Do you take your coffee with cream, sugar, or collagen?

The New York Times reports that eating your beauty treaments is all the rage is Asia--from a Singaporean resto that offers consultations with a herbalist and skin fixes mixed in with your dinner to Nescafé‘s pre-mixed coffee with collagen. Evidently the products aren’t necessarily harmful--nor particularly helpful.

As for products with collagen, James Hammer, a cosmetic chemist at Pharmasol Corporation in Easton, Mass., compared them to “that piece of chicken you had for dinner,” saying, “Ingested protein is very important to the body, but there is nothing unique about ingested collagen protein that makes it specifically useful for connective tissues.”

Ah, yes, the old “just like chicken.” While there’s certainly truth to the axiom “you are what you eat,” these kinds of products do seem a bit pointless. Doesn’t food already come with nutrients included? Couldn’t you just eat more fruits and vegetables?

What do you think? Would you drink hot cup o’ collagen? Does every little bit help?

Prettier With Every Sip? [NY Times]