Chicken Bone Broth
Bone broth is an ancient food that was originally made by our ancestors to use up every part of the animal–now we use it to enjoy nutritional benefits too.
How does bone broth both improve immunity AND reduce anxiety??
Isn’t it wild when you realise your brain and body are connected? For some, this realisation unfortunately comes early on in life due to both physical and mental health issues as a child. For others it doesn’t come until retirement age when that diabetes all of a sudden manifests in cognitive decline. Given how closely the gut and brain interact, it becomes easy to then understand how the thought of a presentation can make you feel sick in your stomach, and vice versa, an inflamed leaky gut can cause anxiety or depression.
Whenever that ‘aha’ moment occurs see it as a blessing and a moment to embrace the healing power of broth. My favourite broth is chicken, but this can also be made with other animal bones.
High-quality, long-simmered chicken broth boasts an impressive laundry list of nutrients that are hard to find in many other foods. There’s a reason this has been used to heal and boost immune systems since the beginning of time.
What Is Bone Broth?
For starters, bone broth is an ancient food that was originally made by our ancestors to use up every part of the animal — including bones, marrow, skin, feet, tendons and ligaments — that were otherwise hard to digest. These animal parts are simmered along with other vegetables and herbs for several hours, even days, to extract a number of beneficial compounds, vitamins and minerals that your body can easily absorb.
I use chicken broth as the base of most of my gut healing protocol recipes as it’s the quickest way to heal and seal the gut lining — reversing auto-immune diseases and calming the nervous system.
Chicken broth has more than 19 easy-to-absorb, essential and nonessential amino acids like arginine, glycine and proline, which are the building blocks of proteins and essential for digestive health and immune system support. It’s also one of the only natural food sources for collagen and gelatin, which help form connective tissue in the body. Lastly, it has nutrients that support digestive functions, immunity and brain health.
5 Benefits of Chicken Broth Nutrition
Improve Digestion — Chicken broth supports gut health because it contains glutamine. Glutamine helps repair holes in the gut lining so that it can once again become impermeable. This not only enhances digestion, but supports your immune system. If you don’t like the taste of broth I sometimes supplement with L-Glutamine but wherever possible I like to use food as the first part of healing.
Protect Your Joints — Because of the naturally-occurring collagen and gelatin in chicken broth, eating or drinking it regularly can support joint pain that comes from getting older. Gelatin can take pressure off the joints. It’s also what acts as the cushion between bones, making it a great addition to your diet. Combine this with some activity that jars your bones and joints like walking downhill or star jumps and you will have healthy joints into your old age.
Clear Skin — Chicken broth contains collagen and collagen is one of the most important nutrient for skin elasticity. It’s is the primary structural protein of your skin, and is responsible for its plump, firm, youthful appearance. When collagen begins to break down because of aging or environmental toxin exposure, signs of premature aging like fine lines and wrinkles begin to appear. Zinc is a mineral found concentrated in bones. It’s an important component for fighting acne and supporting healthy skin. One study showed that zinc has the ability to reduce the activity of P. acnes, which is the bacteria on the skin that can cause breakouts. In addition to collagen and zinc, chicken broth contains glycosaminoglycans, which are molecules found in the skin’s dermis along with elastin. Their role is to fill the space between collagen and elastin to keep skin plump and supple.
Improved Sleep — Chicken broth contains Magnesium, which is known as the relaxation mineral. It’s required for over 300 enzymatic processes in the body, including synthesizing proteins, transmitting nerve signals and relaxing the muscles. All of these functions may promote better sleep. Getting magnesium through food as opposed to a supplement helps your body absorb more of it.
Healthy Immune System — Research has found that the amino acids released when making chicken broth reduced inflammation in the respiratory system and improved digestion. These compounds may positively affect disorders like allergies and asthma.
A Calm Nervous System — A troubled intestine can send signals to the brain, which is why so many of my clients have anxiety as a ‘sub-set’ symptom of the main complaint. This also works in the reverse where a troubled brain can send signals to the gut. Think of chicken broth like a balm, calming the lining of the gut, reducing inflammation in the ‘second brain’.
How to make bone broth
This is SO easy, my party trick is to make it in under 1 minute (well get it all into the pot in under 1 minute, and then leave to simmer for 2-3 hours).
Ingredients
Whole organic pastured chicken
2-3 Celery stalks–snapped in half
2 Onion (I throw in to the mix without peeling or washing or chopping if organic!)
2 carrots (I just break in half, again when organic no need to peel or wash) cover the chicken with filtered water
1 tablespoon peppercorns
2 bay leaves (not 100% necessary)
Sprigs of fresh herbs (not 100% necessary)
Juice of one lemon (not 100% necessary)
1 tablespoon unrefined sea salt
Method
Place chicken in a large stockpot, add the celery, onion and carrots to the pot.
Cover with filtered water, add the peppercorns, bay leaves, fresh herbs (optional), lemon juice and a good pinch of salt. (THE ONLY ONE OF THESE THAT IS COMPULSORY IS PEPPER CORNS)
Bring the water to a boil, reduce heat to a simmer for about 2 hours, whenever you can see it’s cooked. The shorter the length of time you cook it for the more tender the chicken is, but the less tasty the stock is.....
Remove the chicken and place it on a platter, pull the chicken off the bones and voila this is your Dinner 1 with huge bowl of leafy greens and sweet potato chips.
Store the bones in the freezer until the next time you do this recipe and then add these to the other carcass to make a stronger broth.
Lastly, if you needed any more convincing, have a quick glance at the top nutrients found in chicken bone broth - yes you can throw away that multi-vitamin and have broth daily instead!
Magnesium
Phosphorus
Gelatin
Collagen
Glycine
Glutamine
Protein
Iron
Potassium
Calcium
Glucosamine
Chondroitin sulfate
Calcium