You’ve heard it all: Eat fewer calories. Watch your portion sizes. Count your macros. While these diet plans have your health at heart, sometimes making one giant leap toward changing your diet can make you feel overwhelmed—and thus, do more harm than help. You’re changing more than what you eat; you’re changing your lifestyle. If you’re used to satisfying your hunger with deep fried foods, it will take you time to getting used to feeling satisfied after eating healthier foods—however, there’s a way to speed up the process.
Bone broth—once thought of as a meal for only when there’s cold weather or you’re sick, bone broth is an up-and-coming superfood, a term that describes foods rich in nutrients. The broth is a base ingredient for many other kinds of soup and meals, and it can be a base in your health and weight loss goals. Wait—how can something so simple as broth can help you improve your health? Well, the source of bone broth is, well, from boiling animal bones, typically chicken, beef, turkey, or duck. The boiling process draws out the nutrients, vitamins, keratin and collagen (gelatin) from the bones, transforming the boiling water into a broth.
Stock Versus Broth—What’s the Difference?
You’ve probably heard the words stock and broth used interchangeably. For the most part, the terms are referring to the same thing—boiling animal bones to make a liquid base. However, the difference is in the cooking time: boiling animal bones for three to four hours is considered stock; boiling animal bones between 12 and 24 hours is considered broth. The longer boiling time allows for the bones to break down further, thus extracting more nutrients, vitamins, etc.
Don’t Want to Make it Yourself? Try This
There’s an easier way to get the benefits of broth without boiling animal bones yourself and staying in the kitchen all day—Au Bon Broth, a San Diego-based company, sells cans of organic bone broth. Au Bon Broth says its broth is “made with a combination of pasture raised, free-range chicken and turkey bones, and grass-fed organic beef bones.” Can’t make it to San Diego to buy a can of broth? Home delivery is available, according to the company website.
If you’re looking to make baby steps in your diet or improve your health, bone broth can be a good place to start. Here are some benefits of bone broth:
Bone Broth Can Help You Feel Fuller, Lead to Weight Loss
When it comes to curbing your appetite, do you feel that your eyes are bigger than your stomach? Drinking bone broth before you eat your meal can help you feel that you’re hunger is satisfied sooner rather than later. Bone broth is low in calories and low in energy density, both factors that make it a good food for weight loss. It’s that simple: when you don’t feel as hungry, you’re less likely to overeat.
Bone Broth Can Help Improve the Health of Your Gut
The status of your health can be traced to your stomach. A healthy gut keeps your health in balance. A “leaky gut” is a term to describe when toxins, bacteria, and other waste escape into the blood stream, affecting your immune system and causing other issues in your body like bloating, inflammation, cramping, or aching. The gelatin in the bone broth can help relieve leaky gut syndrome by creating a barrier to the toxins.
Bone Broth Can Protect Your Bones and Joints
Arthritis, inflammation of joints, is a common condition that affects people as they age. Glucosamine supplements are often used to alleviate joint pain, but this nutrient also derives from bone broth. Osteoporosis is another condition that affects the bones: the lack of calcium in the body can lead to a brittle skeletal structure. Because it contains nutrients like phosphorus, calcium, and magnesium, bone broth can counteract or alleviate the symptoms of joint pain and brittle bones.
A meal that has long been associated with the cold-weather season now has a place in your everyday life. Bone broth is known to help improve your health, specifically aiding in weight loss, the health of your gut, and the strength of your bones. You can make bone broth at home by boiling animal bones at home, or instead, you can order cans of organic broth online and get it delivered to your home. Either way, you get your health on the right track as well as enjoy a tasty meal.