Bone broth, commonly known as beef or chicken broth, is becoming a very popular beverage among health enthusiasts in the United States, largely owing to its health benefits.

It is basically a soup base that is made by slowly simmering the connective tissue and bones of animals (beef, turkey, duck, chicken, etc.) in water for up to 24 hours. This hearty beverage is touted for its variety of vital nutrients that may improve digestion, benefit your skin, improve joint health and boost your immune system.

What is Bone Broth Powder?

Bone broth powder is a nutritional supplement that purports to offer the benefits of consuming protein and bone broth, all in powder form. This protein powder can be taken by mixing it with the liquid of your choice, including soup and water.

Bone broth powder is made by boiling animal bones, tendons, ligaments, and water under sustained high heat and pressure. In addition to helping the broth retain its nutrients, this also allows it to be cooked for a considerably shorter time.

Reducing the cooking time is particularly important because nutrients such as hyaluronic acid chondroitin and glucosamine may be lost when cooked for a long period of time. The bone broth is then slowly dehydrated and concentrated into bone broth powder.

What are the Health Benefits of Consuming Bone Broth Powder?

It is important to keep in mind that there’s limited scientific research on the benefits of consuming bone broth powder. Instead, its health benefits are attributed to some of the benefits of its nutrients, including:

• Glycine
• Chondroitin
• Glucosamine
• Proline
• Hyaluronic acid
• Glutamine

Does Bone Broth Powder Help Improve Digestion?

Studies have shown that your general health depends greatly on your intestinal tract health. In addition to being easy to digest, bone broth may also help improve the digestion of a wide variety of other foods.

Bone broth protein is rich in gelatin with attracts and bonds with liquids, helping food move through the gut more easily. It has also been shown to heal and protect the mucosal lining of the human digestive tract.

Gelatin contains an amino acid known as glutamine which aids in maintaining the intestinal walls as well as healing and preventing leaky gut syndrome. Leaky gut is a condition caused by the impairment of the barrier between the bloodstream and your gut. This leads to inflammation as well as other potentially dangerous conditions.

So How does Collagen Help Digestion?

Bone broth is high in glycine which stimulates the body to produce stomach acids which are essential for the digestion of any food. Hypochlorhydria (low stomach acid) is very common in many developed countries and can easily cause serious health complications, including GERD and heartburn. Glycine is an essential element of bile acid, which aids in the digestion of all fats. Therefore, bile acid helps maintain healthy blood cholesterol levels.

Studies have shown that gelatin helps draw fluids into the intestine, hence improving gut motility as well as healthy bowel movements. In fact, collagen deficiency is closely linked with conditions such as inflammatory bowel disease. Consuming bone broth regularly helps with leaky gut syndrome and it can also help protect non-leaky guts.

The gelatin in the ligaments and bones used for making bone broth helps repair damaged intestines by “patching up” holes. Repairing the porous intestinal lining helps ease constipation, chronic diarrhea, as well as some food intolerances.

According to research, people who suffer from inflammatory bowel disease typically have significantly lower levels of various amino acids. Therefore, such people may live more comfortable lives and relieve some symptoms of the disease by simply consuming more amino acids. Drinking bone broth regularly is a simple way of getting amino acids in the body and reducing inflammation.

The bottom line

Since bone broth powder is essentially concentrated bone broth, the body can utilize all of its protein, unlike other protein sources like egg, soy, or whey. Although most bone broth powder supplements are made with chicken bones and ligaments, there are alternatives made with fish bones or grass-fed beef.

Therefore, consuming bone broth powder may be beneficial for people with IBS (irritable bowel syndrome), leaky gut, or IBD (inflammatory bowel disease), such as Crohn’s disease or ulcerative colitis.

Read about why you should include bone broth powder in your diet HERE!

Most of the chronic health conditions plaguing many people today can be attributed to their gut health. When the gut is not functioning optimally, the rest of the body follows leading to autoimmune disease, acid reflux, leaky gut, and many more.

Bone broth is great for healing gut permeability. It is rich in collagen which reduces inflammation by nourishing the intestinal lining. Moreover, it is easy for the gut, whether damaged or not, to digest bone broth and reap the numerous benefits of its mineral and protein.

Therefore, bone broth is a must-have for anyone suffering from conditions associated with increased gut permeability.

Conditions that can be traced down to leaky gut include:

• Allergies,
• acne,
• constipation,
• celiac disease,
• brain god,
• Chrone’s disease,
• diarrhea,
• fatigue,
• eczema,
• food intolerance,
• hives,
• migraines
• IBS,
• depression,
• hashimoto’s thyroiditis,
• obesity/overweight, rosacea, rheumatoid arthritis, ulcerative colitis, and many others. Moreover, bone broth has a calming, restorative, and consoling effect, which reduces your stress levels and also helps your gut

Heal the gut to improve your overall health.

Bone broth is a nutrient-dense, gut-healing food and therefore an excellent way to adopt healthier healing habits and help alleviate symptoms related to a multitude of health concerns, including poor digestion.

Bone broth is usually made from animal parts such as bones and marrow, tendons and ligaments, and skin and feet. Although these animal parts are not edible on their own, they make nutrient-dense additions to the slow-simmering broth. The broth is boiled slowly over 12 to 72 hours – normally with fresh herbs, veggies and an acid which allows the ingredients to release stored nutrients.

Why should you include bone broth in your diet?

• Stronger immunity against allergies and common illnesses
• Reduced symptoms associated with digestive disorders like IBD, IBS, or leaky gut syndrome
• Enhanced digestion with significantly fewer cases pf constipation, acid reflux, gas diarrhea, and bloating.
• Rich in collagen which makes the skin appear more youthful and healthier.
• Healthier tendons, ligaments, and joints
• Stronger bones
• Higher intake of essential minerals such as potassium, magnesium, calcium, and phosphorus.

How does bone broth work to heal leaky gut?

1. Amino acids

Bone broth is rich in proteins that contain amino acids that are slowly released during cooling. Stress depletes glutamine in the body and as a result, the intestinal cells suffer, leading to various health conditions, including leaky gut.

Bone broth contains glutamine, which supplies the small intestinal cells with the nutrients they need to block pathogens, absorb nutrients from food, and stay healthy.

Glycine helps calm the nervous system and maintains healthy bile and stomach acid production to aid in digestion. Glycine is anti-inflammatory and it is also needed for the body to make glutathione, which is a strong anti-oxidant. All of these actions help to decrease oxidative stress and autoimmunity as well as to heal leaky gut.

Arginine and proline are also anti-inflammatory, which aid in healing the gut as well as decreasing inflammation all over the body. On the other hand, cysteine also helps to reduce oxidative stress and thin out mucus especially during a cold.

2. Gelatin and collagen

The cooking process breaks down collagen into gelatin, which speeds up the healing of the intestinal lining by supporting the mucus that protects the intestinal cells. This mucus protects the intestinal lining against unhealthy bacteria, which cause leaky gut. Moreover, gelatin reduces inflammation, allowing cells of the small intestines to heal.

3. Glycosaminoglycans

These are hyaluronic acid, chondroitin, and glucosamine that are commonly used to address leaky gut, arthritis, and joint pain. During cooking, the cartilage in the joints and bones breaks down and glucosaminoglycans are released into the broth. Therefore, when you consume bone broth, you get the same nutrients and benefits you’d get from taking supplements, but from a superfood rather than from tablets.

4. Minerals

Joints and bones contain several minerals including phosphorus, calcium, magnesium, silica, potassium, as well as other trace minerals, all of which have been proven to be very helpful for bone health and as electrolytes to keep the body hydrated. Electrolytes are also important for intestinal cell function.

You can make bone broth easily in the comfort of your home. However, there are several things you should keep in mind. For instance, you should make sure you’re using high-quality, organic ingredients (bones and vegetables).

The process of making bone broth leaches out all of the collagen, minerals, and vital nutrients inside of the ingredients.  Therefore, if the bones you’re using are full of chemicals, then you are leaching out the chemicals as well.

Moreover, why not let the professionals at Ancient Nutrition do all the work for you!

Ancient Nutrition’s Collagen Protein Powder is full of powerful nutrients your body needs to thrive, and key minerals that are often absent in the diet. These vital nutrients are essential for healthy aging, joint health, skin health, brain health, and gut health.

Read about other benefits of Bone Broth like fighting cancer, and boosting your immune system HERE!