At last! My desk is clear! It took me about an hour, but now it is clean and shiny and white again. My brain feels clearer and tidier and ready to embark on some long blog posts.
I currently have a giant pot of prawn stock on the boil - almost ready to strain and pack into the freezer.
I also have the slow cooker simmering away with about 6 chicken frames, making a big batch of stock.
Yesterday's batch of bone broth has been packed away. First, I scooped the layer of fat off the top and stored it in the fridge to use for cooking. Hmmmm yum.
Bone broth. Who knew that it was so good for you?
I don't recall my grandparents making bone broth - but I do remember reading about bone broth in period novels, set in England and Ireland. My memory recalls that bone broth was fed to anyone with an illness.
Here is what I've learned about bone broth in the last week ...
1. Bone broth is excellent for your joint health.
The health of your joints depends upon the health of the collagen in your ligaments, tendons, and on the ends of your bones. Collagens are a large family of biomolecules, which include the glycosaminoglycans, very special molecules that help keep our joints healthy.
Bone broth is loaded with glycosaminoglycans (GAGs). You've heard of Glucosamine? Yep, those supplements that everyone is taking for joint health contain one of the GAGs we get from consuming bone broth.
This is why Real Food is better than supplementation…
Notice I said that glucosamine is just one of the GAGs contained in bone broth? When you consume broth you also get chondroitin, hyaluronic acid, and a bunch of other equally important GAGs.
The best part is that the GAGs we get from bone broth are resistant to digestion and are absorbed in their intact form. These intact GAGs like hormones, stimulate cells called fibroblasts which lay down collagen in the joints, tendons, ligaments, and even the arteries.
It’s truly powerful stuff!
2. Bone broth heals your gut.
We all experience some kind of gastrointestinal challenge at some time in our lives .. especially as we get older — constipation, diarrhea, food sensitivities, leaky gut, or even autoimmune disease.
One of the most vital nutrients for healing the gut is gelatin.
There was a time when gelatin was the most studied nutrient under the sun for all of its healing virtues.
Times have certainly changed.
The intestinal lining is supposed to be permeable in order for nutrients to pass through. However, this lining can become too permeable due to lifestyle factors such as poor diet, stress, long-term contraceptive use, as well as bacterial and fungal overgrowths.
This is how leaky gut — or gut hyperpermeability — works. Undigested food particles can slip through the gut lining and pass directly into the bloodstream. When this happens, the immune system freaks out and starts attacking the very foods you eat — we call these food sensitivities.
Over time, this can turn into an autoimmune issue by which your immune system thinks your thyroid — or any other tissue, for that matter — looks like the piece of steak molecule it’s been fighting off for the past few years, and your body starts to attack itself.
According to some, autoimmunity will soon be the number one cause of death. Gut hyperpermeability is a big reason why.
The gelatin in bone broth fills the excess holes in the gut lining, a bit like silly putty! It should be part of any gut-healing protocol.
3. Bone broth is excellent for your hair, skin and nails.
I know people who, in a quest to recapture a youthful appearance, will pay top dollar for products that boost collagen — also the main constituent of hair, skin, and nails.
As we age, production of collagen declines and we start to see the outward signs of aging.
Botox — a drug made from a toxin produced by the bacterium clostridium botulinum — is all the craze for the reduction of lines and wrinkles.
In my opinion, it's weird that people choose to inject that into their bodies .. and it's expensive!
Personally, I’d much rather prepare and consume bone broth to keep my skin, hair, and nails looking fabulous than have a toxin injected into my face.
But that’s just me.
4. Bone broth helps remove toxins.
The liver is the master organ of detoxification, but it was never intended to withstand the very toxic, chemical nature of today’s world.
The liver is under assault on a daily basis, and its capacity to detoxify is limited by the availability of the amino acid glycine.
Guess where you can get tons of glycine from? Bone broth!
For now, forget about all the fancy detox programs you’ve heard about. Do your liver a favor by giving it what it needs to do its job most effectively.
Get down to your butcher and grab yourself a stack of beef bones (they are surprisingly inexpensive) and simmer them away with some veggies and some apple cider vinegar (which helps draw out the good stuff). Simmer on low for about 12 hours to get the best out of them.
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Adoring Husband and I have been discussing getting a bigger freezer.
We have a small upright freezer and two fridges with freezers attached, but all of them are absolutely chock-a-block full of soups, stocks, stewed fruits, home-made ice creams, gravies, sauces, pestos, meats and garden vegetables.
I will struggle to find space for the stocks that I'm making today.
I need to stay out of the kitchen for a while and we need to use up what's in the freezers!
Nite all.
