9 Amazing Benefits of Drinking Bone Broth

In pursuing restoration of gut health we’ve found out that Part of Me is Missing and how to make bone broth in Bone Broth to Heal Your Gut.

But what does bone broth have to do with healing your gut and why would you want to drink it?

Well, let’s see. It takes a lot of nutrients to make bone and the tissues associated with it like cartilage and ligaments. So if you leech the nutrients out of the bones and tissues by simmering them in water for a long time, wouldn’t that provide you with a gold mine of nutrition when you drink the broth?

Yes indeed it does. Let’s take a look at the nutrients that wind up in that good old fashioned bone broth.

Minerals in bone broth

Bones are the great repository for those very necessary minerals calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, sulphur and silicon along with other trace minerals. So of course bone broth will contain those healing minerals that help restore gut health, bone health, teeth, joints and much more.

In fact the Divine Health site http://divinehealthfromtheinsideout.com/2012/05/bone-broth-nutritional-facts-benefits/ says:

” Calcium is the most abundant mineral in bone, it is also the most abundant mineral in the body. The calcium present in bone broth can be considered for use in the following deficiency signs, symptoms and conditions: pain and inflammation, cramps, muscle spasms, delusions, depression, insomnia, irritability, hyperactivity, anxiety, palpitations, hypertension, high cholesterol, allergies, brittle nails, periodontal and dental disease, pica, rickets, osteomalacia, osteoporosis and any situation that creates bone loss such as aging, immobilization, postmenopause and caffeine.”

Look at that list of symptoms and diseases above. Does it look like the very things that people put up with all the time in our culture? Maybe if we simply adopted some wisdom from the past into our daily diets like drinking bone broth our bodies would obtain enough easily assimilated calcium to heal our diseases and pain!

Amino acids in bone broth

The amino acids proline and glycine (found in only small amounts in muscle meat) and arginine in broth help heal and seal the gut and aid digestion. They repair and grow muscle, balance the nervous system, and strengthen the immune system.

The gelatin in bone broth forms a colloid that holds digestive enzymes in the gut longer and brings them close to the food to aid digestion. In so doing it heals the mucosal surface of the bowel, sealing up this leaky membrane that previously allowed unwanted substances into the blood stream and body.

And here’s really exciting news for those of us who have suffered with an irritated gut. The naturally formed gelatin in bone broth keeps the “bad guy” microorganisms from attaching to the gut wall. Hooray, gelatin prevents the bad bugs like yeast from setting up house (colonizing) on our gut mucosal membranes and making tunnels into the mucosa that lets the toxic substances into the blood and rest of the body.

And didn’t your grandma feed you chicken soup when you had a flu bug? Whether she realized it or not, that homemade chicken soup with the good bone broth in it created gelatin that neutralizes flu toxins and organisms.

The French led the research in gelatin beginning in 1682 and into the 1950s. They discovered that gelatin helped in the treatment of many diseases including “peptic ulcers, tuberculosis, diabetes, muscle diseases, infectious diseases, jaundice and cancer. Babies had fewer digestive problems when gelatin was added to their milk.” Sally Fallon

But canned chicken soups may not contain all of these great ingredients found in homemade chicken soup. So buy a whole chicken. Simmer it at least 12 hours in water along with vegetables and herbs you like. Cool and strain off the broth. Then freeze it to have in an emergency if the flu or intestinal bugs show up in your family. However, if you drink bone broth regularly you may out smart those critters so that they can’t take hold in your body.

Bone broth has so many healing nutrients that besides helping to heal the gut it also helps heal and nourish a lot more tissues and organs in the body. For instance, another set of amino acids in broth, chondroitin sulfate and glucosamine sooth joint inflammation and pain and nourish the joints.

Here’s a summary of some of the benefits of drinking homemade bone broth:

1. Soothes and heals the gut, seals a leaky gut.

2. Aids digestion

3. Fights inflammation

4. Fights infection

5. Builds strong bones and teeth

6. Soothes and nourishes joints

7. Makes your skin, hair and nails strong and beautiful

8. Can be calming and help sleep

9. Minerals in bone broth are much more easily absorbed and utilized (and cheaper) than minerals in supplements.

With so many benefits let’s have a drink of bone broth!

But you can’t take short cuts because… (Find out in the next article.)

References:

http://www.westonaprice.org/health-topics/broth-is-beautiful/

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2013/12/16/bone-broth-benefits.aspx

http://www.mindbodygreen.com/0-9890/10-benefits-of-bone-broth-gut-healing-recipe.html

http://divinehealthfromtheinsideout.com/2012/05/bone-broth-nutritional-facts-benefits/

Blessings,

Dr.  Jo