Is Bone Broth Good For You?

For the uninitiated, bone broth might sound a bit disgusting. What is bone broth? Is it some nasty witch’s concoction with bizarre ingredients? Well, no, bone broth isn’t the slightest bit witchy, nor is it disgusting.

In fact, it’s one of the most popular health foods today, with far-reaching benefits for anything from digestion and gut problems to arthritis and cellulite.

So let’s boil up a few bones and see what we get!

Bone broth can revitalise dicky joints

We might get wiser as we get older, but we also get stiffer as our joints feel the wear and tear of carting us through life. Joint cartilages wither and degrade. Cushioning between bones flops like a bad flan. The result is nasty bone-on-bone friction that can be painful and debilitating.

Enter natural collagen, a protein noted for its ability to rejuvenate creaking joints, reducing the effects of ageing and helping joints to work comfortably again.

Bone broth is full of natural collagen. It’s also packed with cushioning gelatin, which helps bones glide over each other, not grind against each other.

Bone broth is great for our gut

Gelatin, again, is excellent for a strong gut lining. It also helps to reduce insensitivities to dairy products and overall intestinal and digestive health.

In fact, the offshoot effects of bone broth’s gut-enhancing abilities can even impact our immune system, making it stronger and more resistant to illness.

Can you buy bone broth?

You can, but we don’t recommend it. Bone broth stock is available in supermarkets, but these are not the sort of bones you want anything to do with. The basic problem seems to be that they’re not real bones, a decent enough issue.

From all accounts, they are lab-produced meat flavours made from everything but meat, including delicious MSG.

Is it better to make your own bone broth?

Definitely, and it’s not hard. All you need is a stock pot and apple cider vinegar.

Oh, and bones, they’re important too. For the best bone broth, stay away from your stock standard supermarket fare. Instead, go for bones from organic, grass-fed animals with no pesticides in sight.

Be it chicken bones, beef bones, lamb bones or fish bones, your cooking method is basically the same, though it does pay to brown beef and lamb bones first.

And remember, we’re talking bones, but they don’t have to resemble something your dog’s been gnawing on all afternoon. A bit of meat and fat still attached is absolutely fine.

So, how do you cook your bone broth?

• Place bones in a stock pot

• Cover with filtered water

• Add two tablespoons of apple cider vinegar to draw nutrients from the bones

• Bring to a boil and then simmer

• Remove surface scum as it rises

• Cook slow and at low heat

Chicken bones can cook for 24 hours, and beef bones for 48 hours to give all those wonderful nutrients time to be prised from the bones. If you like, you can add celery, garlic, and carrots to crank up the health factor even more.

Want to know more about how nutrition works? Our nationally accredited 10967NAT Diploma of Nutrition qualifies you to become a Nutrition Advisor and promote healthy nutrition and well-being solutions! Enquire Now or call us on 1300 616 180 and speak to one of our Careers Advisors for more information.