The Bountiful Benefits of Drinking Bone Broth!

Bone broth is a nutritious, delicious and health-boosting meal that can transport you back to your dietary roots and allow you to reap the benefits! The nutrients it contains help to support the health of bones, joints, skin, hair, nails and all kinds of bodily tissues. As a bonus, you get to reduce food waste by using up animal by-products that usually go to waste. Winner winner bone broth dinner!

 

The Skeleton Argument for Bone Broth

·      The modern diet is drastically different to that of our ancestors - lots of nutritious meals haven't stood the test of time and are no longer eaten by most

·      Demand for convenience products and a taste for processed junk food is driving the obesity epidemic and plaguing the population with chronic health conditions

·      Even for those of us striving towards a healthier diet, we are missing some key nutrients that used be eaten pretty routinely centuries ago - and our bodies miss them!

·      Bone broth is a cheap, sustainable and simple recipe to boost levels of certain nutrients commonly deficient in the modern diet

Health- Boosting Nutritional Benefits

 Bone broth is packed with health-boosting nutrients that support both physical and mental health – let’s take a closer look…

·      Strong Bones

Thinking along the lines of you are what you eat, it makes sense that bone broth would be good for your bones! Our bones need to be incredibly strong but also slightly flexible to avoid breakages. Bone broth is a rich source of collagen, the most abundant protein in the body, which is prominent in bones and connective tissue. Its crisscross formation makes it the perfect ingredient for maintaining strong and sturdy bones.

 ·      Durable Joints

Joints are the connective tissue between bones, think of them as the glue that holds your skeleton together. Over time, joints can get worn down and become inflamed - which is not only painful but degenerative to bone health. Bone broth simmers down the connective tissue of the animal, making the joint-healthy nutrients it contains more digestible. It also provides a good dose of collagen, elastin and proteoglycans - which can be used by our own bodies to repair and maintain joints.

·      Healthy Hair, Skin and Nails

Our skin, hair and nails are all made up of a matrix of proteins including collagen, keratin and elastin, which helps to keep them strong and healthy. Some beautiful benefits of eating bone broth include shinier hair, stronger nails and plumper skin. As we age, our body's natural production of collagen drops. This contributes to the visible signs of ageing including sagging skin, wrinkles and furrowed brows. Boosting collagen in the diet helps to minimise these effects by giving your skin the tools it needs to stay youthful for longer.

·      Gut Health

Proteins found in the connective tissue of animals are broken down into amino acids when consumed and can then be reused to make our own proteins. These are then used to structure and regulate all kinds of bodily tissues, including the gut.

The gut is an incredibly intelligent organ, capable of communicating with the brain via something called the gut-brain axis. This communication regulates mood, emotion, stress levels and sleep patterns. So, providing your gut with the nutrients it needs to stay healthy can promote mental as well as physical health.

Nutrients found in bone broth also help to maintain the gut lining, reducing inflammation and preventing digestive conditions like leaky gut syndrome - which causes toxins and waste products to leak into the bloodstream, as well as nutrients to be lost through the intestinal wall.

Bone Broth uses up Food that would Otherwise go to Waste

When animals are slaughtered for meat only half the animal ends up on supermarket shelves, with the rest separated out into animal by-products. These aren't commonly eaten but are packed with health-boosting nutrients.

Bone broth turns the connective tissue, bones and marrow often wasted in the meat industry into a nutritious meal. What's more, because of low demand for such products these are incredibly cheap to buy. As if this wasn't good enough, you can also reduce your own food waste by keeping off-cuts of meat and bones that you'd usually discard and freezing them until you've got enough for a fresh batch of broth! 

 

Relishing the Recipe 

Bone broth is an up and coming concept, so there's heaps of products out there presenting you with a readymade or concentrated broth. But making it yourself is a doddle, not to mention cheaper and more sustainable – so why not give it a go?

There are many variations of bone broth and there's no right or wrong way to make it. You can add meaty off-cuts, the bones from any animals and a variety of vegetables to your broth - just experiment until you find the right mix for you – you can also buy our bone broth in the shop ;).

Whatever you choose to use, roast everything first and then simmer in a large pan with some good old water for up to 3 days to let the ingredients break down and the flavour develop. Many recipes recommend adding some vinegar, such as apple cider vinegar, to help release the nutrients and make them easier to absorb. You should only need a couple of tablespoons to help this along.

 

Embrace your Inner Chef

Bone broth can also be enjoyed as a base for soups, sauces, stocks and gravies. If you're cooking up a pan's worth you can freeze in batches for handy little stock pots that can be added to any meal. And f you're feeling brave you can even add a dose of bone broth to shakes and smoothies for a potent protein boost!

Here are just four reasons why you should give the broth a go :)

·      Reduce Food Waste

·      Support your Local Butcher

·      Boost your Physical and Mental Health

·      Get Creative in the Kitchen

So what are you waiting for?! - get simmering, sipping and savouring to enjoy the many benefits of a hearty bone broth!

In the shop you can find our pure beef bone broth made from grass fed bones. We roast our bone broth for an hour and a half then simmer for 72 hours to really pull all of the goodness out. We refrain from sending it out via courier as we have had some issues, needless to say we are working on a resolve, watch this space!

Team CGF x