Wily marketers offer expensive food supplements claiming that they are good for your joints. These products all share the common ingredient of gelatine, jelly, or collagen. Gummy bears and Jelly Beans also contain gelatine. May it be concluded that they are good for your joints, too? None of the candy producers ever made such a claim, but maybe they are missing out on something.
Gummy bears (also spelled Gummi Bears) and Jelly Beans contain gelatine. Gelatine is derived from collagen contained in animal skin and bones. Collagen is a protein responsible for the structure of hair, skin, and cartilage. Gelatine is
an irreversibly hydrolysed (i.e. water soluble) form of collagen. Apart from Gummy Bears and Jelly Beans, it is used in many foods as well as pharmaceutical products.
For vegetarians this means that they have to be careful what they buy. Any product containing gelatine, jelly, or collagen is derived from animals and therefore not vegetarian. In pharmaceuticals it is often contained in the coating of pills or the shells of capsules. Only products that state verbatim to be free of gelatine are containing a plant based ersatz gelatine. Vegans should look out for hypromellose which is the acceptable alternative for them.
Gelatine is not only part of Gummy Bears and Jelly Beans but also of marshmallows, jelly based desserts, and low fat products (e.g. yoghurts). It is also contained in products with beta-carotene that needs to be water soluble. If a soft drink is yellow or orange, you may be sure it contains gelatine as it is needed to make beta-carotene water soluble; and beta-carotene is responsible for the yellow colour of the drink.
Cosmetics hide their animal descent behind the term hydrolysed collagen. Cosmetic uses include nail-polish removers and make-up applications. And for Christmas, it is contained in the edible window panes of ginger bread houses. Products that want to appeal to vegetarians often hide behind the term hydrolysate without stating what kind of hydrolysate they use. So much for vegetarians and vegans, you may skip the rest of this article as you should consume no products that claim to be good for your joints at all as they all contain gelatine in one form or another.
Let’s get back to the food supplements claiming to be good for your joints. They base their claim on the fact that they contain hydrolysate, collagen, or gelatine. In their logic, these ingredients regenerate cartilage and provide patients with arthritis relief. This belief
She was a mystic. For her, the substance coming from the joints of calves remembered where it came from and would find its way in the human body to where it should go. It might even have worked for her patients sharing her belief. It is, I believe, called a placebo effect.
The truth is, whatever we eat goes into our digestive tract. It is designed to break down food into its original building blocks. Thus, the proteins contained in gelatine are broken down into amino-acids for distribution to the body by means of blood circulation. The human body then synthesizes collagen from the building blocks. The (defunct) German Federal Institute for Consumer Health Protection said in 1998 about gelatine pills (and similar products): It is physiologically impossible to target a particular body part with a supply of a specific nutrient. A joint-protein supplement does not exist, therefore.
To date, there is no scientific proof of the efficacy of gelatine pills for joint treatment, pain or arthritis relief. As long as there is no proof, they are food like anything else, like Gummy Bears and Jelly Beans that is. And if you still want to belief in the mystical way gelatine finds its way to your joints, Gummy Bears are a cheaper and more pleasant alternative to overpriced food supplements.
Reference:
Gummy Bears - Wikipedia
Gelatine - Wikipedia
Placebo Works
Hildegard von Bingen - Wikipedia
