Is Drinking Grass Fed or Organic Collagen Powder worth it?

“...An animal becomes what it eats. So, we wanted our collagen to come from healthy animals.”

Our 100% Grass Fed collagen powder promotes joint, heart, skin, hair, nail, and bone health because of the rigorous production standards that went into raising the animals it came from.

We don’t wish to belabor the point, but we didn’t call this collagen “organic” for a reason. “Organic” is more about what ISN’T in the production process, whereas “grass-fed” is the production process. We kept our standards high because, in the end, we are what we eat.

What is Grass Fed and Organic Collagen Powder?

Collagen is a protein the body produces that supports connective tissues like the skin, muscles, bone, tendons, and ligaments.

While you can get collagen from humans, sheep, pigs, chickens, or even octopuses, we get ours from cows. Bovine collagen powder is found in the cowhide, bones, and muscles. And, like us, an animal becomes what it eats. We wanted our collagen to come from healthy animals.

No antibiotics. No hormones. No GMOs.

You’re smart enough to know we could get away with calling our collagen “organic certified” if those were the only minimum standards. But, organic certification also means that the farmer could feed the cow up to 70% of its diet from grain DURING the grazing season as long as it has access to pasture (even if “pasture” is just a euphemism for a threadbare field where the grass has been nibbled down to the roots), and then finish the cow on grain over 120 days.[1]

Nope. Our collagen comes from cows that are 100% grass-fed.

That means that beyond having no antibiotics, hormones, or GMOs, our cows were fed a diet of 100% grass, just like nature intended. There’s a reason they have a four-chambered stomach specifically designed to digest fermenting grass.

How does Grass Fed and Organic Collagen Differ from Regular Collagen?

While grass-fed beef has been tested to have a higher concentration of functional fatty acids than regular beef (grain-finished), no such tests have been performed on collagen.[2]

Since beef is just cow muscle, and collagen is stored in the muscle, higher concentrations of functional fatty acids should be found in grass-fed collagen powder than in regular collagen powder. But since the composition of grass-fed collagen vs. regular collagen has not yet been scientifically documented, we can’t claim this for sure. For now, we’ll simply say that the health benefits of grass-fed collagen are at least the same as regular collagen.

The most significant difference between grass-fed collagen and regular collagen is their environmental and animal welfare impacts.

Grass-fed farms have a lower carbon footprint than grain-based operations like feedlots because the footprint of the grass-fed farm is just what’s inside the fences. Grain-based farms must import feed from beyond their fences to make up for the calorie deficit of what isn’t growing in the fields.

Regular bovine collagen has opaque production standards. You don’t know what kind of diets those cows ate before they got processed. With grass-fed collagen, you know the animals had access to nothing but grass for the entirety of their lives.

Grass Fed and Organic Collagen Powder: Benefits & Side Effects

The most common reasons for taking grass-fed and organic collagen powder are for skin and joint health. In small sample sizes, collagen has been associated with improved joint functionality for recovering athletes and improved skin hydration for healthy middle-aged women.[3][4] While not yet scientifically proven in double-blind studies with large sample sizes, preliminary evidence indicates collagen may help:

• Improve skin, hair & nail health, thus slowing the aging appearance
• Prevent bone loss
• Promote heart & digestive health
• Relieve joint pain

We recommend taking 20g of collagen daily. If you want to take more, that is fine. 

How to Use Grass Fed and Organic Collagen Powder

Our grass-fed and organic collagen powder is so versatile it can be taken any time of the day. Since it aids joint recovery, it can be taken before, during, or after a workout.

The fact that it’s unflavored means it can be blended into any drink or food you desire. The possibilities are endless–from oatmeal cookies to sesame ginger dressing, potato soup, and cilantro lime sauce. Here are four recipes we’d like to share with you:

• Oatmeal Cookies

• Sesame Ginger Dressing

• Potato Soup

• Cilantro Lime Sauce

Where to find Grass Fed and Organic Collagen Powder

Our collagen is manufactured and packaged in the United States in FDA-registered facilities that are “good manufacturing practice certified” and come accompanied with 3rd party audits. We take the entire lifecycle of our collagen very seriously, from the life the cow lives on the farm to the rigorous quality and regulatory requirements inside our facilities.

We can ship Grass Fed Collagen Powder directly to your doorstep.

While we are very scientifically rooted, we consider ourselves in the wellness business. And we don’t mean equate “wellness” with reductionist notions of waist sizes or celebrity influencers–our Culture defines wellness as creativity with quality, transparency, and education in mind.

Sources:

[1] Organic Livestock Requirements. (n.d.). https://www.ams.usda.gov/sites/default/files/media/Organic%20Livestock%20Requirements.pdf

[2] Nogoy, K. M. C., Sun, B., Shin, S., Lee, Y., Zi Li, X., Choi, S. H., & Park, S. (2022, January). Fatty acid composition of grain- and grass-fed beef and their nutritional value and health implication. Food science of animal resources. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8728510/

[3] Khatri, M., Naughton, R. J., Clifford, T., Harper, L. D., & Corr, L. (2021, October). The effects of collagen peptide supplementation on body composition, collagen synthesis, and recovery from joint injury and exercise: A systematic review. Amino acids. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8521576/