Extra protein - do you need it?

Just inside the door of Aldi this week my eye was caught by a few 'health food

things. I might write about some of them another day, but today I'm concentrating on just two - collagen protein powder and whey protein isolate.

I say concentrate but I have to say when I started doing my 'research' I pretty quickly got befuddled by all the different names for the various proteins we have in our bodies, so this is, as usual, going to be pretty superficial.

Collagen protein powder first. It was the name collagen that caught my eye really. To me collagen was connected with botox and cosmetic anti-wrinkling creams. And indeed this is what collagen is all about. Keeping skin young and elastic. It seems that our bodies produce this naturally, but as we age the production of said collagen goes down which is why we wrinkle and age. Well too much sunbathing will do it too. Because of advertising and other media we females especially, but increasingly men too, think we have to remain looking young until we die. Do you remember that pretty weird but amazingly good (on reflection) film Brazil in which one of the main character's mother was constantly having her skin stretched with very, very gruesome results? Well I confess that I always think of examples like this when I think of this sort of stuff. Which is not very often. Personally I don't worry about it all that much. I'm old and therefore wrinkled. So be it.

But I digress. I had no idea that you could eat collagen. So first, a disclaimer. I have only looked at the ad in the Aldi catalogue for this product. I didn't look at the labels on it at the time, so I don't know what else was in it. Maybe loads of sugar because it is definitely flavoured - chocolate, vanilla or berry I think. And the Aldi website has no information of this type of course. And, also of course, being Aldi, they have stuck their own made-up producer's name (Onset) on it and so you cannot find the website of the producer.

I did find though that collagen protein powder has been around in Japan for a very long time and the Japanese swear by it. Makes your skin better because it boosts the skin from the inside rather than outside. Apparently the collagen molecules are actually too large to be absorbed by the skin so all those creams are pretty useless. I'm not sure I have got that quite right, but I do know that there is no definitive evidence for the efficacy of collagen creams and injections. The collagen protein powder is made from bones, cartilage, scales from fish and animals - so vegetarians it's not for you. The Japanese version is fishy - and apparently some of them can taste fishy. Which is why they are flavoured and why most people add it to highly flavoured smoothies, etc. There is also collagen I and collagen II - different proteins I think and number two comes more from chickens rather than beef and fish. And I think the general scientific opinion, though cautious is more pro number two. Also gelatine is very possibly (I may have misunderstood this) much the same.

Mostly, whilst they are dubious about its efficacy the scientists also say that they don't generally do much harm, so you can give it a go if you like. However, some people were concerned that the collagen itself would be digested and absorbed into the body - I'm assuming in a non-beneficial way and secondly there might be allergy increases, nausea, headaches, etc. and an unhealthy increase in calcium in the body.

But how can the scientific evidence compete with people like Jennifer Aniston declaring that it is what makes them beautiful?

"Usually [it's] some sort of pure protein, then bananas, blueberries, frozen cherries, stevia, a vegetable mix of dynamic greens that goes in there, maca powder, and a little cacao. There’s a collagen peptide that I’ve been loving—I’ve been seeing a difference! My nails are stronger and there’s a healthier… How do you explain it? A glow. It’s sort of that working from the inside-out thing." Jennifer Aniston

(What's stevia? - must look that up and do it another day.)

Never mind that she probably has thick make-up on every time she shows her face in public. Who knows what she looks like underneath?

As you can see from the Aldi ad it is not cheap. None of these 'healthy' supplements ever are it seems to me. And the protein whey isolate is even more expensive. This is for building muscles I think - well put crudely. I suspect it's rather more complicated than that. The claims for this are rather grander though - heart, cholesterol, losing weight, even HIV and cancer. We all know what whey is don't we? The liquid stuff that comes off the milk when you make butter and cheese. So why not eat ricotta instead? That's made from whey. I saw them do it. Or you could just make sure you eat enough protein - it's available in a pretty wide variety of foods after all.