Collagen has been doing the rounds, making its way into everything from serums and moisturizers through to your morning coffee – and for good reason! The promise of smoother, glowier and younger looking skin is hard to resist but you should be aware that only certain types of collagen supplements are halal.
There are three main types of collagen supplements available - bovine collagen, marine collagen and vegetarian or vegan collagen supplements. It can be very difficult to determine whether collagen from animal sources is halal. Usually this information requires you to contact (or more accurately, nag) the company and establish if the proper procedures to consider the source halal were followed - not to mention, the thought of eating raw fish skins and cows’ bones doesn’t make the most appetizing case. But there is a much easier (and more palatable) option...
Is Vegan Collagen Powder Halal?
The good news is, animals are not the only source of collagen. Humans are more than capable of making collagen – in fact, for the first 20 years of our lives, we produce buckets of the stuff! With age however, our ability to produce collagen declines (not to mention that our diet as we get older gets loaded with more salty, greasy deep-fried foods – don’t worry, I’m guilty of this too!). The combination of age and a poorer diet lacking plant based superfoods causes us to lose about 1% of all our collagen every year!
However, the 4 main ingredients required to build collagen, namely: amino acids, vitamin C, copper and zinc are available in spades in specific plant-based superfoods. While finding, preparing and individually eating these superfoods in the right quantities can be difficult and time consuming, you can gain all their collagen building benefits from a plant based collagen supplement.
Each of the superfoods in Raw Beauty Lab's supplement are raw and therefore already broken down into the individual ingredients required by your body for collagen production, making them a cleaner (and greener) option that requires minimal processing. And if all that wasn’t enough, plant based superfoods have been studied for decades for their skin smoothening, anti-aging properties along side their collagen building prowess.
Is Bovine Collagen Halal?
Collagen sourced from cows may be hard to label as halal as the hides, bones and cartilage of cattle are essentially extracted to produce bovine gelatine which is then hydrolysed and dried to convert into a powder, pill or gel. In some circumstances, bovine collagen may be halal – but this is entirely dependent on how the animal was slaughtered and if the process was in line with the process followed in the Islamic faith. You can find out more here. In addition, the majority of bovine collagen supplements are made overseas in low cost countries where it can be exceptionally difficult to understand the manufacturing process - even for the company that sells the product!
Are Hydrolysed Collagen Supplements Halal?
You may be wondering if hydrolysed collagen is a better option. However hydrolysed collagen is essentially animal collagen that has been broken down into smaller chains of amino acids – known as collagen peptides.
Unfortunately, hydrolysed collagen would still be sourced from animals, and therefore checking how the animal was slaughtered would still apply if you wanted to know if the supplement contained halal collagen peptides.
The Best Halal Collagen Supplement
The best halal collagen supplement is Raw Beauty Lab's Vegan Collagen. The company has an ethos for protecting people and planet and are proudly 100% cruelty free as well as being 44 times more environmentally friendly than other brands. That’s why their award-winning Vegan Collagen supplement is free of any animal products, making it halal by default (yet another reason why cruelty free products are the way forward!).
And aside from being halal, Raw Beauty Lab’s Vegan Collagen is free from additives, sugars, sweeteners (and basically all those 17 syllable words you can never pronounce). What you get is 9 organic superfoods, scientifically proven to help you build and protect your collagen and elastin to smoothen out fine lines and unveil naturally radiant, glowing skin.
Check out why over 20,000 women swear by Vegan collagen and find out more about their results here.
Benefits of Collagen
When you begin taking a collagen supplement, consistency remains the key to getting the best results regardless of the source. Here are some of the benefits you can look forward to with consistent daily use;
- Plumper and fuller skin that reduce the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles
- Naturally radiant, glowing skin
- Stronger, longer and healthier hair and nails
- Healthier and stronger joints
- A clean and healthy gut
- Increased energy and a healthier overall wellbeing
Collagen is the most abundant protein in the human body and is an integral structural protein found in skin and connective tissue. However, when it comes to holistically preserving the plump dewy complexion we flaunted in our younger days (do take a moment to reminisce), collagen continues to take home the gold!
Taking a single scoop of Vegan Collagen everyday can help keep the skin on your face and body plump and youthful, reducing the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles and bringing out your natural glow.
Collagen also makes up an integral part of your hair and nails, helping to strengthen the root attached in the skin, reducing hair fall and brittle nails and helping you grow your own natural hair and nails long and strong.
Collagen also helps strengthen your joints as it forms part of the cartilage between your bones, reducing friction between them and keeping your joints healthy.
If all this wasn’t enough, collagen also helps keep your gut healthy and regular (if you know what I mean), improves your overall energy and essentially helps you look and feel your best.
