Dr. Luc (Luke) van Loon

And to be honest, a lot of the collagen research is still in, how do you say that, children's shoes or baby shoes.

It's basically, it still has to happen.

I mean, it took us many years to convince people to co-support in public-private partnerships these kind of studies to see what are the benefits of collagen.

I mean, the story can be good, but I mean, we need to verify it.

But of course, it's always scary because what if it doesn't do anything?

What if?

And that's always what restricts science, of course, because, I mean, science is costly.

But I think the studies just need to be done.

If there's an unbalanced need for specific amino acids, then, of course, a source that is richer in those amino acids might be of benefit.

But those amino acids can also be provided by other protein sources, of course.

But then again, it's a matter of you compensate with greater quantity in order to get the same amino acids in.

And so what I think and what I would like to study, but we're not doing that yet, after...

large orthopedic surgery where the collagen is actually a benefit to resynthesize all those collagen-rich tissues.

Because then, knowing that 50% is glycine and protein of these tissues, that's a lot of glycine and protein.

So maybe in those conditions,

You need sources of extra glycine and protein, and then you might actually have a benefit of taking collagen supplements.

But, of course, you could also get that by your normal nutrition.

But there are some interesting calculations and assumptions that nowadays our diet is low in, for example, glycine and protein because we're not consuming bone broth anymore and stuff, and a lot of our food is processed.

I mean, so the story is still there, but the science is not there to back it up yet.

Yeah, what I often also hear, I mean, the hydroxyproline that might have a... I mean, that actually is increased in the circulation after ingesting collagen.