Why you should be excited about bone broth!

Bone broth is a staple in our house.  We use it in everything and it's one of the most healing foods you can eat, especially if you have an autoimmune disease, other chronic illness, IBS and so on.

I am always being asking for my recipe so I thought I would share it with you here.  It's featured in my upcoming book due out very soon:

Nutrition, New Story, New You Cookbook: delicious recipes and your guide to avoiding the common pitfalls of the AIP diet.

Here is a sneak peak for you - an excerpt from the book, let me know what you think. Scroll to the bottom for the recipe.

"In terms of your health, eating every part of an animal ensures you are eating the most nutrient dense diet. It will provide all the key amino acids that may be lacking if you eat either, predominantly muscle-meat or vegetarian sources of protein.

Organ meat is somewhat out of fashion and yet it’s some of the most nutrient-dense (and most inexpensive) parts of the animal.

The word “offal” may not exactly whet your appetite and set your mouth watering, but it simply refers to edible parts of an animal that are not muscles: liver, kidney, skin, tongue, fat trimmings, blood and some bones for example.

Organ meats are nutritional power-houses with concentrated amounts of many of the vitamins and minerals which are frequently lacking in people with autoimmune and other chronic disease, such as Vitamins A, all the Bs, but particularly B12, D and E and the minerals copper, iron, magnesium, selenium and zinc to name just a few.

As a minimum, aim to eat 4 meals per week containing offal to have a rapid, positive impact on the nutrient deficiencies common in autoimmune disease.  As always with good nutrition, aim for variety - liver, kidney, heart, bone broth from different animals is ideal.  Sourcing your nutrients directly from your food will always be a better option than taking supplements.  Supplements should be exactly that - supplemental - additional nutrition on top of an already nutrient-dense diet as needed for healing.  You can never supplement your way out of a nutrient-poor diet.

As well as all the vitamins and minerals, offal tends to be higher in collagen than regular muscle meat and offal which contains a lot of connective tissue, such as skin and bones, are excellent sources of collagen.  Collagen is quite the fashionable supplement these days, but it is possible to obtain it from your diet and reap the numerous additional nutritional benefits at the same time.

So, why is it so important to eat more collagen?

Glycine is the key amino acid found in collagen which makes up your connective tissue - literally the structure that holds you together - everything from your skin, joint cartilage, tendons, the casing of your organs, muscles and blood vessels.  Many autoimmune diseases feature degeneration in these very structures and a diet lacking in glycine means it's very difficult for the body to repair the damage. Eating these structures from other animals enhances your ability to build these structures in yourself.

If the roof on your home has a major leak but you don't have any roof tiles, you can of course patch the hole with some other bits and bobs you have lying around but it won’t be as effective or as long-lasting as new roof tiles would be.

The same goes for physical damage in the body - your body will make glycine when your diet does not provide it in sufficient amounts, however it is not very efficient.  Research seems to suggest the body cannot produce enough to keep up with the demands of a chronically ill body when dietary sources are low.

Eating glycine-rich foods will make a huge impact on healing the tissue damage caused by your autoimmune disease, including damage to the gut lining, blood vessels, skin and joints.

If the idea of bringing more offal into your diet doesn’t thrill you I recommend you begin with bone broth and work up to liver and other organs from there.

Bone broth is made from boiling the bones, joints and skin of any animal, in water for 24-48 hours. I add vegetables and herbs for flavour and the resulting liquid is rich in vitamins, minerals, calcium, magnesium, phosphorus and of course - glycine!  It is the easiest way to increase your glycine intake and provide your body with the raw materials it needs to repair damage.

The additional benefit of healing the gut and reducing intestinal permeability is that you will also reduce many of your gut symptoms and give your immune system a rest from being constantly triggered by food and pathogens passing across the vital gut barrier.

You can consume your bone broth in many ways:

• As a warm drink
• As a breakfast broth with added chicken, fresh herbs, ginger, spring onion and sauerkraut
• As “stock” in soups, stews and casseroles
• In gravy
• To poach meats and vegetables, Korean-style

Get creative and use bone broth wherever you would normally use water and you can easily consume it for the minimum 4 meals per week and beyond."

Enjoy!