The best way to be healthy on the inside and out is to consume a balanced diet of minimally processed foods to give your body what it needs. Your body needs both macronutrients (protein, carbohydrates, and fats) and micronutrients (vitamins and minerals) to thrive.
Collagen is a micronutrient that has become increasingly popular in the health and wellness industry in recent years. Here are the top six benefits of eating collagen-rich foods, like bone broth, fruit, and leafy greens.
Reduced Inflammation
Inflammation is the body's response to injury. Inflammatory foods can damage the digestive system and trigger inflammation throughout the body. There are numerous diseases linked with chronic inflammation, including asthma and rheumatoid arthritis.
Inflammation has a purpose in the body when an injury or illness occurs, but a prolonged state of inflammation does more harm than good. One of the leading collagen health benefits is reduced inflammation. As modern processed foods tend to be inflammatory, ensuring that you're eating collagen-rich foods can offset this effect.
Healthy, Happy Skin
Collagen is a protein that plays a key role in the care and maintenance of your skin, hair, and nails. Its previously mentioned anti-inflammatory effects are beneficial to those who struggle with acne and eczema. Collagen is also rich in glutamine, which helps with cellular restoration and correcting sun damage in skin cells.
If you're already spending hundreds of dollars on reactive products that are meant to make your skin look better, collagen is well worth the investment. Being proactive in your health by increasing collagen-rich foods in your diet is the key to healthy, happy skin.
Better Joint Health
Collagen is also essential for keeping your joints and cartilage healthy and strong. Type II collagen, in particular, plays a key role in joint health. Whether you're an athlete who puts a lot of pressure on your tendons and ligaments or someone who is dealing with the aches and pains of aging, collagen can help.
Stronger Bones
As you get older, your bones become more susceptible to breaks. Women, in particular, are at an increased risk for osteoporosis as time goes by.
There are a few things that everyone should be doing to help keep their bones strong. Ensuring that they're getting enough calcium in their diet is one aspect of bone health. Furthermore, adding a resistance training routine to physical exercise has been proven to show tremendous benefits.
Collagen-rich foods can enhance the effects of proactive bone health. Collagen helps improve your bones' flexibility, which makes them harder to break.
Better Digestive Health
Digestive health isn't just about feeling good after you eat; the majority of your immune system is housed in your gut. Your small intestine is lined with small, finger-like protrusions called villi that are responsible for nutrient absorption. When they get damaged, you'll be at risk for nutrient deficiencies no matter how well you eat.
Collagen plays a key role in restoring and maintaining villi, which leads to better digestive health and a better immune system. In addition to assisting with the prevention of leaky gut, the previously mentioned glutamine in collagen also helps boost your body's metabolism.
Healthy, Happy Heart
While there are plenty of collagen health benefits that make eating a diet of collagen-rich foods worthwhile, what better way to show your body some love than with heart health. As with villi in your small intestine, collagen can help repair damage in your arteries.
Furthermore, collagen is believed to help improve cholesterol levels, which has a direct impact on heart health as well. It's no surprise, as improved digestion will help the body move cholesterol out quicker and more efficiently.
As you can see, there are a lot of health benefits to eating collagen-rich foods. Many of the benefits overlap within the body. This is because eating a healthy diet has a ripple effect that makes other parts of your body operate as they should. This effect creates an upward spiral that can only be achieved through proactive health.
Start consuming more collagen and see the effects for yourself.
