Hands up who wants to know how Jennifer Aniston looks this good in her sixth decade?
Thankfully, the actress and the internet's forever favourite girl-next-door lets us in on her methods.
There's her regular yoga practice, Pilates, the 15-15-15 method (a good old fashioned cardio blast on various machines, for the uninitiated).
This week she let us in on another wellness ritual (that doesn't require you to break a sweat)...slipping a couple of extras into her coffee to amp up the health creds of her energising morning beverage.
Posting to her 40 million+ followers on Instagram, Jennifer shared a video - soundtracked by the Talking Heads' This Must Be The Place (talk about a forever bop) of exactly how she makes her coffee.
She pulls out a large cup (don't you love that she's not an espresso gal?) into which she adds a scoop of Vital Proteins collagen peptide powder. (Now, in the spirit of transparency, let's remember that our Jen works for the brand - as their Chief Creative Officer.)
And it's not one of those wellness bits exclusively available in LaLaLand - you can buy the exact product in Holland & Barrett.
Then she adds a dash of what appears to be cinnamon (chai vibes; love) before turning around to say, knowingly, to the camera - 'antioxidants'.
Then, she whacks it onto her Nespresso machine to add the coffee - before topping it up with hot, foamy milk from a milk frother. (No, Jen doesn't share which milk - cow, oat, almond? - she favours in the video.)
It's all going to well until - after the elaborate ritual is finished - she has to carry the *very* full mug and she spills the liquid over the top of the mug and onto the work top.
It's oh-so-reminiscent of Rachel Green and makes us wonder if life imitated art or the other way around when it came to writing Jen's Friends character's infamously hapless waitressing style...
What are collagen supplements?
Collagen supplements are booming. Boots reported a 1,570% increase in searches last year alone, while 'collagen' ranked as the fourth most searched ingredient on Google for 2021. And, if the array of new collagen supplements cropping up are anything to go by, demand is only growing.
There's a reason why the best collagen supplements are so popular. Collagen is a protein that effectively acts as the scaffolding of your skin, holding your face up and keeping your face firm and pump.
When your supplies begin to decline, around the age of 25, you might start to see the first signs of creases and fine lines. Anything which claims to rejuvenate such supplies, then, is probably going to appeal to a lot of people.
vital proteins Vital Proteins Collagen Peptides Unflavoured 284g
vital proteins Vital Proteins Collagen Peptides Unflavoured 284g
Do collagen supplements work?
Whilst the studies on collagen supplements are patchy, the evidence that does exist is positive,' says Dr Ukeleghe. 'Importantly, it needs to be hydrolysed collagen (also known as 'collagen peptides') with additional vitamins, such as Vitamin C, which increase the benefits of the supplement'.
Which, Jen An's vital proteins, is. This is because whole collagen – as opposed to hydrolysed/ peptides – is broken down during digestion, and there is super limited evidence that these fragments will go on to travel into your bloodstream in high enough doses to result in any real change to your skin.
Some experts argue that hydrolysed collagen/ collagen peptides are better able to handle this process, and do become absorbed into your bloodstream, but, again, robust, high-quality scientific evidence is sparse.
Should you add collagen supplements to your coffee?
The jury's out, honestly. It's unlikely to do you any harm and *could* be a useful part of your wellness ritual. But, honestly, it's probably all the other stuff than Jen does - and how consistently she does it - that helps her look as fresh as she does today.
