AMA #19: Collagen vs. Whey Protein, Creatine, Smelling Salts, Stimulants & More

Whey vs. collagen protein: when to use each for muscle and skin

Whey protein is superior for muscle protein synthesis due to high leucine content, while collagen at ~15g/day improves skin elasticity. Aim for 1g protein per pound of body weight daily. High leucine in whey can exacerbate acne in some people via mTOR signaling.

"Welcome to the Huberman Lab Podcast, where we discuss science and science-based tools for everyday life. I'm Andrew Huberman, and I'm a professor of neurobiology and ophthalmology at Stanford School of Medicine. I'm also wearing my Roka red lens glasses, which block both blue light and green light, both of which are so-called short-wave length light. That's because we are recording this AMA at night, and the lights in here are very bright, and bright lights at night will quash your melatonin, which is the hormone of sleepiness. Bright lights at night also increase cortisol levels, and by blocking those short wavelengths of light, you offset the reductions in melatonin and the increases in cortisol that would otherwise occur. And I always make the general recommendation that whether or not you decide to wear blue-green blockers or blue blockers or simply no blockers that you dim your lights at night, it will greatly facilitate your transition to sleep and the quality of your sleep. So this AMA is part of our premium subscriber channel. Our premium subscriber channel was started in order to provide support for the Standard Huberman Lab podcast, which of course comes out every Monday. Those are full length episodes. We also now have Huberman Lab essentials episodes, which are 30 minute essentials only episodes. So just the actionable protocols and the key mechanisms behind those protocols, those come out every Thursday. Both the full length episodes and essentials episodes are available at zero cost to everybody on all standard platforms. So YouTube, Apple, Spotify, we now have the full length episodes on X as well. We started the premium channel as a way to generate support for exciting research being done at Stanford School of Medicine, on the main campus at Stanford and elsewhere. The research that we fund is largely applied research. We do fund some basic research, but it's largely applied research, meaning it's research that's geared toward developing novel therapeutics for mental health, physical health, and performance in humans as soon as possible. We've already done several rounds of research funding, and I'm excited to tell you about the results of those studies as they become available. I'm also pleased to inform you that for every dollar that the Huberman Lab Premium Channel generates for research studies, there are now three matching donors that match that amount. The Tiny Foundation, along with two other generous anonymous donors, have agreed to do a dollar-for-dollar match. So technically, given the number of dollar-for-dollar matches, it's now a dollar-for-dollar-for-dollar match match. That is for every dollar provided by the Premium Channel for Research, we have $3 provided to the Premium Channel's research fund. And then we distribute that to various investigators, as I mentioned at Stanford and other universities throughout the United States. This is a 4X amplification of the total amount of funding given to studies of mental health, physical health, and performance. And of course, as those studies are completed and published, we will be sure to share the data and the actionable tools that emerge from those data with you. So for those of you that are already premium channel members, thank you. And for those of you that are considering becoming a premium channel subscriber, please keep in mind that three to $1 match that greatly amplifies your contribution. To subscribe to the Huberman Lab Premium channel, please go to hubermanlab.com slash premium. It costs $10 a month to subscribe, or you can pay $100 for an entire year's membership. We also have a lifetime membership that again is a one-time payment. You can find out more about that lifetime membership at hubermanlab.com slash premium. For those of you that are already premium channel members, please go to hubermanlab.com slash premium to download the premium member feed in order to access the entire episode today. And for those of you who are not premium members, you can still hear the first 20 minutes of today's episode and determine whether or not becoming a premium member is right for you. And now without further ado, I will answer your questions. The first question for today's AMA is, quote, is there a distinct health advantage to using bone broth or collagen protein versus whey protein? I get this question pretty often, and I touched on this in the episode that I did with Dr. Lane Norton, but I think the key thing to remember here is that while protein is one of the three macronutrients, right? Proteins, carbohydrates, and fats, not all proteins are created equal. Now, what differentiates different protein sources has a lot to do with how easily those proteins are assimilated into our body and their amino acid content. Now, in general, how bioavailable a protein is, as well as its quality or protein score, relates to a number of things, not the least of which is the amount of leucine, which is a particular essential amino acid that we need to get from food. So why is leucine important? Well, leucine is an essential amino acid. You need to get it from food and some protein sources, such as whey protein, for instance, but also beef, chicken, eggs, et cetera, have high levels of leucine as compared to other types of protein, for instance, collagen protein, and some, not all bone broths. And I'll explain what I mean by that in a moment. So if we just step back from this question and ask it in two parts, remember the question was, is there a distinct health advantage to using bone broth or collagen protein versus whey protein? One can be very confident in the answer to that, which is whey protein contains relatively high amounts of the amino acid leucine, and therefore is going to be the superior form of protein if your goal is to grow muscle and or get stronger, to repair muscle, either muscle damage caused by exercise, or simply to engage protein synthesis. Remember, even if you haven't been exercising intensely or doing any resistance training, and by the way, you should be doing resistance training and cardiovascular training, but independent of exercise, dietary protein, in particular dietary proteins that contain high amounts of leucine, or I should say relatively high amounts of leucine, like whey protein, will help induce so-called muscle protein synthesis, which is generally good for us, again, and it's occurring, even if we're not exercising, if we are exercising, especially if we're exercising very hard, and in particular, if we're doing a lot of resistance training or frankly, any amount of resistance training that's taken near or to failure, right? So it doesn't even have to be heavy weight, but if you're stressing the muscles hard, then having a quality protein source that's bioavailable, that is you can assimilate it, and that has relatively high leucine content is going to be advantageous. So through that lens, I can confidently answer the question by saying that a quality whey protein would be a better choice for a protein as compared to bone broth or a collagen protein, which have relatively low amounts of leucine. And if you look at their essential amino acid profile, just sort of across the board, not just focusing on leucine, and compare that to whey protein, we would easily say that whey protein is the superior form of protein, again, both based on its bioavailability and its amino acid composition. Now, does that mean that bone broth and collagen protein are not valuable at all? No, I didn't say that, okay? So when are bone broth and collagen proteins valuable? So this has also come up in several Huberman Lab podcast episodes, namely the episode that I did with Dr. Lane Norton, also the episode that I did about skin health, because there are some data, not a ton, but there are some data showing that people who regularly ingest collagen protein can observe some improvements in skin elasticity and appearance. Now, are these dramatic effects? Not so much, but are these significant effects? That is, are they statistically significant as compared to a control condition of either no collagen protein or a different protein source? And there one can find manuscripts that show, yes, indeed, ingesting collagen protein. And by the way, bone broth has high amounts of collagen. So we're treating bone broth and collagen protein sort of in combination here, or we are considering them in combination. And one would say that the amino acids that are contained in bone broth and collagen protein actually have been shown to support skin elasticity and appearance when ingested at levels of 15 grams per day over a period of about two weeks or more. Okay, so through the lens of which protein source might be best for improving skin health and appearance, the answer in this case would be that the bone broth and collagen protein is going to be superior to whey protein. However, keep in mind that bone broth and collagen protein contain calories, right? They contain protein and calories. Sometimes they contain calories also from fat, rarely from carbohydrate, but you need to check the packaging and see what else is in there. So that raises the question, should you be taking bone broth slash collagen protein? I would say either or, maybe both, but either or and whey protein, or rather let's ask the question more scientifically, will taking whey protein support skin health and appearance in a way that either mimics or can replace the positive effects that one gets from bone broth and collagen protein? And the answer there would be no, at least not in any direct way. There's no evidence, or at least there are no studies that I'm aware of, of people taking whey protein as a way to improve skin health and appearance. Now that said, recovering from exercise, inducing muscle protein synthesis, these are things that are generally good for your body. So they are going to support overall health, immune health, your general sense of vigor. There's all sorts of downstream things that happen when you stress your muscles and then recover them. Or even if you just eat a protein like whey protein and keep in mind, there are other proteins that have high leucine content that lend themselves as whey protein does to muscle protein synthesis. So that's going to create an overall milieu, an environment of health. It certainly isn't the only path to health, but it's going to create a general milieu of health in the right context, provided you're ingesting it at the right amounts and in the right times. And by the way, when I say that, I know people are thinking, well, how much is the right amount? I am of the belief that most people who are seeking muscle protein synthesis, recovery from exercise and general health would do well to ingest approximately, I'm not super neurotic about these things, approximately one gram of quality protein per pound of lean body weight or desired body weight, okay? Or if you want to be a little looser about it, some people will just say one gram of quality protein per pound of body weight each day. Okay, so that's going to vary from person to person. So how much whey protein? Well, depends on how much other protein you're ingesting. So let's simplify things here. If in trying to get that one gram of protein per pound of body weight or so, you have a limited budget as most people do, I would personally suggest that you get a significant portion of whatever that protein requirement is. Maybe it's 150 grams, maybe it's 200 grams, maybe it's a hundred grams, depending on your size. I would suggest getting 60 to 70% of that from whole food sources. So it could be quality lean meats, chicken, eggs, fish. If you're a vegetarian, yes, there are combinations of things like beans and rice that will allow you to achieve the proper combinations of essential amino acids. There are some sources of non-animal proteins that will meet all those amino acid needs. You can look these up. They're easy to find online now. There's also casein protein, you know, milk protein. I would suggest getting most of your protein for muscle protein synthesis and for recovery from exercise from whole food sources. And then the remaining 30% or so, and I suppose this could be as high as 50% if you're having trouble eating enough during the day, could come from a protein powder, so to speak, or a protein bar. And whey protein is an excellent source of protein in that instance. And those whey proteins are available out there with minimal amounts or zero amounts of carbohydrate in them. Some of them have sweeteners like stevia, some don't. They vary in cost a bit. They vary in flavor a bit, in mixability a bit. So you have to find what works for you. These are now pretty easy to find out there. You just have to pick the one that's right for you and for your budget. That's to meet your one gram of protein per pound of body weight sort of threshold."