While beauty companies claim taking collagen pills improves the condition of your skin, especially on your face, the Consumer Council says what goes down your throat won't necessarily end up on your face. Beauty product advertisements infer that wrinkles, dry skin, colour spots will be smoothed over with collagen, and that oral doses of the protein can be absorbed into the skin directly.
It's not quite that simple, the council says. Consultations with dietitians, medical experts and Chinese medicine practitioners confirmed that collagen could not be absorbed by skin directly after being eaten, Like any other food, it needed to go through the absorption process in the intestines which broke it down into acids. After they were absorbed, the acids could help form collagen but could equally also facilitate the growth of muscle, cartilage, tendons, hair and nails, the head of the council's publicity and community relations committee Ambrose Ho said.
'The face is only a small part of the body,' he said.
While promotions indicate that eating collagen can boost the body's production of collagen to improve skin, Ho said physical and hormonal conditions, nutrition and a body's ability to synthesise substances were also important factors. Any improvement in skin condition felt after taking collagen doses could partly be attributed to a 'feel-good' effect and increased water intake after consuming the products, he said.
There are more than 20 collagen supplements or health foods containing collagen on the market. Consumers must spend between HK$400 and HK$1,000 on the products, some of which are required to be taken for a month. One woman complained to the council after spending HK$5,000 on a package of collagen drinks, enough to last her four months.
She said she had drunk them for two months but a test found that the water content in her skin had decreased. She had demanded a refund which was refused.