Can Collagen Heal Leaky Gut?
Collagen is everywhere in your body including your gut. If I am not mistaken it is the most abundant protein in your body. Connective tissues are what hold your body up straight and without them you become like jelly or a blob. The digestive tract also has many parts of connective tissues, so can collagen heal leaky gut?
The answer is yes, collagen can help of supplying the needed materials to repair the gut.
it is essential to have collagen in your diet otherwise you’ll be missing critical nutrients to repair your leaky gut.
As a GAPS diet coach, one of the important factors in the diet I have been trained for is how to make gelatinous meat soup and what other animal foods to include that contain collagen. All that is to accelerate the healing process of a leaky gut syndrome. There is also a diet called the Collagen Diet which aims to heal a leaky gut and other ailments.
One of the most effective tools in any diet is to include nose-to-tail animal-based food. That means it is important to include not only meat but joints, bones, and skin so the meal is complete and this is the best collagen for gut health.
Collagen Supplements for Leaky Gut
I am not against supplements that are made of whole foods and collagen supplements for leaky gut are something I recommend in my Top Supplements for Gut Health. That being said, whole foods that you cook at home such as meat broth is essential for the long term to heal your leaky gut and it is not that hard to do.
I have had used and still use collagen supplements for my leaky gut syndrome but it was an addition to the meat stews and soups that made the focus of my meals.
There are times when I added collagen supplements to cooked brown or wild rice, it’s out of this world! Sometimes I only have access to less gelatinous meat cuts so I supplement it with bovine collagen powder.
Now, a word of caution of how much collagen powder you are using as a supplement with your meals or by itself. There is always a temptation to scoop 1, 2, or 3 tablespoons out of the container since it is easy to do. But too much of anything good is not necessarily beneficial, the same thing with collagen.
I like to mix it with beef stews, soups, and rice. I try to mimic nature as much as possible in terms of eating nose-to-tail. Here are some examples:
Eating the whole egg, not just the egg whites or the yolk even though there are times to have more yolks
- Consume the whole chicken meat with the skin, and bones.
- Consuming beef meat that contains bones and connective tissues
- Cooking the whole chicken with feet is optimal
Best Collagen for Gut Healing
There are at least 16 types of collagens (1) that have been identified but the most common ones are type I, II, and III. Most of the collagen supplements are made from pigskins and cattle hides and consists of type 1 and 3. But what is the best collagen for gut healing which I consider having the whole thing, in other words, include all collagen types as possible in your one meal.
Why? When you include all or most of the connective tissues in one meal such as cooking chicken soup (the dark and light meat, neck, giblets, feet, skin, and head if you want) then you are getting more of a complete meal than using just a collagen supplement.
So your gut is likely to be more nourished thus healing leaky gut faster. As I mentioned before, I use collagen supplements as my second choice when I need to but I do my best to have collagen from the animal I’m cooking and believe that will benefit you too.
Here are a few reasons I consider meat broth to be considered as the best collagen for gut health: Cooking meat will provide (2) (3):
- -More types of collagens
- -Elastin and fibrillin
- -Glycoprotein
- -Glycosaminoglycan
- -Hyaluronic acid
- -Proteoglycans
- -Peptidoglycans
And who knows what other nutrients in a meat stock that we haven’t discovered yet. That’s why I suggest that having the whole animal with some veggies in a soup is the best collagen gut healing and maintaining gut health after the healing has been accomplished.
Other than the purpose of healing the gut when you consume a meal like that it is very enjoyable and satisfying.
Do Collagen Peptides Heal Leaky Gut?
hydrolyzed collagen protein or collagen peptides are proteins that are broken down through protein-digesting enzymes process into smaller molecules such as dipeptides and tripeptides which make them easier to digest and absorb than gelatin.
Collagen peptides and gelatin both have healing benefits to joints, skin, nails, and digestive disorders such as leaky gut syndrome, inflamed gut, and other parts of the digestive system.
They both can help in their own different ways. Gelatin forms hydrophilic colloids and collagen peptides do not. Therefore gelatin can help to improve the digestion process due to its colloids property.
On the other hand, collagen is the major component of the gut wall so from that perspective collagen peptides can help to heal leaky gut by providing the raw and building materials.
Collagen protein, in general, is very beneficial not only to the intestinal lining but to the whole digestive tract, remember, collagen is everywhere in your body. For improving and repairing leaky gut though, I would suggest using the three components in your meals; meat and bone broths, gelatin, and collagen peptides supplements.
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