We have heard a lot about bone broth. It is a big thing now, but do you know that drinking a bone broth can improve your hormonal health?

I’m a big fan of bone broth, and I have been making it since I was a child. I used to help my grandmother cook and make all kind of different concoctions. In the country I come from Poland we did not waste any part of the animal. We knew that animals bones are incredibly nutritious and help replenish minerals in our body.

Lucky for me, I live in Boulder right super to a Whole Foods, where you can get grass-fed bones, free-range and organic bones as well as and chicken feet (not to mention a great Farmers Market we have where we can get bones too!). I know this probably sounds gross to you, but chicken feet provide so much collagen, calcium, protein and trace minerals making the bone broth very thick. Goodness!

Bone broth has been used for centuries in many traditional cultures as a healing food. There’s a reason chicken soup is recommended in Poland when we’re sick with the flu (it is called Polish penicillin), and there is even evidence to support this theory.
The medicinal properties of bone broth for sure don’t stop at the flu – check it out…

Bone broth help heal for the gut and ultimately your hormones!

When hormones are working right, they do an excellent job. They regulate every aspect of your life—your appetite, your sleep, your weight, your sex drive, your energy, your sex drive, and even digestion. By eating the right foods, and cutting the wrong one, you can balance your hormones and heal the gut.

About 85% of women who come to my practice with hormonal imbalances have some kind of digestive issues such as candida, leaky gut, gas, bloating, food sensitivities and allergies, leaky gut, IBS, chronic constipation and more. I suffered for years with digestion (candida, gas, bloating, food sensitivities, constipation) and had no idea it was linked to all my hormones!

They are closely linked together because if your gut is not functioning optimally, you are not digesting and absorbing enough nutrients. Nutrients are needed to make to make hormones! Plus allergies and food sensitivities can create an inflammatory response in your body. This makes cortisols spikes and promotes cortisol production throwing our hormones out of balance.

Bone broth soothes and heals your gut, creating an optimal environment for these beneficial bugs.

Bone broth is full of the amino acids glycine, proline, glutamine and arginine. Amino acids are very important for hormone production and for the hormone detoxification process (super essential to a woman’s hormonal health) that helps your body to get rid of the excess metabolized hormones, rather recirculating in the body and cause imbalance issues like estrogen dominance. Estrogen dominance leads to many other hormonal imbalances like PCOS, endometriosis, fertility blocking problems, and even breast cancer. Glutamine is great for soothing the gut and can heal leaky gut.

Bone broth contains calcium, magnesium, and collagen. Calcium is necessary for liver detoxification and hormone balance. Bone broth also great for our skin! The high collagen in bone broth repairs our cells and tissues, holds us all together and prevents our skin from sagging!

Bone broth keeps us maintain our youthful. Collagen is like our hormones’ little helper – when we have more of it, our hormones don’t have to work quite so hard.

Bone broth can even help you to get rid of cellulite because it helps maintain healthy connective tissue. Lack of good connective tissue typically shows up as that trademark lumpy, dimpled skin aka cellulite.

Bone broth helps you to have strong bones and teeth and joints because of the high calcium, magnesium and phosphorus content and thus keeps bones and teeth healthy. You can use bone broth to help you re-mineralize your teeth, which mean that bone broth helps the cavities to heal. I had experienced that when I had a tooth infection.

Bone Broth Recipe

Ingredients:
3 pounds (or more) of bones from a healthy source – grass feed
Bones from 1 roasted chicken
8 chicken feet for extra gelatin (optional)
1 onion
2 carrots
2 stalks of celery
2 tablespoons Apple Cider Vinegar
1 bunch of parsley
1 kale
1 tablespoon or more of sea salt
1 teaspoon peppercorns, additional herbs or spices to taste
2 cloves of garlic
2 sheets of kelp
1 lbs. shiteke mushrooms
6 oz. turmeric
4 oz. ginger
1 lemon
2 oz. rosemary
2 oz. thyme

Instructions:To improve the flavor to roast the bones in the oven first for 30 minutes at 350.
Put the bones in a large stock pot. Use 5 gallon pot. Pour (filtered) water over the bones and add the apple cider vinegar. Let sit for 30 minutes in the cool water. The acid helps make the nutrients in the bones more available.
Add kelp, and salt, pepper.
Bring the broth to a boil. Once it has reached a boil, reduce to a simmer and simmer for 48 h.
During the first couple of hours of simmering, you need to remove the impurities that float to the surface. You can scoop off with a big spoon and throw it away.
During the last 10 hours of cooking, add the garlic, vegetables, mushrooms, ginger, turmeric and herbs.
Remove from heat and let cool then strain using a fine metal strainer to remove all the bits of bone and vegetable. When cool enough, transfer bone broth to mason jars and keep it in the fridge for up to 7 days, or freeze for later use.

Enjoy and let me know how you liked it!

In Health

Angie