How to boost your natural collagen production

Collagen is a naturally occurring protein in our body that provides structure, elasticity, and strength to our skin, hair, nails, and joints. As we age, our body's collagen production decreases, leading to signs of ageing such as wrinkles, fine lines, and loss of elasticity.

To maintain a healthy, youthful appearance for longer, many people look to boost their collagen supply with ingestible collagen. However, our favourite method is to eat collagen-boosting foods that help stimulate your natural collagen production.

Remember that our bodies naturally synthesise collagen, if given the proper tools. While a plant-based diet cannot directly provide collagen, the right choice of foods can promote the body's ability to produce collagen.

WHAT TO EAT TO NATURALLY BOOST COLLAGEN:

• Eat inflammation-fighting foods like turmeric; the active ingredient curcumin is extremely effective at lowering inflammation throughout the body.
• Eat berries and citrus fruits high in Vitamin C, which plays a major role in the production of pro-collagen, the body’s precursor to collagen.
• Eat protein-rich foods: for vegans, this means foods such as lentils, chickpeas, beans, quinoa, peas, nuts and seeds.
• Eat foods high in beta-carotene, which converts into vitamin A (retinol) to promote youthful skin for longer: look to carrots, peppers, sweet potatoes, tomatoes and green leafy veg.
• Avoid sugar and refined carbs which can damage collagen.

DO COLLAGEN SUPPLEMENTS AND POWDERS WORK?

Ingestible collagen is a form of collagen supplementation that involves taking collagen supplements orally, either as a liquid drink, powder or capsules. These are often derived from animal sources, typically cows or fish (bovine or marine collagen), and aim to improve skin, hair and nail health.

The supposed benefit of ingestible collagen is that it’s a convenient and easy way to boost collagen production in the body. However, ingestible collagen may not be well-absorbed by the body, due to the digestive system breaking it down into its component amino acids, which may limit its effectiveness. The truth is, there’s limited clinical evidence to show that eating collagen can significantly and definitively impact collagen levels in the body.

“As we already know, when we age, we produce less collagen,” explains Helen Snook, Indi Co-Founder. “Not only does this affect our skin (the largest organ in our body and our first line of defence against infection), but it also contributes to hidden health issues like joint pain, reduced flexibility and decreased muscle mass and strength. That isn’t to say that we have no control over how we age: our bodies naturally produce collagen by combining amino acids from the protein-rich foods we consume, so by eating the right things and taking the right supplements to fill the nutritional gaps, our diet can very much be used as a tool to help reverse, prevent and repair skin ageing.”

Medical Research Scientist and Nutritionist Dr Federica Amati adds, “Ingestible collagen isn’t a magic product. First and foremost, skin health is about a healthy diet packed full of polyphenols which can be found in cherries, blueberries, cocoa powder and mushrooms—all foods that you can find in Indi’s supplement range! Polyphenols are rich in antioxidants that slow down ageing and the appearance of wrinkles, and are a much more well-studied and proven method of maintaining and restoring youthful skin from the inside-out.”

START FROM THE INSIDE OUT

Sometimes a variety of foods is hard to get consistently from your diet, so that’s where our supplements come in.

Body

Indi’s hero superfood supplement offers a comprehensive blend of nutrient-rich plants that include prebiotics, probiotics, Vitamin C, antioxidants and beta-carotene. By boosting gut health, targeting inflammation and restoring balance to mood, not only will your skin health improve, but you’ll feel energised with stronger immunity and better digestion—a combination that’s guaranteed to make you glow from the inside-out in just 7 days.

Recover

Our superfood plant protein is a delicious berry flavour formula that combines two plant proteins (chickpea and yellow pea) to deliver a complete amino acid profile for the body to synthesise into collagen. It delivers 20g of plant protein per serving and other superfood nutrients to ease soreness after exercise, boost metabolism and maintain muscle mass throughout life.

Rest

During sleep, the body goes through an essential process of repair and regeneration, including the production of collagen. Since lack of sleep can disrupt this process and lead to decreased collagen production, Rest uses a powerful blend of naturally sedative foods, plant extracts and adaptogens to help ease anxiety so that you can drift off into a deep and restful sleep.