Is Gelatin Healthy?

[Rasheed]

Is gelatin healthy?

[Opo]

Ya

[happyhappy]

yup! mostly

[vizual]

It's nutritionally basically empty. It won't hurt you, but it isn't particularly healthy either

[Michael569]

Do you mean gelatin as a part of normal food (eg animal cartilage on chicken wing or tight) or concentrated gelatin in some sort of supplementation form? 

[Thought Art]

I don't eat it. I consider it a food to avoid along with all processed animal products.

I went to  gelatin factory while in university... nope.nope.nope.

[The0Self]

Very good. Not as a main protein source, but to balance out the rest of your amino acid (AA) intake, as it's rock-bottom-low in the potentially more problematic AA's like cysteine, histidine, methionine, and tryptophan... and has a lot of glycine. You could just take glycine instead -- it has a lot of the same benefit as it's probably the most benign AA out there. That assumes your overall protein intake is good -- never want to go below 80g/d, certainly not <60g/d, and 100 is generally better, and 120+ is optimal for strength and muscle mass when combined with a complete program of at least one of all three of the following: pushing, pulling, and leg dominant movement. No benefits to greater than 280g, but not necessarily any harm either -- I think Leo was well over 280g/d due to his specialized salmon and chicken diet at one point.

But yeah gelatin, hydrolyzed collagen, bone broth, and glycine are all good and have essentially the same beneficial function, so you can roughly substitute one for any of the others out of the four.

Edited January 14, 2022 by The0Self

[Thought Art]

@The0Self That seems like a lot of protein to me. Some people say like 56g per day for a male and some yogi's say even less. To much protein I think can increase you chances of cancer. Especially meat.

[Yarco]

It's like any animal byproduct, it can be good or bad depending on the animal it comes from.

Are you getting your gelatin from elderly dairy cows being culled after a lifetime of living in cramped quarters in a barn, eating GMO feed and standing in their own filth? Or an organic grass-fed cow harvested in its prime? If they don't specify, assume the worst.

[Mada_]

On 1/9/2022 at 3:42 AM, Michael569 said:

Do you mean gelatin as a part of normal food (eg animal cartilage on chicken wing or tight) or concentrated gelatin in some sort of supplementation form? 

My friend takes it as a supplement, he takes because of the collagen I think.

[The0Self]

2 hours ago, Thought Art said:

@The0Self That seems like a lot of protein to me. Some people say like 56g per day for a male and some yogi's say even less. To much protein I think can increase you chances of cancer. Especially meat.

Oh... 280 is way overkill lol. It’s just that for muscle gain there is marginal benefit all the way up to 280g/day, and less than 120 is basically shooting oneself in the foot. But for optimal health, what I have stated is correct: it varies depending on the person, but generally about 100g/d (plus or minus 20g) is optimal, and absolutely no less than 60g (if you want optimal health, which might not be a top priority, and I’m not even saying it should be). 120+ is very useful for weight training. Not to mention, if one isn’t doing weight training or something similar, then they either don’t care that much about their health anyway, it’s not worth it to them, they’re unable to do it, or they’re unaware of just how important weight bearing exercise is early on (preferably well before age 35) for all sort of things including decreasing one’s fracture risk when they’re much, much older (70+). And protein is crucial for the bone density and muscle retention that is part of the benefit of weight training.

If health in that sense is not important at the moment — I’ve been there and might well be again — then of course subsisting on little more than white rice or energy bars might be all one eats at the time lol. But if health is very important, aim for 100g protein a day.

The bone density thing is a huge issue and weight training gives more than just a small boost. A 75 year old who has squatted since age 25 can sometimes have a bone density reading literally 4-5 (sometimes even more) standard deviations above the mean. Many elderly folks die of bedsore infections and general immobility-generated unwellness from being bedridden after breaking a bone such as a hip — among other things, that practically never even happens to lifters.

Edited January 14, 2022 by The0Self