Now, collagen meals to help banish those unwanted wrinkles

London, Feb 11 (ANI): A restaurant in London is offering age-conscious diners, meals that contain collagen, the protein that gives skin its strength and elasticity.

Such restaurants melt down chunks of collagen, which is a popular menu choice in Japan, and mix them into meat and fish dinners, in the hopes that it will help customers banish wrinkles without painful injections.

Chef Ian Pengelley at Gilgamesh in Camden is adding the ingredient, imported as a powder from Japan, to a selection of his pan-Asian dishes.

The Eat Yourself Beautiful menu includes a Collagen Inside Out dumpling for 6 pounds and a Collagen and Seaweed salad for 12 pounds.

Collagen is especially found in mammals' flesh. As it is a protein it breaks down into amino acids in the stomach just the same as meat and fish, so it is unlikely to be a skin super food.

The British Skin Foundation say they've seen no evidence that eating collagen benefits the skin.

However, Pengelley said the menu had a range of well-balanced and healthy dishes.

"It's a powerful long-term anti-ageing protein and eating and drinking it is a much less painful way of improving general health and diet than Botox," the Daily Mail quoted him as telling the Evening Standard. (ANI)