Amount of Collagen Ingested by Japanese Adult Women from Their Diet

Abstract

Objective: There are many studies on the ingestion of collagen supplements. Since few studies have been published with regard to the collagen ingestion from the diet, we investigated the amount of collagen ingested by Japanese adult women from their diet.
Method: The diet menu of women in the age group of 20~50 years was examined for two days by a food recording method. The amount of collagen in meat or fish was calculated from their amount of collagen-specific amino acid hydroxyproline.
Results: The intake of collagen by the women examined was 1.9 g per day. The main source of collagen was the meat, comprising 60.5% of the total collagen intake. Collagen was ingested most frequently from pork, comprising 33.4% of the total collagen intake. In contrast, the frequency and the amount of collagen ingested from fish was about 70% and 60%, respectively, of that from pork. Fish skin, which is rich in collagen, was taken in only 54.0% of fish-containing diets. The amount of ingested collagen differed depending on the staple diet; it was larger for rice but lower for bread and noodles. This difference was associated with the number of side dishes, which was higher for the rice.
Conclusion: Collagen intake by adult women was estimated to be 1.9 g per day, and the amount of collagen taken from the diet depended not only on the type of food materials used but also on the type of staple diet and the number of side dishes.