I think I can take a guess at what you’re thinking after reading that title – bleh! I thought the very same thing when I originally started looking into this. I spent virtually my entire childhood and adolescence as a vegetarian, so maybe even a double bleh from me.
But the claimed health benefits are really too great to ignore, what with my husband suffering with his gut health we decided to jump straight in and see what all the fuss was about. It’s a question that comes up often in conversation so I thought it was time to walk you through why we added this to our routine.
Bone broth is packed with collagen, which turns into gelatin when you cook it. Gelatin is one of the most potent gut healers on the planet. Gelatin is loaded with glycine, a powerful anti-inflammatory amino acid, and it’s rich in other healing nutrients including magnesium, proline, and arginine. Your gut is home to the trillions of microbes that scientists call your microbiome. Think of this microbiome as an ecosystem. Ideally you want to have a wide diversity of good microbes and very few bad ones. Gelatin’s gut-healing properties are important because in order to stay slim and healthy, you need to have a strong gut. Bone broth gives us the amino acid glycine, which helps with the production of glutathione, and helps to detox the liver.
We drink both beef bone broth and chicken bone broth and rotate between the two. I use the slow cooker method and like making stock, you roast the bones of your choice. Then, you cover your soup bones with water in your stockpot and add apple cider vinegar. The vinegar ensures the minerals will be pulled out of the bones and into the broth. Then you add in mirepoix vegetables (onions, leeks, carrots, and celery) and simmer away. Simmer for a long time. I mean, a very long time. Some people cook their bone broth for 24 hours, so the bone marrow is fully absorbed into the broth and the bones are so depleted of minerals that they’re soft enough to snap. When it’s finished simmering, strain and refrigerate. It’s also freezer friendly.
New science is teaching us about the unique microbiome of bacteria that lives in each of us. There’s a new focus on keeping your gut microflora healthy and resilient, and bone broth is one of the best ways to do this. Some people drink it as a snack, while others use it as a meal replacement. Either way – people swear that it’s the cure for what ails them!
Both gelatin and collagen are present in bone broth. These proteins help reverse damage in your digestive tract. Our digestive tract gets damaged by using antibiotics, alcohol, aspirin, caffeine, Nsaids like ibuprofen, refined sugar, flour, and fried food. Bone broth can also help heal leaky-gut syndrome, which affects many people with autoimmune conditions or Autism.
Collagen provides us with glycine, lysine, and proline. These are the amino acids that help keep our skin looking younger. Unfortunately, the pricey collagen topical skin products really won’t get absorbed into your skin because the molecular structure is too large to penetrate. Like most things, you have to work from the inside out.
That’s all very well and good I hear you say, but what if you don’t have time to make your own broth? Well you can always cheat and buy the ready made kind and no, unfortunately Bovril won’t cut it. When I don’t have the time or inclination to make my own, I buy the jars of Meadow and Marrow from Amazon. Admittedly, they’re not cheap but they’re a real time saver and so far all of the flavours we’ve tried have been delicious!
I’ve included the super easy way I make chicken bone broth below:
Ingredients
• 1 pre cooked supermarket rotisserie chicken
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons peppercorns
• 2 garlic cloves
• 1 onion, roughly chopped
• 4 celery stalks, including leafy part, roughly chopped
• 3 carrots, roughly chopped
• ½ teaspoon dried rosemary
• 60ml Apple Cider Vinegar
Directions
- Remove the meat from the chicken carcass and place in a separate bowl.
- Place bones in the slow cooker with the onion, celery, carrots, rosemary, garlic and season with the salt and pepper.
- Fill the slow cooker about two-thirds full with water (just enough to cover the carcass and bones) and add the apple cider vinegar.
- Cook on low for about 8 hours.
- Before using the bone broth, strain and discard the bones, skin, cooked vegetables, and rosemary. I do this first with a colander, and then a sieve.
- You can use the meat you removed from the chicken in another recipe or add it to the bone broth at the end to make it a little more filling.
Once you’ve finished sieving and decanting your bone broth, I encourage you to play around with how you serve it.
I sometimes add a can of coconut milk, a teaspoon of turmeric, lemon grass and chilli flakes. Or if I fancy chicken noodle soup, I add fine noodles, shiitake mushrooms, ginger and garlic.
We’re offering two lucky readers the chance to win a Crock-Pot Lift & Serve 4.7 Litre Digital Slow Cooker. So if you’ve been inspired to make your own bone broth, this is the competition for you. Just enter via the rafflecopter below. Good luck!
