Bone Broth Does a Body Good...and Keeps you Healthy During Cold & Flu Season

One of my most recent obsessions is bone broth. Bone broth has been around for centuries, and the health and healing properties of bone broth is nothing new, but there does seem to be a resurgence of interest in this age old health food powerhouse.  ​

We've had a rough cold & flu season this year, and while researching good ways to boost the immune system I was reminded of the benefits of bone broth.  The health benefits are vast. 

Interestingly enough, 80% of our immune system resides in our digestive system,
particularly the small intestine, so right here the benefits of bone broth are two-fold.  

Bone broth supports gut health and is known to help alleviate digestive issues such as diarrhea, constipation or gas, and can even help improve more serious digestion issues like leaky gut syndrome, irritable bowel syndrome, Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis.​​

When our digestive system is healthy our immune system is more robust.  Poor gut health can lead to small perforations in the intestines, which allows bacteria and viruses to move from our digestive system into the blood stream, and this is one path towards getting sick.

The undenatured collagen that comes from the bones that are used in your recipe help to heal these perforations in your intestines and help in improving gut health & increasing immune health overall.  In addition to that, the collagen also helps to improve joint, tendon and ligament health, and help our skin be healthier and looking younger by increasing elasticity.  You might use collagen products to help keep your skin looking and feeling healthy, such as facial creams, but you should be interested to know that when we provide  our

bodies with collagen through our diet is even more effective at reducing wrinkles and cellulite from the inside out!

Bone broth can also help improve sleep, memory and learning, and even reduce symptoms of anxiety through an amino acid call glycine.

And, if that's not enough, bone broth also contains potassium and magnesium, which are electrolytes, often found in sugary sports drinks, and help with recovery after exercise.  Even major league sports teams are moving to the natural benefits of bone broth over sugary recovery drinks to support their overall health and recovery after practice and games!  ​

So of course my next natural question was how to make bone broth without it being a huge chore.  I was pretty excited to find a very simple slow cooker recipe that is not only super fast (well, at least prep is fast) and easy, but also a great way to use food scraps that have previously gone into my compost pile or trashcan.

It's as simple as this:

Get a 1 gallon ziplock bag and begin collecting veggie scraps from other meal preps.  This could include carrot peelings, the ends of celery stalks, pieces of broccoli that you don't use, herbs that aren't used before starting to get soft and slimy in your fridge, potato peelings, ends of onions, etc.

​​You can also rinse egg shells and include those in your bag.  There's all kinds of nutritious stuff in egg shells that are extracted during the boiling process.

​And of course, collect any chicken bones (you can also collect pork or beef bones) and carcasses from your chicken dinners.

Collect all of these scraps until your zip lock bag is full.  Then, when you're ready to make bone broth dump it all into your slow cooker, fill with water, a few cloves of garlic - you don't even have to peel it, and add 1/4c of apple cider vinegar.  This helps to extract all of the goodness out of the bones.  Season with salt and pepper and any other seasoning that you like.  You can consider adding turmeric or ginger among many other seasonings.

Turn your slow cooker to LOW and simmer for 24-72 hours.  Once finished strain out all of the solids and then do a 2nd straining through cheese cloth to remove all of the debris.  Allow the broth to cool and skim off the fat from the top.

Consider freezing your bone broth in large silicone ice cube trays.  This makes it easy to heat up your bone broth one mug at a time.  I defrost 3-4 large cubes at a time.

I have made two batches so far.  It's incredibly easy, and since you can simmer it for as little as 18 hours and as long as 72 hours it's easy to find a good time to strain it without worrying too much about timing.  

I have been enjoying a warm mug of bone broth at the end of the day when I get home from work and before dinner.  It helps to wind me down for a chill evening with my husband, and serves as a good addition to my afternoon snack so that I'm not likely to snack while cooking dinner.

​Give it a try and let me know what you think!

Here's to your health!

Allison

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