I have heard that people should try to supplement collagen/gelatin as its quite good for the skin and such, I am currently in Sweden and was wondering if Headcheese would be a good source of this? It is called kalvsylta here.
Obviously bone broth and such would be good as well, but I want varied sources…
Anyone have suggestions for good sources of these and/or if there is indeed a benefit?
@BrendaZorn is our resident head cheese expert. @erdoke is a nose to tail guy. And ears, especialy the ears.
LOL Literally “Calf Jam” 
@erdoke knows more than I on the topic, but as I understand it the issue is too much of one amino acid common in muscle meat - methionine and not enough of another common in connective tissue - glycine.
methionine is converted in the liver into the amino acid homocysteine and that is highly reactive, and a marker of heart disease. Eating a lot of muscle meat, causes a rise in homocysteine which is considered to be bad.
Personally I believe there is limited evidence that raising homocysteine causes the diseases that are associated with homocysteine.
We have the ability to convert homocysteine back into methionine that requires availability of glycine … so eating connective tissue may diminish a potential problem caused by eating too much muscle meat.
Am I understanding this right that the idea is similar to the (debunked) idea that dietary cholesterol equals a rise in blood cholesterol?
As far as I know people evolved to eat primarily meat so it wouldn’t make much sense for that to be the case, and if it were those who eat only meat (of whom there are a few) would show increased rates of heart disease - the opposite of what happens.
Is there no separate benefit to collagen or gelatin, nutritionally? I thought I had heard there was, but perhaps I was mistaken - wouldn’t be the first time.
yeah, it’s potentially mistaking a downstream marker for an upstream cause. Probably. Although the reactiveness of homocysteine might have some causative relation.
I think you’re right about the the evolutionary argument, and I think it’s that we likely ate most of the prey unless we were migrating. And if we ate all the animal we ate a lot of connective tissue with the muscle meat.
I supplement with Great Lakes collagen, enjoy chewing on the gelatinous parts of bones, and drink homemade broth regularly. I have a collagen disorder (that causes bleeding under the skin) and it does seem to help a little.
I’m in the fence about the collagen powder and it’s expensive–not positive it’s worth the cost. But I also use it in place of protein powder for the few recipes I use that call for protein powder.
Can’t do porkrinds or headcheese for religious reasons.
I make trotters for that. Where I live lamb trotters are readily available and loaded with gelatin. I slow cook for 10 hours at low. It takes a bit of getting used to but it’s very tasty