Bone Broth: Premium Fasting Fuel
Bone broth is a great liquid you can drink when you fast. Its like filling up your gas tank with premium fuel. This is because bone broth is a source of bioavailable nutrition to support your bodys natural healing processes without taking you out of a fasting state.
As mentioned above, bone broth contains naturally-occurring collagen and gelatin, but animal bones also contain several other compounds and amino acids that support the body, such as glucosamine, chondroitin, hyaluronic acid, proline, and glycine. These nutrients can:
- Support digestion
- Support a healthy immune response
Benefits Of Bone Broth
Bone broth is a centuries old superfood that is very nutrient dense! The key nutrient in it is collagen. Collagen is found in our bodies and is responsible for holding our body together like glue.
Bone broth also contains numerous other nutrients including: glutathione, glycine, proline, glucosamine, glutamine, chondroitin sulfate, calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, silicon, sulphur and others.
Some of the benefits of bone broth include:
- Boosts immunity
- Repairs and heals the gut
- Protects joints
Lets see how to make an easy flavorful bone broth below!
How To Use Bone Broth
If the idea of drinking bone broth out of your favorite coffee mug feels a little odd, don’t worry: There are plenty of other ways to eat, drink, and use bone broth.
- Drink it straight up. Pour it into a thermos and sip it on its own or as part of your lunch.
- Use it to make grains. When cooking your favorite ancient grain, such as quinoa or farro, use bone broth instead of water for added flavor and all the health benefits
- Freeze for later use. Pour bone broth into ice cube trays and freeze. You’ll have individually portioned broth at the ready.
- Make soup. This is a tried-and-true way to use bone broth. Start from scratch or use store-bought bone broth as the base for any soup or stew.
- Make a bone broth smoothie bowl. Yes, you read that right. Bone broth smoothie bowls are a thing.
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Keep Your Collagen Strong
According to Daniel Auer, a holistic medicine doctor based in the San Francisco Bay Area, the real benefit of bone broth is the low-and-slow cooking process, which breaks down the bones and connective tissues of the meat. As you sip the broth, you take in collagen and gelatin both of which he says are incredibly healing.
Experts are torn on whether you can gain the skin-firming, joint-strengthening benefits of collagen by ingesting it, but studies have shown an improvement in skin’s elasticity and fine lines from collagen supplements.
How Much Bone Broth Should I Drink Daily
Drinking bone broth can lead to a number of health benefits, including weight loss, reduced inflammation and joint pain, muscle growth, and enhanced mental clarity. If you’ve heard the reported benefits of bone broth, you may be thinking, “c Many people drink anywhere from 1-6 cups of bone broth each day to support their physical, mental, and emotional health.
Below, you’ll learn how bone broth can help heal your gut lining, thereby leading to a number of other potential health benefits. You’ll also learn how much bone broth you should drink daily according to your health goals.
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% Of Pesticides We Eat Are Produced By Plants
A paper co-authored in 1990 by the venerable Bruce Ames found that 99.99% of the pesticides we consume in our diet are produced by the plants themselves. Given the popularity of organic food and the unscientific mythology underlying it, his findings are more relevant now than ever. src: 99.99% of Pesticides We Eat Are Produced by Plants
There are literally thousands of different toxic chemicals sprayed on the plants or in the soils, when growing plants commercially.
It is vital to use organic if you can with all foods like meats, herbs, spices and eggs and dairy products.
Eating the toxic and malnourishing SAD diet full of processed junk foods using almost exclusively GMO toxic grains high in sugar, and full of anti-nutrients that steal the nutrients from you.
This is one of the reasons bone to have broth soup as to re-nourish and heal the intestines from all the toxic and processed foods most of us eat daily.
The average person in the US consumes over 150 pounds of sugar a year. Eating this much sugar combined with the chemicals and malnourishing foods will certainly predispose people to become toxic, depressed, overweight, sick and tired.
You wonder why we notice so many obese children and adults everywhere.
Eating this much sugar is not only getting everyone fat, but all of the processed sugars are demineralizing the body and causing the body to malfunction with the constant high amounts of sugar.
Where To Buy Bone Broth
If you dont want the fuss of making your own bone broth, you can find many bone broth products on Amazon or in your local grocery store.
Kettle & Fire was one of the first brands into the bone broth market and their products are all sourced from organic, pasture-raised animals.
You can also buy powderedbone broth, which may be a great option for travel. Simply mix the powder with boiling water for a quick and convenient cup of bone broth. When buying powdered bone broth, check the label to make sure you are getting all-natural ingredients and avoiding additives like MSG.
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What Causes Leaky Gut
Leaky gut happens when the lining becomes permeable. According to Todays Dietitian, one of the possible reasons is a protein called zonulin.
This works as a gatekeeper of cells, controlling what goes in and stays out. The article mentioned studies that associate it with autoimmune diseases such as type 1 diabetes.
It may also contribute to celiac disease. It is a medical condition in which the immune system attacks the intestinal wall when it senses gluten, a protein found in grains.
Another potential cause is digestive plaque. Much like the oral plaque, this one includes possibly harmful bacteria and fungi that line the intestinal walls.
The plaque serves as their shield to protect them from death. In turn, they can multiply, throw your microbiome out of balance, and destroy the intestinal junction.
Other risk factors include:
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What Is Responsible For Making Red Blood Cells In The Body
The bone marrow is mostly responsible for making new red cells. Bone marrow is the soft tissue in the center of bones that helps form all blood cells. src Hemolytic anemia: MedlinePlus Medical Encyclopedia
One of the best ways I have found to heal the gut from inflammation is to fast with just a small amount of bone broth daily. The best results I have seen are when participants do a 3-12 day bone broth fast with only one meal a day.
As you already know, you can do effective fasts with just using fruit or veggie juices, water only for detoxification or you can use bone broth soup for a nutritional and healing fast.
This bone broth fast is easy and very effective for repairing and resetting the gut and your digestion. You will definitely lose weight if you follow the one meal day for a few weeks, while you are healing your gut and intestines with all of the saturated fats that are in the soup.
If you are overweight this fast will help you lose unwanted pounds but will also support healing the gut with all of the super dense nutrition very efficiently by removing most all carbs, sugars and toxic plant compound irritants from your diet for a selected period of time.
It took me several months to heal my intestines from inflammation completely using this type of method. Bone broth has really helped me repair my intestines, gut and digestion from the years of gastrointestinal irritation, mostly from eating a raw vegan plant based diet.
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Its Incredibly Healing To Your Gut
One of the ingredients in bone broth is gelatin, which can help to repair intestinal lining and reduce inflammation in our digestive organs. Studies have shown that this ingredient alone can boost intestinal health and integrity. As a bonus, research tells us that people with digestive issues are often lacking in collagen, which is a second important substance found in bone broth.
Where To Get Bones
Instead of throwing leftover bones and carcasses from meals in the garbage, save them to make broth.
You can collect the bones in a bag and store them in your freezer until you are ready to cook them.
However, if youre not someone who typically buys and eats whole chickens and bone-in meat, you may wonder where you can find animal bones to make broth.
You can ask for them at your local butcher or farmers market. The meat department at most grocery stores will often have them too.
The best part is theyre very inexpensive to purchase. Your butcher may even give them to you for free.
Do your best to find pastured chicken or grass-fed beef bones, since these animals will be the healthiest and provide maximum health benefits to you.
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Are Lectins Really Bad For You
Once your intestines are inflamed then these plant defense compounds can really cause more damage to your intestines. When consumed, lectins in their active state can cause negative side effects. The most publicized accounts report severe reactions in people eating even small amounts of raw or undercooked kidney beans. They contain phytohaemagglutinin, a type of lectin that can cause red blood cells to clump together. src: Lectins | The Nutrition Source
How To Fix Your Leaky Gut
Many of the suggestions below are not sexy but they are incredibly important! Before you consider any fancy supplements or witch-doctor remedies, first make any lifestyle changes necessary that are sustainable to long term health.
These changes are geared toward managing stress. Only when we start to manage stress in our lives can we start to restore healthy gut flora and eventually rebuild the damaged intestinal lining of our leaky gut.
Remember the bucket analogy? Choose wisely what you fill your bucket with. When you know youll be bogged down with work, its probably not the best idea to start a new diet for beach season or train for a triathalon.
Heres how you can fix your gut:
- Sleep: 7-9 hours of sleep seems to be optimal for most. Were talking about sleep, not time in bed.
- Eat fermentable / soluble fibers from vegetable sources.
- Introduce more fermented foods into your diet: apple cider vinegar, sauerkraut, kimchi, kombucha, kefir and yogurt .
- Drink bone broth from organic, gass-fed and pasture raised animals.
- Consider taking a multi species, high quality probiotic.
- Consider an autoimmune diet: basically you avoid dairy, eggs, sweeteners, grains, nightshades and processed foods.
Some other important things to consider about stress is our relationships. You need take steps to remedy any toxic relationships you have with people in your life.
Sometimes this means gradually removing yourself from these relationships. Only then can your body recover.
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Will I Be Hungry During The Bone Broth Diet
Bone broth contains approximately 6 to 10 grams of protein per cup, which means fasting on the bone broth diet will still provide you with 18 to 32 grams of protein per day to fill you up. If this is your first time practicing intermittent fasting, there may be a small adjustment period as your body gets used to taking in fewer calories, but you shouldnt feel starved. When you do get hungry, have another cup of bone broth, herbal tea, and/or water.
What Are Amino Acids
As we mentioned here, proteins, especially the collagen protein, contains a unique combination of four amino acids.
Not only are amino acids the main component of collagen products, but they are also crucial for the complex, day-to-day operations of your body.
As a matter of fact, there is a study that showed that adding these four amino acids might help slow down the body’s aging process.
Back in ancient, and not so ancient times, humans used all parts of an animal, tip to tail as they call it, in their diet.
Animals’ bones, joints and skin are rich in amino acids. Since our ancestors used these animal parts in their diet, they ate a lot of amino acids.
Today, modern society doesn’t use all parts of the animal. That means you don’t get as many amino acids as your body could use.
Furthermore, the 4 main amino acids in collagen protein cannot be made by the body. You must get these amino acids from the food you eat.
Let’s dive deeper into each amino acid that makes up the collagen protein:
Glycine
The amino acid glycine is involved in the transmission of chemical signals to the brain, used to treat conditions such as schizophrenia, stroke and cystic fibrosis.
Also, studies show glycine can be your best friend if you have trouble falling and staying asleep.
Proline
Proline is used in tissue repair, collagen formation, arteriosclerosis prevention and blood pressure maintenance.
Alanine
Alanine is used for low blood sugar, diarrhea-related dehydration, fatigue and stress.
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Toxic Plant Compounds Can Cause Intestinal Stress And Inflammation
Many plant foods contain very strong natural toxic compounds called phytoalexins which are the plants defense chemical compounds produced in the plant internally and naturally to protect them against parasites, fungi, bacterias and from other animals from eating them too.
The toxic phytoalexins that are in most plants, if eaten consistently or in large amounts can cause the gut to become very inflamed and irritated, and over time start the process of a variety of intestinal symptoms, syndromes and possibly debilitating diseases.
Getting The Most From Your Bone Broth Fast
Drink bone broth thats made with quality bones and connective tissue, such as grass-fed beef bones or organic chicken bones. Your broth is only as good as the bones of the animal it came from. For this reason, we recommend only using grass-fed, grass-finished beef bones or organic chicken bones.
Q: Can I eat anything during a bone broth fast?
A: Its normal to get hungry during a fast, but if you get to the point of being uncomfortable, feel free to add a tablespoon of coconut oil, ghee, or grass-fed butter to your broth, and you can snack on raw veggies.
Q: How often can I do a bone broth fast?
A: If you are in good health, once per week is safe. Its actually best to do it consistentlyevery Monday, for example.
Q: Whats the longest period of time I can fast for?
A: There are mixed opinions from health experts on how long a bone broth fast should last. Some say up to four days. However, we recommend going no longer than 24 hours without solid food.
In any case, its still important to check with your doc before doing any type of fast to make sure its 100% safe for you.
Q: So, can I use regular stock or broth instead of bone broth?
A: Nope. A bone broth fast is so beneficial primarily because of the amazing benefits of collagen and gelatinwhich are the result of simmering bones and tissue for approximately 24 hours.
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How To Make Bone Broth
It is not difficult to make bone broth, but it does take quite a long timeanywhere between 12 and 72 hours.
First of all, you need to buy your bones, preferably bones from grass-fed animals. You may need to find a butcher or try an Asian market to find chicken necks, oxtails and soup bones that work best for bone broth. You can use beef, chicken, lamb, and/or fish bones to make bone broth.
Put the bones into a large pan and cover them with water. It is important to add a couple tablespoons of apple cider vinegar because it pulls the nutrients from the bones.
You can also add your favorite herbs and vegetables such as onion, garlic, celery, carrots, and parsley. Then youll need to boil those bones for at least 1.5 hours , or more like 12 hours , and optimally 24 to 72 hours. Using a crockpot can make it less messy.
Once the bones are soft, strain the broth and discard the bones . Some people prefer to refrigerate and then skim the fat off the top of the bone broth, but that is only necessary if you dont digest fats well or if you are concerned that the bones you used may have contained toxins. You can use the bone broth immediately in a soup or sauce, or freeze it for later.
What Are The Health Benefits Of Bone Broth
I Decided to Drink Bone Broth Every Day for Two Weeks.
I’d been following a Paleo diet for a couple of months and hearing a lot about the benefits of bone broth as it’s considered to be an integral part of a solid Paleo diet. I had used it in a few recipes but I hadn’t tried consistently drinking it daily. I decided to drink it daily for two weeks just to see if I noticed a difference.
I bought a few different brands and planned to drink one or two cups in the afternoon around 4 pm. The reason for this timing was that I’ve been trying out intermittent fasting, basically doing a 16/8 pattern. My eating hours are from about 2 pm-10 pm .
I figured that having 1-2 cups of bone broth right when my eating window opened might help to tame my hunger pangs and prevent overeating. This is something I’ve been working on as I’ve found I just want to eat everything in sight by the time my eating window opens.
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