Healing tendons and connective tissue

[Daniel Cavallari]

That's why bald people need to eat more hair.
And I've heard Rhinocerus testicles are good against erectile dysfunction. Same principle.
Maybe if you eat enough birds, you'll grow feathers and be able to fly.

This right here made my day.

[Culican]

It may do nothing but I don't think the idea should be ridiculed out of hand. Gelatin is one of the richer sources of glycine. It's also fairly cheap, I see no harm in it.

" Detailed assessment of all possible sources of glycine shows that synthesis from serine accounts for more than 85% of the total, and that the amount of glycine available from synthesis, about 3 g/day, together with that available from the diet, in the range 1.5–3.0 g/day, may fall significantly short of the amount needed for all metabolic uses, including collagen synthesis by about 10 g per day for a 70 kg human."
http://bip.cnrs-mrs.fr/bip10/glycine.pdf

Glycine improves biochemical and biomechanical properties following inflammation of the achilles tendon.
Glycine improves biochemical and biomechanical properties following inflammation of the achilles tendon. - PubMed - NCBI

[Mark Rippetoe]

I see no harm in drinking Vesper martinis and eating roast beef sandwiches for the repair of tendon injuries -- in moderation, of course. The lemon zest provides Vitamin C, which is associated with collagen synthesis, and the beef provides plenty of precursor amino acids.

The "no harm" thing is rather tiresome, don't you think?

[jfsully]

The original paper is here.

A nice editorial that interprets the paper, in the same journal issue, is here.

Basically, gelatin is a protein source that is optimized for the proteins used in collagen synthesis because gelatin is made from, uh, collagen. If you are getting adequate complete protein from your diet, maybe from whey shakes, you should have all the collagen precursors you need to repair tendons, muscles, bone, etc. And if you are getting, say, 200g of protein a day total, you probably won't notice a benefit from the 15g taken before training (like in this study).

Note, the changes in "collagen synthesis markers" they saw were likely related to collagen production in bone, not in tendons. Also, despite there being some evidence of increased collagen density in the tendon tissue they bathed in serum, there was no difference in tensile strength of the tendons by supplementing with gelatin. The vitamin C may have had some benefit, but they didn't design the experiment to test that.

So, basically, if you like jell-o, go for it. It looks like one little box of Jell-o has 8g of protein, so dose accordingly.

Bad news, though: Jell-O pudding (as opposed to gelatin) has no appreciable protein in it. More bad news: they don't make Jell-O Pudding Pops any more.

Bottom line: I think the steak and martini approach has a lot to recommend it.

[Longanlon]

Collagen content of meat carcasses of known history. - PubMed - NCBI

2-8% of meat (by weight) is collagen which means collagen is about 20% of the meat protein you eat. If you eat a solid amount of meat the pills sold as supplements have as much of an effect on your collagen intake as you peeing in the ocean will have on the sea level.

[Ivey]

The times I consumed unsweetened gelatin didn't work because I didn't add vitamin C and time it to occur before specific exercises? Sure. I'm just one variation away from nirvana.
Total BS. Some of us rode the train to Primal/Paleo Town already and didn't enjoy the trip. I'm all for experimentation, but I'll leave the unflavored Jello to Ben Greenfield and Dave Asprey. I like the real thing.

[Barry Charles]

I like jello with the little mandarin oranges.

[Robert Santana]

So essentially we need to eat a well balanced diet and exercise? Imagine that.

[jfsully]

So essentially we need to eat a well balanced diet and exercise? Imagine that.

But wait, isn't there that "one weird trick doctors don't want you to know"....?

[Robert Santana]

Yes. Don't pay the bill if they don't deliver.