Hi guys,

Many times I try to remember who told me growing old was fun. Or maybe it was the freedom I saw adults express that was so enviable I couldn’t wait to be a big girl too. I’m in my mid twenties and already I’m beginning to think of an adventure to Neverland. I”ll beg Peter Pan and tell him I don”t mind squatting. I never used to bother about laugh lines, age spots or pain in my joints as a girl. Adulthood is a scam! Who agrees with me?

In the search for a health wonder, which was originally supposed to be for hair, I came across this beauty called GELATIN.

Gelatin is a food that is composed of amino acids derived from Collagen. Apart from water and fat, the animal body is made up of Protein. Half of this protein is Collagen. The uncooked form of collagen is Gelatin. Collagen is derived from animal parts like the bone marrow, organs, skin and tendon etc. It is highly nutritious and rich in Amino acids like Glycine, Proline, hydroxyproline, glutamic acid,  and small quantities of alanine, arginine, aspartic acid and Lysine. All these together are of extreme use to our body. Due to modernization of food, we hardly eat bones and animal parts that can help replenish our body’s supply of Collagen but the good news is we can get them in powdered form from Gelatin.

Gelatin is beneficial if incorporated into meals as it has the following benefits:

1. Improves skin, hair and nail growth: Gelatin is made of collagen that helps to rejuvenate the skin. It acts as building blocks for the skin thus giving it a youthful appearance and protection from the uv rays , wrinkles and loose skin. It also helps to reduce cellulite in the skin. You know those contours on the thigh that appear as dimples? That’s cellulite. It appears because of depletion of Collagen in the skin that starts as we age. While growing, you must have heard of protein being the building block of life and people would say you should eat Beans to grow tall. Well, the beans didn’t work so much but its just because protein aids growth and that’s exactly what Gelatin does. It acts as building blocks for the skin, hair and nails thus strengthening it and buffering the aging process on the skin. Say hello to new, firm skin.
2. Promotes wound healing and inhibits the spread and growth of tumours.
3. The high presence of Glycine acts as an inhibitory neurotransmitter and promotes natural sleep. Bye bye Insomnia!
4. Gelatin/Glycine acts as an opposer to the many excitatory functions of estrogen thus promoting heart function, reduce weight gain and promotes the function of insulin to the Liver to burn Sugar instead of storing it.
5. It improves joint health and here is an excerpt from this wonderful article on its effect ;

Although I pointed out a long time ago the antithyroid effects of excessive cysteine and tryptophan from eating only the muscle meats, and have been recommending gelatinous broth at bedtime to stop nocturnal stress, it took me many years to begin to experiment with large amounts of gelatin in my diet. Focusing on the various toxic effects of tryptophan and cysteine, I decided that using commercial gelatin, instead of broth, would be helpful for the experiment. For years I hadn’t slept through a whole night without waking, and I was in the habit of having some juice or a little thyroid to help me go back to sleep. The first time I had several grams of gelatin just before bedtime, I slept without interruption for about 9 hours. I mentioned this effect to some friends, and later they told me that friends and relatives of theirs had recovered from long-standing pain problems (arthritic and rheumatic and possibly neurological) in just a few days after taking 10 or 15 grams of gelatin each day.

For a long time, gelatin’s therapeutic effect in arthritis was assumed to result from its use in repairing the cartilage or other connective tissues around joints, simply because those tissues contain so much collagen. (Marketers suggest that eating cartilage or gelatin will build cartilage or other collagenous tissue.) Some of the consumed gelatin does get incorporated into the joint cartilage, but that is a slow process, and the relief of pain and inflammation is likely to be almost immediate, resembling the antiinflammatory effect of cortisol or aspirin.”

It also improves gut health and aids digestion as Glycine helps in improving the mucosal lining of the stomach and helps to facilitate the balance of digestive enzymes and stomach acid.

HOW TO USE GELATIN TO STRENGTHEN YOUR HAIR

I caused a ruckus on facebook when I posted a fact about how using eggs as a protein treatment was a waste and why you should eat them instead. Most die hard egg fans came on strongly and swore the eggs did strengthen their hair and all I said was balderdash! Eggs have a high molecular weight of about 33,000 – 40,000 which is too large to be adsorbed to our hair compared to hydrolysed proteins which are much smaller like Collagen hydrosylates and wheat hydrosylates which are perfect and very useful to the hair. Somebody went further to say that since she whips egg with water, thus she was hydrolysing the protein and making the egg protein hydrolysed. Wrong! Hydrolysis of proteins  is not a physical process. Its chemical and can be done only in the laboratory.

In addition to incorporating Gelatin into your diet, it can be used as a protein hair mask.

Gelatin  has the ability to form strong transparent gels so;

• a pack of unflavored gelatin should be added to boiled water,
• add a teaspoon of apple cider vinegar to reduce the pH thus making it acidic,
• Stir continuously until the gelatin powder is dissolved
• Add honey if you like or any oils of your choice.
• Pour this to hair when it cools a bit and make sure it covers the length of the hair.

Leave on the hair and cover with a plastic cap, try not to let it dry up on the hair. If it does, let water on it through a shower head and try not to touch the hair until it starts to dissolve. Then rinse thoroughly.

Let me know if you use Gelatin and if it works for you. Also do not forget to like this post, comment, follow and share! It’s free.