Collagen supplements are suddenly everywhere, touting seemingly magical benefits ranging from improving skin elasticity to easing joint pain to improving digestion. Simply put, collagen is a protein found in your body. Think of it as the glue that helps hold everything together. It strengthens your bones, tendons, cartilage, and ligaments, and it adds elasticity to your skin.

There are at least 16 different types of collagen in the human body. But, most of it… 85-90%… consists of “type 1” and “type 2.” Type 1 is the macho man. It’s the biggest and strongest category, and its job is to help form the bones and support your digestive tract. This type is important for your skin too, because it gives your skin elastic qualities. The duty of “Type 2” collagen is to help support joint health, and it’s found mostly in cartilage.

A little known fact about collagen is that from the age of 20 on, you lose about one percent of your collagen each year. This leads to wrinkling, sagging, and cellulite. The trick to preventing this relentless aging is to increase your collagen levels. Try to get about 5g per day.

Of course, you can use expensive creams to fight wrinkles, but that’s not the best strategy because your skin doesn’t absorb them well. The trick instead, is to feed your skin collagen from the inside. And that’s where collagen supplements come in! A high-quality collagen supplement delivers a huge dose of wrinkle-blasting collagen right to your skin cells. My favorite brands of collagen are Vital Proteins, Primal Kitchen, and GoopGenes.

Also…Check out this Green Tea Collagen Latte Recipe! It is made with only 5 ingredients, and the green tea delivers a jitter-free dose of caffeine for an afternoon energy boost. As a bonus, it is high in protein, and collagen of course. …get the recipe.