Eat bone broth now!

We know that protein is good for us, most of us who are trying to be healthy aim to eat protein with a slow release starch and vegetables. But what kind of protein do we choose? Lean animal protein, fish and pulses, maybe some dairy if you can tolerate it. This post focuses on meat so vegetarians click away.

When eating meat protein we eat mostly the muscle tissue, that is the leg, wing, breast or thigh muscle of the animal. Though high in many important nutrients including zinc maybe we are missing something. Humans bodily protein  make up is actually 25-35 % collagen and the amino-acid make up of collagen and muscle protein is completely different. For example in collagen the top amino-acid is glycine followed by proline and alanine and the rarer hydroyproline. In muscle meat Glutamine is most abundant followed by alanine, Valine and glycine.

Many of us have heard of collagen in terms of aging and the lack of this protein in the skin and its deleterious affects. However this is just the tip of the iceberg. So far, 28 types of collagen have been identified and described. The five most common types are:

• Collagen I: skin, tendon, vascular ligature, organs, bone (main component of the organic part of bone)

• Collagen II: cartilage (main component of cartilage)

• Collagen III: reticulate (main component of reticular), commonly found alongside type I.

• Collagen IV: forms basal lamina, the epithelium-secreted layer of the basement membrane.

• Collagen V: cell surfaces, hair and placenta

I am lucky, my local butchers makes bone broth, but before that I sourced grass fed bones that I would make broth from scratch from once a week. There are other way to buy hyrolysed collagen and add this tasteless powders to food and drinks. If you decide to do this Great lakes is a good brand. 

So what are the reasons for taking bone broth?

So why when collagen is so important do we still mainly consume the wrong ratio of amino-acids to make it? Our ancestors will have eaten fish skin, knawed on bone ends, eaten ligaments, we however do not. So this is where the bone broth comes in. Boiling up grass fed bones is a great way of extracting soluble collagen. This can then be consumed in soups added to sauces to boost up our collagen precursors. 

Reason 1: Bone broth makes you feel like you have oiled your joints.

Bone broth is is high in glycosaminoglycans (GAGs). You may have heard of them in glucosamine, the famous supplement for joint health. 

I personally find that my nagging knee pain vanished after a week of taking the bone broth daily. As these proteins are involved in ligaments and blood vessels these too will be boosted by eating bone broth. 

Reason 2: Bone Broth Heals Your Gut!

The intestinal lining is supposed to be permeable in order for nutrients to pass through. However, this lining can become too permeable due to lifestyle factors such as poor diet, stress, long-term contraceptive use, as well as bacterial and fungal overgrowths. This puts a strain on the liver, the endocrine system and increases likelihood of autoimmune flareups due to an overly active immune system.

What does bone broth have to do with any of this? Well, the gelatin in bone broth helps heal the holes in the gut lining, so a great adjunct for treating leaky gut.

Reason 3: Bone gives you great hair skin and nails.

We all know collagen helps the skin look young and plumped up but it is also great for nails and hair. After a lifetime of nails that split I found that after regularly eating bone broth was using a heavy duty nail clipper to cut the nails on my hands! 

So how to make this super-food

This broth is not only good for collagen levels so will help with connective tissue formation but it also is high in trace minerals including potassium, manganese, copper, iodine,chromium, vitamin K.

These bones I bought and froze till I was ready to use

Ingredients: 

• 3- 6 lb of bones. Grass fed beef is great
• Stock vegetables- 2 sticks of celery, 2 carrots, 1 onion. (organic)
• Nutrient rich vegetables. Turnip greens, beet greens, swiss chard, collard greens, parsley. (organic) One large handful per pound of bones.- or to taste.
• dried sea week. 1 tablespoon for pound of bones.

I added some rosemary to this batch

Methods: 

1. Roast the bones for 10-15 mins or until browned in a 400 f oven.
2. Then cover with water and add sea salt.
3. Bring to a boil and simmer for 4 hours. If you have a pressure cooker you can speed this process up considerably. Make sure the bones remained submerged, you will need to top the water up. The bones are ready when the collagen is breaking down and actually bones are soft. This stage can be longer than 4 hours, for example if you have a crock pot you can leave overnight.
4. Once the bones are ready. Remove from broth. 
5. Chill the broth in the fridge until the fat has come to the surface and hardened.
6. Remove fat and discard. If a small amount remains that is fine as it will help with the extraction of the fat soluble vitamins from the greens (ie vitamin K)
7. Add the vegetables and seaweed. Boil until well cooked. Strain the vegetables out and reserve.
8. If you wish to freeze and use as stock/ broth this can be done now, in ice cube trays or portion sized tubs.
9. If you want to make into a soup add the vegetables back in and blend, or leave chunky. If you are planning to eat this soup as a complete meal add barley or root vegetables (see below).

Alternatives:

Add barley for a complete meal. Barley is great for the kidney meridian

Add root vegetables if aiming to make a soup, this will provide further vitamins and starch.

Add miso to the broth and drink out of a mug

Use broth as a stock for many recipes.