Bone Broth Benefits & How It Can Soup Up Your Health

Bone broth is a super-nutritious liquid made from the bones and connective tissue of your favorite meat. It dates back a long time, possibly 2,500 years ago or so. Our ancestors wanted to ensure that every part of an animal was used, so the last step was to throw the not-so-edible parts (hooves, knuckles, bones, and connective tissue) into a pot for boiling, so the last remaining bits of nutrition could be utilized.

From the bones, you’ll get a lot of the same minerals that you need to build strong healthy bones in your own body. These include calcium, magnesium, potassium, and phosphorus.

Because bone broth includes connective tissue, it contains significant amounts of collagen, which is a protein you need to build the structure of your body. As you age, your body makes less collagen and you develop wrinkles, loose skin, and dry skin. Consuming bone broth can help supply your body with the nutrients it needs to maintain younger looking skin.

Aside from the parts that you can see, other invisible structures in your body become weak due to the loss of collagen. Collagen has been known to relieve joint pain, boost muscle and bone mass, and keep blood vessels strong, reducing the risk of heart disease. Collagen also supports brain function and gut health and is even used as an aid for weight loss.

Collagen in the bones and connective tissues can be consumed in three ways.

1. The first is not recommended: eat the collagen raw by gnawing on uncooked animal tendons and bones. Umm… Okay, next… 
2. Another way is to cook the bones and tendons in a broth. This creates gelatin, which is cooked collagen. 
3. For the third way… Some food processing techniques can break gelatin down even further into hydrolyzed collagen. In either this case or with a bone broth, what you’re eating is the collagen broken down into smaller proteins. Your digestive system would do the same – break it down into smaller proteins – if you ate raw bones and connective tissue. 

No matter which way you consume the collagen from the bones and connective tissues, you get the same basic nutrients your body needs to build up its structure and have strong bones, healthy skin, and healthy blood vessels.

Bone broth is full of amino acids like glutamine, proline, and glycine. Amino acids are the basic building blocks of the collagen protein. Glycine helps your body make its most powerful antioxidant, glutathione.

Some very important nutrition in bone broth comes from the marrow, the fatty substance inside the bones. If you watch a wild predator eat something that it killed, it usually breaks into the bones to get to the marrow. It does this because of the high nutrient content.

While it would be healthy to do so, many of us aren’t going to suck marrow out of cooked bones on our dinner plate (yuck), so bone broth is the next best way to get the marrow’s nutrition.

Say what? Another reason bone broth is so healthy is that the connective tissue provides your body with glycosaminoglycans, abbreviated as GAG. These are carbohydrates that are key to the health of your own connective tissue. One type you’ve probably heard of is keratin, a key protein for healthy skin. Keratin is also involved in the production of the master antioxidant glutathione.

1. Bone broth is super nutritious and supports health in basically every part of your body.
2. It’s easy to make at home. There are loads of recipes on the internet.
3. Use pasture-raised animals. Your bone broth will only be as good as the bones and tissue that you make it with. You can typically get pasture-raised ingredients from local farms or from a butcher shop.
4. Boost your broth’s flavor by including some of the skin and fat, if you can – along with tasty vegetables and herbs. Follow a recipe if you need ideas.
5. Include some vinegar (most recipes call for vinegar to be added). It helps extract the nutrients out of the broth. I use unfiltered apple cider vinegar.
6. If you prefer to purchase bone broth from a store, make sure it doesn’t contain chemicals like MSG. And look for a label that says “organic pasture-raised” or “wild caught”.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to my kitchen to make some delicious, nutritious bone broth.