In a bid to cash in on the latest beauty trend of consuming collagen, Japanese company ‘Suntory Holdings Ltd’ has released a special brew of collagen-infused beer.
The trend has Japanese women believing that eating copious amounts of collagen – the structural protein of connective tissues – will lead to beautiful, younger-looking skin. The seemingly innocuous trend has caught on rapidly – stores are filled collagen-laced beauty products, and women are willing to gulp spoonfuls of powdered collagen mixed into protein shakes. They also flock to restaurants that serve foods naturally high in collagen – pig trotters, chicken skin and shark fin.
But the collagen-infused beer, called ‘Precious’, is a stroke of marketing genius – now women can get drunk and beautiful at the same time! Suntory announced the new product on April 7 – it is a light beer, containing 2 grams of collagen and 5% alcohol per can. Their tag declares: “Guys can tell if a girl is taking collagen or not.”
Unfortunately, experts disagree. They say that eating the protein has no proven anti-aging benefits. According to Dr. Ariel Ostad, collagen expert and Clinical Assistant Professor of Dermatology at New York University Medical Center, two grams “isn’t enough collagen to make a remarkable difference for your skin’s complexion.”
He also explained that the idea of a beautifying beer is an oxymoron, because alcohol is actually bad for the skin – it results in inflammation, puffiness, and irritation. “The advertisement claiming that ‘guys can tell if a girl is taking collagen or not’ is totally misleading,” he added.
Surprisingly, according to a Forbes news report, Suntory accepted that they can’t vouch for the beers anti-aging effects. Public relations representative Taito Mikami said that they simply made the product because there are “findings that Japanese women wanted to take collagen.”
“So we created this regionally-marketed product to meet their needs,” he revealed.
