Tuesday, April 9, 2013

Breakfast at Your Desk: Eat Your ... Collagen

I recently read a fascinating post on a health blog about the collagen-rich foods that may do your body--and your skin!--good. Here's a few you can enjoy for breakfast ...


Sara Reistad-Long, a blogger I know over at SvelteGourmand posted something fascinating about collagen in foods recently: "A few years ago I wrote a short piece for Gourmet about 'Collagen Cuisine,'" she writes. "Since collagen is what keeps our skin looking young (it's what facial injectables are made of), the idea here is to eat it. Kind of like that obscure rock band, it's something that's, well, really big in Japan. There, they serve it up in fortified foods (marshmallows seem to be extra popular) as well as elaborately prepared natural sources (mostly pigs' feet). The crazy part is that research suggests this might have some benefit."


She points to a few studies--one that shows a link between eating collagen and reversed effects of sun-related skin aging, and another that indicates that collagen could help fight osteoporosis.


Here are a few collagen-minded foods that Sara points out:


1) Anything with vitamin C (citrus fruits are in season, for example): Studies show it helps the amino acids lysine and proline convert to collagen, she says.


2) Egg whites: Building off the vitamin C thing, egg whites are high in both lysine and proline. (They're also high in collagen itself, which is why you may have put them, raw, on your face at a middle school slumber party or two, she says.)


Check out what other foods made the list, here.


Interesting, huh?

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