Re: Hydrolyzed Collagen

 Any thoughts on consumption of collagen?

It is great for cartilage, skin and connective tissues in particular.

It's just gelatin.
Lots of amino acids.

Kind of.  The process of hydrolyzation involves subjecting the proteins to very strong acids or alkalis to break the proteins down, something our systems can do on their own if we have pepsin and sufficient stomach acid.  A good reason to avoid things that will neutralize the stomach acid, such as many "alkalinizing" drinks and antacids.

And yes it will contain a lot of amino acids, but only in quantity of a few amino acids.  The amino acids in collagen are comprised of the amino acids or variants of lysine, proline and glycine.  There are a lot of other amino acids utilized by the body missing here.

Does it help at all with skin and muscle health? Or just hype?

Skin? Yes.  Same for cartilage, tendons, ligaments, blood vessels, etc. due to its helping in the formation of cartilage compounds, collagen and elastin.   When it comes to muscle this is a different story.  It lacks many of the amino acids needed by muscle such as carnitine.

Why would it be better than just eating a big piece of steak or taking some whey?

Steak will provide amino acids needed to build muscle.  When also contains many of these nutrients.  But don't get caught up in the more is better hype.  The body can only utilize about 90g of protein daily.  Even top athletes such as professional marathon runners only utilize slightly more than that. Taking excess protein DOES NOT increase muscle mass.  All it does is puts more of a strain on the liver and kidneys as they have to deal with the toxic ammonia and excess uric acid generated in the breakdown of the amino acids.