3 Things I Learned About Collagen From Fiona Tuck

"When it comes to collagen, you've really got to look at the amount that you're taking. So my advice is take between five to 10 grams daily."

Fiona Tuck has been in the skincare industry for over 30 years. She's a cosmetic chemist and a nutritional medicine practitioner, accredited with the Australian Society of Cosmetic Chemists and the British Dermatological Nursing Group. She's the author of The Forensic Nutritionist and the founder of Vitasol, a whole food ingestibles range found in skin clinics across Australia and the UK. She's also Lee's best friend of 10 years, so we were lucky to have the Queen of Collagen on episode 3 of The Lee & Irene Show.

Fiona wasn't always a fan of collagen. "I was one of those people that would say, collagen, oh, don't waste your money." Once she researched how it works and started taking it, she saw the difference in her own skin. "I'm a complete convert on collagen and I used to be the biggest sceptic."

You can listen to the full episode here:

Here are the 3 things I learned from our chat with Fiona

1. Collagen works when it's in peptide form

Fiona says a lot of the negative talk about collagen online comes from people not understanding how it works. "People think it's like, you know, eating toenails to grow toenails." But "when it comes down to the scientific evidence, that's actually incredible. It's really strong."

She pointed to a review of 19 gold standard clinical trials, published in the International Journal of Dermatology, that showed "consistent benefits of hydrolyzed collagen on, in particular, skin hydration, skin elasticity, skin density, and wrinkles" over one to three months.

The key is peptides. The collagen in bone broth or steak is native collagen, a very large molecule of around 300,000 Daltons. "Your body can't absorb that." Fiona explains that collagen "has got a triple helix structure and think of that like three strands that are all intertwined like a piece of rope." When it's hydrolysed into peptides, "those strands are unwound and then chopped up into very small fragments." Some of those peptides travel in the bloodstream and "work as chemical signalling agents. So they signal the fibroblast cell to produce more collagen, type 1 collagen, type 3 collagen and hyaluronic acid."

You can't make peptides at home, but you can add collagen peptide powder to hot food or drinks. "The peptides are already denatured. That's what peptides are."

2. How much you take matters

Fiona's biggest issue with a lot of brands is they don't put enough collagen in. "Some products only have one gram in there, two grams. You probably won't be getting much of a result from that."

The studies for the collagen Fiona uses say to take 10 grams a day for the first three months, then drop to a maintenance dose of five grams. At 55, she takes "between 10 to 15 grams every day consistently", which is two or three teaspoons in her coffee. How much you need depends on your age, how active you are and whether you're healing from something.

Be patient and consistent. One study found collagen peptides reduced wrinkles by over 30% after three months, and Fiona says "you can usually see visible results in the skin from between six to 12 weeks." She noticed her own skin "felt sort of firmer and plumper" and saw "a huge difference in cellulite."

3. Marine collagen is the gold standard

Both marine and bovine collagen peptides help collagen density, but Fiona says marine collagen "does seem to get better results when it comes to improved skin elasticity and improved skin hydration." It was also the most studied in the trials. "The gold standard is marine collagen peptides."

Where it comes from matters too. A lot of marine collagen comes from tilapia raised on fish farms in China or Thailand. Fiona uses wild caught Norwegian fish. "I personally have a thing about farm fish." Bovine collagen is more economical and helps with muscle recovery, so it's a good choice if you're active. If you go bovine, she recommends grass fed over grain fed. You'll find both marine and bovine collagen powders in our collagen section.

What Fiona looks for on the label

"A lot of collagen powders are bulked out with maltodextrin, so you do need to read the label." Here's what else Fiona checks.

Powder over liquid: pre-mixed liquid sachets usually need emulsifiers, preservatives and added flavours. "I would always recommend going for the powder."

Fillers and additives: watch for maltodextrin, preservatives, polysorbate, emulsifiers and gums.

Sweeteners: Fiona uses organic green leaf stevia, "literally a dried up leaf", and steers clear of the ultra-processed white stevia, which can have maltodextrin added. She once picked up a monk fruit sweetener at the supermarket that was only 1% monk fruit, with the rest erythritol.

Feed your own collagen: "Your body makes collagen. It needs a variety of different nutrients." That means amino acids like glycine and proline, vitamin C from foods like berries, plus magnesium, iron and zinc. And skip the megadose vitamin C tablets. "Just have an orange because you're going to get vitamin C, you're going to get bioflavonoids."

Listen to the full episode

We also talked about the promising research on collagen for gut health and insulin sensitivity, and why whole foods beat isolated nutrients. You can listen to episode 3 on Spotify.

About the Author

Irene Falcone is the founder of Clean Nectarine and co-host of The Lee & Irene Show. She started her first clean beauty business in 2011 with $100 in her garage and grew it to $20m in four years. She has spent over 15 years reading the backs of beauty and wellness labels, is a Telstra Business Women's Awards winner and an EY Entrepreneur of the Year finalist, and has been featured on A Current Affair, The Project, Sunrise, Channel Nine Mornings and Sky News.

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