by Sean Croxton
www.undergroundwellness.com

This stuff is awesome.

Never in my life did I imagine I’d be so head over heels about a soup made from bones.

I guess you can say I have quite the man crush on the rich, brown liquid that fills my coffee cup each morning.

It makes me feel warm inside, and puts a little pep in my step.

And oh my, is it tasty!

But my fondness for bone broth goes well beyond its taste and warmth. There’s a reason why it’s called the magic elixir — and it’s a darn shame that more people aren’t drinking it.

There was a time, not long ago, when bone broth was a part of just about every meal we consumed in this country, as it provided the base for soups, gravies, and stews. Unfortunately, with the disappearance of the local butcher as well as the invention of brain-cell-killing MSG — which gave processed foods an artificial meaty flavor — preparing broth became a lost art.

These days, very few of us even know what it is, or why we should be consuming it.

So today I thought I’d share with you my own personal Top 5 Reasons Why Bone Broth is The Bomb. Here we go!

Reason #1: Bone Broth Makes Your Joints Feel as Smooth as Eggs.

Yes, that was a Dave Chappelle reference. If you don’t get it, don’t worry about it.

Anyway…

In her ridiculously awesome book Deep Nutrition, Dr. Cate Shanahan writes…

“The health of your joints depends upon the health of the collagen in your ligaments, tendons, and on the ends of your bones. Collagens are a large family of biomolecules, which include the glycosaminoglycans, very special molecules that help keep our joints healthy.”

Bone broth is loaded with glycosaminoglycans (GAGs). In fact, I’m absolutely certain that you’ve heard of one of them — glucosamine. Yep, those supplements that seemingly everyone is taking for joint health contain one of the GAGs we get from consuming bone broth.

You know me, I’m a food-first kind of guy. Here’s just one of the reasons why I prefer Real Food over supplementation…

Notice I said that glucosamine is just one of the GAGs contained in bone broth. When you consume broth you also get chondroitin, hyaluronic acid, and likely a bunch of other equally important GAGs that have yet to be discovered.

What’s more, the GAGs we get from bone broth are resistant to digestion and are absorbed in their intact form. According to Dr. Cate, these intact GAGs like hormones, stimulating cells called fibroblasts which lay down collagen in the joints, tendons, ligaments, and even the arteries.

I can personally attest to the joint-healing benefits of bone broth. Before I began drinking it regularly, I had been dealing with a lingering dull pain in my left shoulder. After about a week and a half of daily consumption, the pain completely vanished. My knees feel much better when running stairs as well.

It’s truly powerful stuff!

Reason #2: Bone Broth Makes Your Hair, Skin, and Nails Look Dead Sexy.

I know people who, in a quest to recapture a youthful appearance, will pay top dollar for products that boost collagen — also the main constituent of hair, skin, and nails.

As we age, production of collagen declines and we start to see the outward signs of aging.

Out here in San Diego (Land of The Beautiful), botox — a drug made from a toxin produced by the bacterium clostridium botulinum — is all the craze for the reduction of lines and wrinkles.

That’s kinda weird, in my opinion. And expensive.

Personally, I’d much rather prepare and consume bone broth to keep my skin, hair (if I had any), and nails looking fabulous than have a toxin injected into my face.

But that’s just me.

(By the way, broth is super cheap to make on your own.)

Reason #3: Bone Broth Heals Your Gut!

Let’s keep it real. Most people reading this blog right now are experiencing some kind of gastrointestinal challenge — constipation, diarrhea, food sensitivities, leaky gut, or even autoimmune disease.

One of the most vital nutrients for healing the gut is gelatin. Yep, the stuff that makes the Jell-O jiggle.

There was a time when gelatin was the most studied nutrient under the sun for all of its healing virtues. Times have certainly changed.

To make a long story short, the intestinal lining is supposed to be permeable in order for nutrients to pass through. However, this lining can become too permeable due to lifestyle factors such as poor diet, stress, long-term contraceptive use, as well as bacterial and fungal overgrowths. Just think of poking huge holes in your window screens at home. Yes, the good air will pass through, but the flies, gnats, and mosquitoes will too.

This is how leaky gut — or gut hyperpermeability — works. Undigested food particles can slip through the gut lining and pass directly into the bloodstream. No bueno! When this happens, the immune system freaks out and starts attacking the very foods you eat — we call these food sensitivities.

Over time, this can turn into an autoimmune issue by which your immune system thinks your thyroid — or any other tissue, for that matter — looks like the piece of steak molecule it’s been fighting off for the past few years. In other words, your body starts to attack itself.

According to our good friend Dr. Thomas O’Bryan, autoimmunity will soon be the number one cause of death in this country. Gut hyperpermeability is a big reason why.

What does bone broth have to do with any of this? Well, the gelatin in bone broth spackles the excess holes in the gut lining, so to speak. It’s quite the handyman, and should be part of any gut-healing protocol.

Reason #4: Bone Broth Reduces Your Need for Meat and Protein.

This is pretty darn interesting. In her fantastic Real Food Summit (RFS) presentation, Sarah Pope revealed that studies conducted in the 1800s demonstrated that when there is plenty of gelatin in the diet, the body’s need for protein from meat sources can be reduced by as much as fifty-percent!

We all know that purchasing quality meats can be hard on the wallet. The good news is that you can make bone broth for dirt cheap and thus save money on meat.

Not a bad deal.

Reason #5: Bone Broth Helps Get the Toxins Out.

Here’s another golden nugget from Mrs. Pope. The liver is the master organ of detoxification. Unfortunately, it was never intended to withstand the very toxic, chemical nature of today’s world.

The liver is certainly under assault on a daily basis, and its capacity to detoxify is limited by the availability of the amino acid glycine.

Guess where you can get tons of glycine from? Bone broth, baby!

For now, forget about all the fancy detox programs you’ve heard about. Do your liver a favor by giving it what it needs to do its job most effectively.

Gosh, I can go on and on with this blog. The benefits of consuming bone broth are endless. That’s why it’s the bomb.