You Are What You Eat 

Acknowledgement: This section of "You Are What You Eat", is provided by Lord's Glory Ministry for educational purposes only.  For those who want to go on diets and or improve your health, we advise to first see your doctor or a professional nutritionist.   Our information on "Food" and "Health" is based on a variety of health information from clients, diet specialist, and others who have tried a specific diet and it has worked for them.   

Bone Broth Benefits 

  

Quick Read: What is Bone Broth? 

Bone broth has gained the reputation as a nutritional powerhouse with claims that it relieves joint pain, enhances gut health, slows aging, and improves skin health.

​While broth has a long tradition of healing properties, there are few studies on bone broth (or broth or stews) itself. Even though it lacks evidence, it has been used traditionally and provides nutrients that are backed by science, such as collagen, gelatin, essential and conditionally essential amino acids, and minerals. Buy bone broth tested for heavy metal content.

The video below is a great help in explaining what is Bone Broth and how to make it

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The Deeper Dive: In the past few years, bone broth has become one of those nutritional powerhouses that many experts promote as an essential component of a healthy diet. However, does bone broth live up to this reputation? Let’s take a look at the proposed benefits and what the science has to say about it.

Purported Claims If you read blogs and books promoting bone broth, you will see that it has the potential to help with many health concerns. The most commonly listed include: Arthritis Joint pain relief Gut health due to: Gelatin content Ability to restore gut lining Digestibility Detox support due to: Digestive support Potassium Glycine Sulfur Glutathione Anti-aging Skin health However, the literature is light on studies looking at bone broth or even broth and soups in general.

One study compared enriched chicken bone broth and homemade bone broth to see if it had anti-inflammatory properties on an animal model of temporomandibular disorder (TMD). They found the enriched chicken bone broth significantly reduced the expression of PKA, a pro-inflammatory protein, as well as attenuated nociception (the response to harmful stimulus). However, the homemade bone broth did not have the same effect.

In 2000, a study found that chicken soup significantly inhibited the migration of neutrophils in a concentration-dependent manner, demonstrating that chicken soup may have a mild anti-inflammatory effect supporting its long use as the go-to meal when you are ill.  However, a lot of the reputation for chicken soup, comes from looking at the different components of bone broth, which have been shown to have some beneficial properties.

​Breaking It Down The major health-promoting properties include: Collagen Gelatin Essential and conditionally essential amino acids Minerals Bone is made up of collagen, which can be broken down into specific amino acids and minerals such as calcium and magnesium. When you make a broth from the soup, at least some of those components remain. How much depends on the recipe, length of time you cook it, and other factors. 

​Collagen One of the main reasons for bone broth, is that it is a good dietary source of collagen.  Collagen contains 19 amino acids, although the composition and percentage of certain amino acids, especially hydroxyproline, may differ based on the source of the collagen. Collagen wins the prize for the protein that is most abundant in the body, and you can find it in the skin, bones, muscles, and tendons. There are sixteen types of collagen, although the most common are type I, II, III, and IV, and each has a different function. The body can synthesize collagen, but there is a need for a lot of it, so it is important to have the right components to synthesize sufficient quantities. Lack of collagen, including low serum levels of collagen, has been linked to Inflammatory bowel diseases, including ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease.  Collagen supplementation, including the use of collagen peptides, has been found to: Reduce joint pain in athletes and improve joint health in those with knee osteoarthritis. 

Collagen also can "Postpone and Reduce" the progress of sarcopenia (the loss of muscle with age) in older men in tandem with resistance training Improve skin health, especially in relation to aging (increase hydration and collagen density in the dermis, increase skin firmness, induce production of both collagen and hyaluronic acid, increase skin elasticity, and reduce wrinkles and other effects of photoaging).   Improve the appearance of cellulite, including reducing the cellulite degree and waviness on the skin and improving dermal density Improved markers for type-2 diabetes, including reduced HbA1c, triglycerides, total cholesterol, LDL, and diastolic blood pressure Prevention of atherosclerosis.

Gelatin Gelatin is a natural protein that contains between 84 and 90% collagen as well as some mineral salts and water. There are 18 amino acids in gelatin, including glycine, alanine, valine, leucine, proline, hydroxyproline, and glutamic acid.  You make gelatin through boiling animal bones and cartilage to extract collagen and then process it.   

Gelatin specifically has been shown to: Reduce inflammation in intestinal cells, including that caused by LPS Increased collagen synthesis, especially when combined with vitamin C and an exercise program Decreased severity of colitis, including re-establishing the gut barrier function and modulating the microbiota Manage chronic diarrhea, including protecting against coli-induced membrane integrity reduction when combined with probiotics Enhance wound healing, including in diabetics Several of the above studies on gelatin are animal models and cell studies, so some of the efficacy may not apply in real-world scenarios with humans.

Amino Acids  As discussed, collagen and gelatin, and thus bone broth, contain a significant number of essential, nonessential, and conditional amino acids. Conditional amino acids are those the body can synthesize, but in times of stress and illness, the body may not be able to synthesize them. They include proline, glutamine, cysteine, arginine, serine, and others, many of which are in collagen. Some of the 18 amino acids found in collagen that have helped it earn its reputation include: Proline—an important but not essential amino acid (our bodies can synthesize it using arginine and glutamine) that makes up a third of the collagen amino acids. The requirement for this amino acid is higher than many of the others. Hydroxyproline—once considered not significant, we now know it plays a role as a substrate to synthesize glycine, pyruvate, and glucose.  

Hydroxyproline exists only in collagen, making sources of collagen such as bone broth a unique dietary resource for this protein. Glycine—protects against oxidative stress and is an important precursor (along with cysteine and glutamate) of glutathione, one of the major antioxidants in the body. Studies have found that supplementing with glycine and cysteine can restore glutathione synthesis and reduce oxidative stress. Glutamic acid—the amino acid that is an important building block of glutamine, another one of the major proteins in the body (including acting as fuel for enterocytes, maintaining the integrity of the intestinal mucosa, and working as a precursor for glutathione) and glutamate, which is the main excitatory neurotransmitter. Bone broth can be a source of these important amino acids, some of which can be hard to find in other food sources.

Essential and Nonessential Minerals  Bone Broth comes from the essential minerals and other nutrients found in the bone, including the following: Calcium Phosphorus Magnesium Potassium.   As the name suggests, essential minerals are essential to health. Deficiency and insufficiency are linked to many diseases.

In addition to these minerals, bone broth also contains glucosamine and chondroitin.  Glucosamine and chondroitin, especially when taken in combination, have been linked to: Joint health, including in appeasing symptoms of osteoarthritis, such as reducing pain, stiffness, and joint swelling Improvement in mobility and walking speed in those with osteoarthritis Reduced systemic inflammation (using hsCRP as a marker) and oxidative stress A reduction in colorectal cancer risk Reduced total mortality and a reduction of risk of death from cancer and respiratory diseases.