegan Collagen Support with Biotin and Plant-Based Protein Powder, vegans can now take collagen supplements to help stimulate their bodies to produce collagen and reduce the appearance of wrinkles as well as support digestive and joint health.
Up until now, vegetarian collagen hasn’t been easily accessible and most companies have been selling ‘collagen boosters’.
Amazing Grass GLOW Vegan Collagen Support contains plant-based foods rich in all the three amino acids (proline, lysine, and glycine) required to produce collagen including;
Organic Protein Blend (Brown Rice Protein and Pea Protein), Organic Stevia Extract, Organic Beet Root, Organic Acerola Cherry, Organic Acacia Cherry, Xanthan Gum, Organic Greens Blend, Pitaya Fruit, Organic Hibiscus Flower, Organic Rose Petal, Organic B Complex Blend (Holy Basil, Lemon Peel Extract), Organic Monk Fruit Extract, Organic Greens Blend (Kale, Wheat Grass), and Organic Biotin.
Although these collagen boosters are rich in various minerals and supplements, they lack most ingredients that the body needs to make natural collagen.
However, with products such as Amazing Grass GLOW Vegan Collagen Support, the body gets the most abundant amino acids required to stimulate the production of natural collagen.
