My pre-operative discussion usually includes a question about what medication and supplements a patient is taking. At a recent consultation, a patient told me that she was taking collagen supplements to improve her skin. This led to me to tell her that collagen supplements were of limited benefit and that she could produce her own collagen with a good healthy diet. Then she asked me what she could eat to boost her collagen production to improve her chances of good healing after surgery.
Collagen is an important component of many tissues in the body and imparts mechanical strength to a particular tissue. This includes the skin. In fact, ageing skin has less collagen.
It is important to note that collagen taken as a supplement is broken down to its constituent amino acids in our digestive system. It does not get absorbed directly as the collagen molecule is very big.
So, we don’t have to consume collagen. Instead, we should consume the building blocks of collagen in adequate amounts to achieve good wound healing.
Collagen formation is a multi-stage process that requires amino acids, vitamin C, zinc, magnesium and other factors. What types of food contain these building blocks? Eggs deserve special mention because egg white is recognized as the “perfect” protein which supplies all the amino acids we need. These include collagen forming amino acids.
| Amino acids | Eggs, beef, chicken, fish, tofu, lentils, beans |
| Vitamin C | Citrus fruits, kiwis, broccoli, mango, kale, bananas |
| Zinc | Oysters, crab, beef, pork, legumes, oats, nuts, dark chocolate |
| Magnesium | Dark chocolate, avocados, nuts, legumes, tofu, oats, leafy greens, salmon |
Not only should we pay attention to the types of food that promote collagen production, but we should also know how much we need. These amounts are known as the DV (Daily Value) or RDA (Recommended Daily Allowance) to be taken. Using eggs as an example, you would need to take 10 eggs a day to meet the DV for protein. Happily, we can use other sources of protein and amino acids for our collagen production. Sometimes one food gives us two of the components we need. For example, 100g of tofu gives 8 % of the DV of magnesium and 10 g or 10-20 % of the DV for protein. Building up your zinc (RDA 11 mg) by eating oysters and dark chocolate could actually be enjoyable.
