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The Healthy Aging Properties Of Bone Broth + An Easy Recipe
While prepping backstage for a television appearance, a producer asked, "What in the world do you do to look so young?" I'd already told her my real age, and now she wanted to know why I didn't look my age. The secret? I sip myself young, drinking my way to younger-looking skin and body.
So what am I drinking? Bone broth. And here's everything you need to know.
What makes bone broth so beneficial?
Here's the deal: Bone broth is catching on because people know that it tastes fantastic and keeps them healthy. But bone broth isn't just warming and nutritious; it actually turns back the clock. As a healthy aging expert, I've made bone broth a core of my program for years—and it works. Why is bone broth one of my most powerful clinical tools? First, it's packed with healthy-aging nutrients. Here are just some of them:
- Collagen. This structural protein builds strong skin, protecting against aging and wrinkling. While expensive collagen skin creams work temporarily, dietary collagen is far more potent because it mainlines collagen to your cells. In addition, the collagen peptides derived from collagen heal your digestive tract, helping to prevent inflammation that leads to aging.
- Glycine. Your body is bombarded all day long with toxins that age you. Glycine helps your liver get these toxins out of your body, re-energizing and de-aging your cells.
- Minerals including calcium, phosphorus, and magnesium. Bone broth is a fabulous source of these anti-aging minerals, and its chemical composition makes them highly bioavailable.
- Glycosaminoglycans, including glucosamine, chondroitin, and hyaluronic acid. These nutrients help keep your joints young and flexible.
- Iodine. Fish bone broth is rich in this nutrient, which protects against a sluggish thyroid—a major cause of weight gain, thinning hair, and energy loss as you age.
What's more, bone broth is rich and soul-satisfying. It fills you up and warms you down to your toes, so you're never tempted to overeat or snack on junk that ages your face and body.
In my clinical experience, bone broth reverses signs of aging better than any powder, pill, or serum. And unlike expensive creams and prescription medications, bone broth costs next to nothing. Finally, think about this: How many amazing anti-aging treatments can you make in your own kitchen from stuff you'd usually throw away? (It's the ultimate recycling project!)
So give it a try, and see what happens. I drink at least one cup of bone broth every day, and that's the same healthy aging prescription I give my patients, too. If you need help managing healthy weight, try adding in one or two bone broth "micro-fasts" each week. Within days, you'll start to feel a difference—and within weeks, you'll start to look it too.
Basic Healthy Aging Bone Broth
Ingredients:
- High-quality bones or frozen leftover bones. You can use beef, lamb, chicken, or turkey bones. If you can afford it, use bones from pasture-raised cows or sheep or free-range poultry.
- For fish bone broth, buy high-quality, wild-caught fish. Sole and snapper are good choices. The general rule is to avoid oily fish like mackerel—but many people successfully break this rule, so feel free to experiment!
Method:
- Place bones in a big pot with a lot of water and some sea salt. (If you'd like, you can brown or roast the bones first for extra flavor.) Toss in chopped onions, carrots, celery, and a little garlic. You can also add a couple of bay leaves, sage, or any other herbs and spices that go well with the type of bones you're using.
- Add 1 tbsp. of apple cider vinegar. This won't affect the taste but will help pull nutrients out of the bones.
- Bring the broth to a boil and then turn it down to a simmer, adding more water when necessary. For meat and poultry broths, I recommend eight hours of cooking at a minimum, and more than 24 hours if possible. (Fish bone broth only takes about two or three hours.) The softer the bones are when you're done, the more nutrient-packed your broth will be.
- Cool the broth and strain it through two layers of cheesecloth or a very fine mesh strainer. Place your broth in glass storage bowls.
- Store some of it in your fridge to use over the next three days or so, and keep the rest in serving-size bowls in your freezer.
- As your broth cools in the fridge, the fat will rise to the top. Skim off this fat and use it for cooking if you'd like. When your broth cools, it will get "wiggly" and gelatinous. That's exactly what you want to see because it means it's full of collagen.
Easy, right? And, consider this: Bone broth is one of the oldest healing and anti-aging foods on the planet. So if current science and hundreds of generations of healers say that bone broth works, isn't it worth a try?
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