sure, but it's not just skin products. The Paleo/Keto/Bulletproof movement is gung-ho on the supposed miracle that is bone broth. From claims that collagen in the diet equals collagen in the body to unique/magical properties of whatever they think it contains are rampant. Drinks, protein powders, supplements - it's everywhere. Just like eating a lot of protein doesn't make you ripped, I would think more people would understand that even though the saying is "you are what you eat", it's not LITERAL.
> "That doesn't mean that eating muscles makes you muscular though obvs (any more than eating mussels makes you mussel-ar)"
Yea that's what I meant by literal, as in you aren't a pig if you eat pigs, you aren't muscular if you eat muscle. You are made up of the building blocks of the thing you ate, but that does not make you the thing itself.
Maybe literal wasn't the right word? Anyways, doesn't really matter.
Hydroxyproline is conditionally essential, particularly in older and injured populations, and collagen is a rich source of it. Research has demonstrated that collagen supplementation reduces arthritis symptoms and increases collagen synthesis. That being said, unless you're getting 15+g of collagen (the amount used in one study I recall) in your bone broth it probably isn't doing much.
Protein up to a point improves protein synthesis, and it also has the nice side effect that it is inefficiently stored as fat, both from a thermodynamic and hormonal standpoint. So a random high protein diet is more likely to get someone "ripped" than a random low protein diet.
Hydroxyproline is found in collagen but your body can synthesize Hydroxyproline so it's not like collagen is the only way to get what you need which is how people/products make it sound. Any known benefits from taking in glycine, proline, and hydroxyproline in the form of collagen are very specific to a small portion of the population (such as OCD sufferers) and, as you mentioned, only in very large doses. There are certainly ways to improve your skin/connective tissue without buying into what is mostly a marketing gimmick.
Eating a lot of protein is definitely necessary but not sufficient to get ripped. You absolutely are what you eat - literally (though it's true not everything is digested and absorbed).
