What do Halle Berry, Drew Barrymore and Davina McCall have in common, asks Lisa Armstrong in The Daily Telegraph. They’re all obsessed with collagen. That’s not surprising: it’s the most plentiful protein in the body. It keeps the skin plump and stops your joints from aching. But once you hit your mid-twenties, our collagen levels start depleting – by our fifties, most of us have lost a third of it. Thankfully, there are plenty of ways to give yourself a collagen boost. First, diet. Collagen-rich foods are everywhere: oily fish, eggs, berries, garlic, red and yellow vegetables, plus any other “abundant sources of vitamin C”.
In the beauty world, collagen supplements are the shiny new thing, says Sali Hughes in The Guardian. Celebrities like Jennifer Aniston back them and the global collagen industry could be worth $8bn by 2027. As a beauty editor, I get so many freebie pills “that barely anyone leaves my house without a box of overpriced gelatine foisted upon them”. Frankly, I don’t know if they’re worth the large price tag. “The supplement industry is notoriously unregulated and non-standardised”, and it’s hard to tell how much collagen the body absorbs and retains from these pills. Collagen-rich diets are cheaper and actually work. I’d stick to those.
Try rye bread to shed the pounds
Bread can help with weight loss, says Gill Hyslop in Bakeryandsnacks.com – provided it’s the right sort. Swedish scientists studied 242 overweight adults and found that those who regularly ate rye bread lost weight and body fat faster than those who didn’t. Rye is full of fibre, which suppresses your appetite and helps digestion. Participants who ate rye bread for breakfast consumed 16% fewer calories at lunch.