Collagen in Your Morning Coffee? Read This Before You Do That.
Dr. Brooke Russell, Collagen PhD here to tell you why NOT to put collagen in hot beverages, like your morning coffee.
There are scientific concepts that we simply observe and know to be true. A glass of iced tea will sweat. Eggs left in the car will spoil. Olive oil and balsamic vinegar will stay separated. You know why these things are happening, but likely not on a molecular level unless you’re a scientist.
So, let me be your collagen scientist and explain why you should not put collagen in your hot coffee or tea. Or, you can simply take my word for it and move on. I’ve studied collagen for 10 years and am very interested in the benefits it can give us as we age.
Do you need to take collagen? Short answer, yes for many, many reasons.
Should you put it in your hot coffee? Same thing, short answer, no.
Now for some science.
Most of us have seen the cute cartoon double helix in Jurassic Park as it explains how DNA works. But, did you know there is a triple helix? Have you seen this term associated with any collagen product on the market? I doubt it. Collagen’s entire structure is a triple helix - that is what makes it special. It looks similar to that double helix, but with three strands instead of two. Pretty neat, if you ask me.
The triple helix is temperature sensitive. What does that mean? The triple helix will fall apart at temperatures around body temperature. Once cooled again, the triple helices can usually reform.
Every triple helix and therefore every collagen has a unique temperature where it will start falling apart. So those collagen peptides you’re taking, each one of them likely has a different melting temperature.
When you put collagen peptides in your hot coffee, a liquid that is well above most melting temperatures for triple helices, you are melting them. This is why it is easier to dissolve collagen powder into hot coffee as opposed to cold liquid.
Why should you care?
Studies have shown that intact triple helical peptides have a more impactful presence on things such as dermal thickness, epidermal hydration, and collagen precursors in the blood. So, by not melting it, you are allowing more of it to get to the areas you care about and help make new full size collagen. Also, all those studies you see about collagen…the scientists didn’t randomly microwave or heat up the collagen before studying its affects, so you shouldn’t either.
