10 easy, time saving shortcuts to help you improve your gut health today!
Want Better Gut Health?
You can have it!
In Zero Effort Gut Health, I share the top 10 shortcuts that saved me from complete exhaustion and overwhelm when my family and I first began our gut health journey. I quickly realized I didn’t have time to prepare everything from scratch, including fermented vegetables, bone broths, and sourdough, no matter how hard I tried.
I was desperate for shortcuts that would save me time in the kitchen, but that wouldn’t compromise the gut healing benefits we needed. So I spent hours researching and product testing to come up with the list of practical suggestions in this book. In fact, I still use many of them today!
If any of these describe you, I wrote this book just for you!
Too busy to stand over simmering pots of bone broth all day
Are overwhelmed by the thought of fermenting your own vegetables
Deal with chronic GI issues like bloating, cramps, constipation, or diarrhea
Struggle with skin rashes, food sensitivities, migraines, or depression
Just need a few easy ways to improve your gut health
Ready to improve your gut health?
Original article and pictures take www.backtothebooknutrition.com site
Your New Antidepressant Goes Remarkably Well With Blueberries Emily Kate Roemer
Kelly Brogan used to be a pharmaceutical cowboy. That's how, in her close-talking, rapid-fire way, this powerhouse in skinny jeans describes her old life as a swaggering Bellevue-trained shrink. She had an exhaustive knowledge of brain-soothing antidepressants, and for years she used them confidently to lasso her patients' worst psychological beasts. It wasn't until she found herself prescribing powerful antidepressants to pregnant women 6 years ago that something snapped. "I was pregnant at the time myself," Brogan, now 36, says, "and I thought, I would never take these medications."
So she trained her restless, analytical mind on the psychiatric status quo. It didn't look good: Over recent decades, the swelling number of prescriptions for psychiatric drugs has done nothing to stem another rising tide—that of mental illness diagnoses. There's a debate raging about whether SSRI antidepressants are any better than placebos for people with mild and moderate cases. After some deep consideration, Brogan came to the radical conclusion that there was absolutely nothing worth saving about the way she had been trained to alleviate the mental suffering of her patients. "I realized the emperor has no clothes," she says. She decided to turn her back on antidepressants.
( Photograph courtesy of Kelly Brogan )
Psychiatrist Kelly Brogan’s very public stance on medication is radical and sometimes divisive. But, she says, her patients have found happiness and calm by forgoing pills in favor of supplements and diet changes.
Acting on a new hunch, Brogan set about healing people's minds via their digestive systems. Her patients' stories, plus a growing area of research, inspired her to banish antidepressants like Lexapro in favor of lactobacillus and spend more time discussing gastrointestinal symptoms than emotional ones. The results spoke for themselves: Her women-only Manhattan practice sprouted a waiting list of 6 to 8 months. "I can't even remember the last patient I wasn't able to help," she says.
Brogan's ideas are extreme, but she is far from alone on this medical frontier. A quick scan of the latest self-help books and Facebook groups—some fringy, all passionate—turns up scores of clinicians and patients who believe that they have healed the mind by healing the gut, their conviction that this is the right path almost religious in its fervor. (Brogan is a one-woman cottage industry, with more than 23,000 Facebook fans and a blog that gets 20,000 hits a week.) The claim is remarkable and increasingly convincing: Probiotic supplements and a change in diet can, in effect, rewire the brain.
The unlikely, invisible driver behind the miracles: bacteria. Over the past several years, research on the bugs that live on and inside our bodies has exploded. As the health savvy are becoming increasingly aware, we have at least 10 times as many single-celled bacteria floating around in us as human cells, and the majority of these roughly 100 trillion critters are located in the gut—mostly in the colon, where they play an essential role in human digestion. (Without them, we couldn't break down the plant fiber we eat.) Much of the research has focused on how the microbiome might affect what can go wrong in the gut—for instance, in digestive disorders such as IBS or in obesity—because bacteria affect how food is broken down and converted into energy. But one of the hottest areas of research, and arguably the most fascinating, is the connection between gut bacteria and our mental health.
We've known forever that our emotions affect our digestive systems, as anyone who's had a sour stomach before a work presentation has gathered. What these new accounts tell us is that the brain-to-gut effect works in the opposite direction, too. More significantly, they introduce bacteria as a compelling, previously unconsidered player that can communicate, directly or indirectly, with our brains to determine our moods and, perhaps, our most basic sense of who we are. Some scientists now talk about the gut-microbiome-brain axis.
( Illustration by Emily Kate Roemer )
Gut bacteria was the last thing Maureen Olbon would have considered when, 4 years ago, she had a very bad stretch at the state hospital where she worked outside of Durham, NC. A powerfully built schizophrenic patient suddenly lost it and lunged at her, trapping her in a choke hold. Two months later, another patient punched her in the face with such force that she slammed against a wall. The attacks left Olbon a physical and mental wreck. "I couldn't make people understand the terror I was feeling," Olbon, 62, says. She saw several psychiatrists and was prescribed a pharmacopoeia of prescription meds—SSRI antidepressants, antianxiety drugs, antipsychotics. "It felt like I was having a lot of people do things to me, but I wasn't feeling a benefit," she says. "I was on a slide, and it was downward."
Steady and incremental relief came through her work with Natalie Sadler, a University of North Carolina–trained psychiatrist who, like Brogan, had moved her practice away from conventional antidepressants and toward probiotic supplements and diet to address just about every form of psychic distress. "I totally changed my diet—no gluten, no processed foods," Olbon says. Her anxiety calmed, and she tapered off the antidepressants. She gives the most credit to the probiotics: "When I stop taking them, I feel it: My stomach goes off, I stop sleeping, and my mood starts to drop."
Source: Ted Dinan, professor of psychiatry, University College Cork, Ireland
( Illustration by Emily Kate Roemer )
Believing in a gut-microbiome-brain axis repositions the purpose of food from human nourishment to nourishment for the microscopic ecosystem inside us. Brogan starts virtually every patient who walks into her office on a 4-week, one-size-fits-all therapy: Eat only organic, non-GMO, unprocessed foods, with no grains, no dairy except eggs, and no alcohol or coffee. Lots of vegetables is key. And so is fat: olive oil with its monounsaturated fats; wild fish with its omega-3 fatty acids; and, more controversially, plenty of meat (pasture-raised, of course) with its saturated fat and major load of vitamins and minerals.
This prescription may sound familiar, even trendy—the up-with-fats, down-with-grains message is straight out of the Paleo diet. Whether this is in fact the best way to eat for everyone's gut is an open question; the scientific evidence is all over the map. But unquestionably, fiber-heavy plant foods feed the friendly bacteria in the gut, and, Brogan argues, dietary fat replenishes cells in the brain, itself made up mostly of fat. "I had a patient a month and a half ago who had just gotten out of a psych hospital and had been on myriad drugs for 12 years," she recounts. "All we did for the first month was this diet, plus 5 minutes a day of breathing work and some exercise, which she was already doing. She came back with tears in her eyes and said, 'For the first time in my adult life, I haven't had a panic attack in 30 days.' "
A cure for our most common psychological ills that's so simple it doesn't even require a prescription for antidepressants? Two years ago, UCLA gastroenterologist Kirsten Tillisch authored the most widely admired of the modest smattering of existing studies on probiotics and the brain. Twice a day for 4 weeks, she fed a group of 12 women a yogurt specially blended with live probiotic bacteria and compared their performance on a test with that of a group who had eaten a dairy product that contained no probiotics. Both groups aced the test, but in the women who hadn't been on the probiotic-yogurt regimen, parts of the brain associated with hyperalertness and anxiety lit up more strongly on an fMRI imaging study.
According to Ted Dinan, a professor of psychiatry at University College Cork, in Ireland, and one of the world's leading researchers on the subject, there are three basic mechanisms underlying the astonishing connection between these lowly microorganisms and our very personalities: (1) Bacteria that live in the gut (or travel through it aboard some yogurt) are necessary building blocks in the production of neurochemicals there, like serotonin and dopamine. (2) That impact on neurochemicals in turn has an effect on the secretion of stress hormones like cortisol. (3) Gut bugs also play a vital role in regulating the immune system and the inflammatory response it can launch when things go haywire. Inflammation is now widely considered to be one underlying cause of depression.
Happy chemicals, stress hormones, brain-polluting inflammation: It's a trio of forces that govern our mental health. Scientists are just beginning to unravel their collective effects.
Brogan may saunter confidently into the future of psychiatry armed with nothing more than food and supplements, but her colleagues tread more cautiously. James Greenblatt, an assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at Tufts University School of Medicine, is most interested in cases in which he has evidence of bacterial and psychiatric imbalance—for instance, the 1 in 10 of his psych patients who show elevated levels of one potentially pernicious type of bacteria, clostridia. By-products of this bug interfere with the way the neurochemical dopamine gets processed in the colon. When dopamine builds up—as it does, Greenblatt believes, in these clostridia-afflicted patients—you get severe forms of psychiatric illnesses like ADHD and OCD. Probiotics are his treatment of choice, along with antibiotics in severe cases. "For these people, the results can be so dramatic," he says. Another 4 in 10 of his patients will be helped by probiotics, just not so dramatically, he says.
Greenblatt notes that he's successfully treated hundreds of patients with elevated clostridia, including a high school girl whose transformation from out of control to normal was so extraordinary, it was covered by ABC News, among other outlets. The story set in motion a second "miracle cure," that of a middle-aged man afflicted with compulsive hair pulling. He read about the case and was inspired to treat himself with probiotics—with complete success, he says. He sent Greenblatt a grateful email—and that story made the Boston Globe.
Peer-reviewed research this is not, so it's no surprise that mainstream psychiatrists are slow to get on board. No one has yet done a rigorous controlled study measuring the effects of probiotics on people with depression or anxiety disorders or looked at whether the microbiomes of those people look reliably different from the microbiomes of the rest of us. "There is an emerging research literature that is compelling," says Thomas Wise, a George Washington University psychiatrist who is eager for answers, "so you can't say the microbiome is hocus-pocus. Gut bacteria affects the brain in many ways. But how does that relate to depression? The human data is minimal."
High-strength probiotic pills—with a whopping 112.5 billion colony- forming units—are available over the counter, unlike antidepressants.
Tillisch, whose promising study is so widely cited, agrees. "Who should take a probiotic? What dose? Which strains of bacteria? We're just not there yet." The uncertainty leaves doctors recommending multistrain products that include lactobacillus, which is found in most fermented foods, at a range of doses (VSL #3, a powerful probiotic often recommended for digestive disorders, contains a whopping 112.5 billion colony-forming units, or CFUs). They're all available OTC. Tillisch is hopeful that the expensive, complex studies currently under way will someday provide more specific probiotic drug regimens that pass muster. Until then, she says, "I'd recommend trusting our historical wisdom and our common sense and trying a fermented food, like yogurt, which has been around for a long time."
While Brogan is also a fan of fermented foods, she's confident enough to brandish the less-proven tools in the new gut-brain toolbox, too. She points to a recent case, a 30-something wife and mother with a secure career who was plagued not by extreme psychiatric symptoms but, rather, by ordinary unhappiness. "Many of us live in this haze of chronic stress," Brogan says. "And even when we see a doctor for specific symptoms, we're either dismissed or given a prescription for antidepressants—and the impression that we just need to find a way to 'manage.' " With dietary changes in place, the woman's anxiety dissipated by more than half. After she started taking a high-dose probiotic, she was—to use an old-fashioned word—cured. "The last time I saw this patient, I said, 'Have a nice life,' " Brogan says. "She had no more need to see me."
This bacteria-slinging cowboy has written up the case history for a medical journal. Only time will tell if stories like this one become an entirely new paradigm for how we treat our brains.
Original article and pictures take www.prevention.com site
Your Gut Health Needs a Check Up is a sponsored post on behalf of SmartyPants Vitamins. All opinions are my own. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.
When it comes to living a healthy lifestyle we have to consider all aspects of our health, from the inside out. Gut Health is a topic that sometimes gets put on the bottom of the list. We don’t like to talk about bacteria and all of those inner workings that really are the caveat of good health. If you gut is in good working order you have a better chance of improving your overall. Your gut has often been called your second brain. Gut health can affect anything from mood, memory, digestive health and even thought process.
Your Gut Health Needs a Checkup
Since gut health is so important I decided it’s important to start taking care of it. Probiotics are found in many foods, such as yogurt and kefir. I am not a real fan of the taste and texture of either of those so I went for a supplement. I am also not a fan of pills or chalky liquid supplements, so SmartyPants Adult Complete Probiotic was the answer. SmartyPants Adult Complete Probiotic is a chewable gummy vitamin supplement.
What you will find in each 2 Gummie Serving:
7 billion CFU’s per 2 gummies
Contains clinically-proven strains DE111® and IS2*
Proven 99% survivability from stomach acid
Promotes good gut bacteria and digestive health*
Contains Wellmune® prebiotic immune support*
Vegetarian and Non-GMO
Blueberry or Lemon Flavor
What you won’t find in SmartyPants Adult Complete Probiotic:
No Synthetic Colors
No Artificial Sweeteners
No Artificial Flavors
No Artificial Preservatives
No High Fructose Corn Syrup
No GMOs
No Gluten
No Tree Nuts
No Peanuts
No Dairy
Your Gut Health Needs a Checkup
SmartyPants Adult & Kids Probiotic Complete products are more than probiotics – they combine multi-strain probiotics and Wellmune® prebiotic immune support, all in one. SmartyPants takes pride in the premium high quality ingredients in all of their supplements. They have a third party lab that tests each batch for purity and potency. That’s something I can trust and believe in.
Paying it forward to others is something I strongly support. SmartyPants Vitamins strives to bring more health to more people, so for every bottle sold, they will make a one-for-one nutrient grant to Vitamin Angels. Each grant provides a child in need with life changing vitamin A supplementation for one year. So far, their commitment has helped over 2 million children, with the support of the customers. They hope to make 10 million grants by 2018! I am glad to partner with a company that helps others obtain the vitamins they desperately need.
I am excited to experience all the benefits of a priobotic and improve my digestive health! Will you join me?
Have you thought about giving your gut health a checkup?
For more information about SmartyPants Vitamins follow them on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook,
* These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. Original article and pictures take www.midlifehealthyliving.com site
Since completing my Whole30 earlier this year, I have become much more aware of gut health and how it impacts the rest of my body. As you’ve probably noticed, I’ve upped my intake of fermented foods (hello sourdough sauerkraut toast!) and I’ve also started taking probiotics daily. In the past it’s always been a habit that I get into and fall out of.
Recently, I’ve been using UP4™ Probiotics for my probiotic. Their probiotics feature clinically validated strains that have been proven to support digestive and immune health. Each of UP4’s formulas contains their trademarked superstrain Lactobacillus acidophilus DDS®-1 which has over over 40 years of clinical research on its ability to colonize the gastrointestinal tract and bring digestive and immune benefits.
I’m taking their Women’s formula and it also includes cranberry powder, which has been shown to support urinary health.
If you’d like to check out UP4 Probiotics, here’s a coupon for $5 off select UP4 products at Target.
But beyond diet and probiotics, I also find yoga to be extremely beneficial in assisting with gut health and digestion. Some of the ways my practice supports digestive health include:
Twisting to stimulate and massage the digestive tract
Back bends to stretch the abdomen
Forward folds to compress the abdomen and increase circulation to digestive organs
Focus on breath and movement to reduce stress and anxiety
This is a great time to segue into the emotional piece of the practice and gut health. It’s very common for digestive problems to serve as indicators of other issues going on in our lives. Stress, anxiety, depression and emotional distress can wreak havoc on our digestive systems.
I find that I can draw direct ties between my emotional state and my appetite and digestion. Yoga is one of the best natural remedies I’ve found for managing stress and anxiety.
So today I’m going to share a yoga flow with some of my favorite poses for digestion and relaxation. I’m including photos and descriptions of each of the postures along with a time-lapse video of the flow so you can see it all put together.
Child’s Pose
Big toes together to touch
Knees spread wide
Forehead resting on the mat
Arms extended out in front of you towards the top of your mat
Hold for 1-2 minutes
Cat and Cow
Begin on all fours in a tabletop position
As you inhale find cow by dropping your belly down and lift your chest and gaze up as you arch your spine
As you exhale find cat by drawing the belly in and dropping chin to your chest as you round your spine
Move through 5-10 rounds of cat and cow
Downward Facing Dog
From all fours, lift your hips up to come into an inverted v-shape with straight arms and legs (knees can be slightly bent if back side body feels tight but do not bend elbows)
Spread your fingertips wide and press firmly into the mat with your fingertips and palms
Relax shoulders away from ears
Gaze back between your knees
Draw belly in and up
Sink heels into the mat
Hold 7-10 breaths
Low Lunge
Step your foot between your hands and drop down to the back knee
Lift arms overhead or place them on top of the front thigh
Sink into the front knee to open up the hip flexor and psoas on the opposite leg
Keep your chest lifted up and shoulders drawn back
Hold 7-10 breaths
Twisting Low Lunge
Beginning in low lunge, draw hands to hearts center
Twist the opposite elbow to the outside of the front thigh
Think navel to spine as you draw belly in to create space to twist
Breathe deeply!
Hold 5-7 breaths
Wide Leg Forward Fold
Take a quarter turn to the opposite side of the mat from the leg that is in front
Point your toes straight ahead or even slightly in
Bend at the waist and let the torso hang down with crown of the head towards the floor
Place hands on the floor in front of your face
Draw belly in to give more space to fold
Squeeze quadriceps to lengthen the hamstrings
Hold 7-10 breaths
Revolved Side Angle
Walk hands to the top of the mat
Spiral high on the back toes, lifting the heel off the mat
Bend the front knee at 90 degrees
Place the opposite hand on the floor to the inside of the front foot and lift the other hand straight up in the air, stacking it over the shoulder
Keep hips as square as possible as you twist open through the upper thoracic spine
Hold 5-7 breaths
High Plank
Step your front foot back to meet your back foot at the back of the mat
Shoulder stacked over wrists
Straight line from head to hips to heels
Engage core, chest and thighs
Hold 5 breaths
*Once you do all poses through plank on the right side, press back to down dog and repeat on left side before moving onto locust.
Locust
Lower all the way down to the belly
Extend hands by your sides, palms facing down
On an inhale, lift your shoulders, palms and shins off the mat
Gaze is at the top of the mat and not up, keep spine long
Squeeze shoulder blades together and broaden the chest
Firm but don’t squeeze your glutes
Hold 7-10 breaths
Camel
Come up to all fours from locust
Rise up to kneel on your knees with them hip distance apart, think about internally rotating your thighs
Bring your hands either to the low back or to the heels as you lift the center of your chest to the ceiling and let your head fall back
Keep your hips stacked over your knees and resist the urge to recline backwards
Firm but don’t squeeze your glutes
Hold 5-7 breaths
Seated Forward Fold
Cross ankles and sit back onto your butt
Extend both legs straight out in front of you
Reach arms up in the air to create length in the spine and then fold forward over the thighs
Reach for whatever you can grab…feet, ankles, shins or just let the arms drape by the side
Draw the belly in to create space for a deeper fold
Hold 10 breaths
Supine Pigeon
Lie on your back and cross your ankle over your knee.
Wrap one hand behind the hamstring as you pull it in towards you and press the other hand into the knee as you push it away from you.
Hold 7-10 breaths on each side
Supine Twist
Draw the knee into the chest and then cross it over the body to the opposite side of the mat
Try to keep shoulder blades on the floor as you twist
You might take your gaze in the opposite direction of the twist
You can use your hand on the knee to guide yourself a little deeper into the posture
Hold 1-2 minutes each side
Savasana
Extend both legs out straight and allow feet to fall open
Extend both arms out by the sides and let palms open towards the ceiling
Close your eyes and relax into your mat
Hold 3-5 minutes
And here is a time-lapse video of the flow so that you can see how it all works together.
To wrap it all up, gut health is multi-faceted and can be benefited by a blend of diet, probiotics and yoga. I hope you’ll check out UP4’s line of probiotics and also incorporate this flow into your routine when you’re needing some extra digestive care or relaxation.
Do you take a daily probiotic supplement?
Do you notice a tie between your emotional state and your gut/digestion?
What strategies do you use to promote good gut health?
UP4 Probiotics compensated me for this post but the yoga flow and opinions are my own.
Fermenting has been around for thousands of years, and traditional cultures, including some in Russia and Europe, still rely on it heavily.
Once Americans enthusiastically embraced pasteurized dairy products over raw or fermented forms during the early 20th century, we lost a lot of powerful, immunizing probiotics and enzymes along with any potential pathogens.
Which is a bummer since fermentation can make food that was once inedible or even dangerous edible and nutritious.
Among the most popular fermented foods are dairy, sometimes referred to as cultured dairy. Fermentation increases the shelf life of dairy products, making them far tastier and a whole lot easier to digest.
Raw milk is fermented either by allowing it to sour naturally or by adding the milk-loving bacteria lactobacillus to it. Lactobacilli, generally benign and occurring naturally in small amounts in our gut, feed on the sugar and starch in the milk, creating lactic acid and preserving the milk in the process. They also zap bad bacteria and release beneficial enzymes, vitamins, minerals, omega-3 fatty acids, and various strains of fabulous probiotics. Here are a few more benefits to fermented dairy:
Good news for anyone who’s lactose-intolerant or opts for a lower-carb diet. Since labels are made before fermentation, fermented dairy actually has fewer carbs than you see on the label.
It does this by preserving the enzymes lactase and lipase, which help you absorb more of fermented dairy’s nutrients. Fermenting dairy also tends to increase B vitamins while boosting the detoxifying powerhouse amino acid glutathione and many essential amino acids, and, of course, probiotics, the healthy bacteria in your gut.
Probiotics balance your gut ecosystem and earn fermented dairy a gold-star reputation for improving digestion and strengthening immunity.
If you aren’t dairy-intolerant, a little raw, grass-fed, fermented dairy becomes super healthy. You don’t always have to have all three, but check off as many of those boxes as you can. It will allow you to enjoy the richness of dairy again without the guilt, or the proteins and sugars that make you suffer with the symptoms of intolerance and fat gain.
Here are some of my favorites:
Yogurt: probably the most-consumed fermented dairy product, and for good reason — studies show its effectiveness in promoting a healthy digestive tract, especially in children. Try stirring plain, unsweetened Greek yogurt with frozen blueberries for a healthy, low-sugar impact treat.
Kefir: This drinkable yogurt comes from cow, goat, or sheep milk and contains many strains of healthy bacteria with numerous health benefits. Kefir’s other benefits include high levels of vitamin B12, calcium, magnesium, vitamin K2, biotin, folate, enzymes, and probiotics. Studies currently explore these health benefits, many with promising results.
Milk cheese: This is cheese made with milk that hasn’t been pasteurized — goat milk, sheep milk, and cow milk, which contain high amounts of the strains thermophillus, bifudus, bulgaricus, and acidophilus. Studies discuss the potential of these probiotic strains in raw milk cheeses to improve neurological issues, digestive health, and immunity.
Even people who react to dairy can often eat some of these foods, especially the nutrient powerhouse grass-fed ghee. It doesn’t have any dairy protein particles, so it’s safe even if (like me) you’re dairy intolerant.
Do you regularly incorporate fermented dairy or other foods into your diet? Do you keep up with the ever-growing benefits of probiotics? Share your favorite fermented food below.
Bone Broth is finally being recognized for its amazing health benefits. It is one of the most nutrient dense & healing foods you can consume.
Bone Broth is an ancient food that has been around for ages. Today’s culinary experts are catching on and joining the “trend.”
Our great grandmothers knew what great healing powers bone broth had. Where do you think “chicken soup” came from? They always kept a pot of broth simmering on the hearth. This provided an easy base for soups, stews, gravies, sauces and also a way to keep the broth fresh before refrigerators were invented. It’s one of the many traditional foods that we’ve largely forgotten about in our modern culture.
A study of chicken soup (broth) conducted by the University of Nebraska Medical Center wondered what was in the soup that made it so beneficial for colds and flu. Researchers found that the amino acids that were produced when making chicken stock reduced inflammation in the respiratory system and improved digestion. Research is proving it can also boost the immune system and heal disorders like leaky gut, allergies, food sensitivities, asthma, and arthritis.
Most store bought broth or stock that you buy today are not real. If you want to reap the benefits of bone broth, you need to make homemade, or you can buy from a reputable source such as Thrive Market or Amazon. Personally, I prefer to make it myself. It is so easy & way more affordable.
Bone Broth is easily made by boiling bones (beef, chicken, fish, etc.) in water with an acid (like ACV) and optional spices, vegetables, and herbs. Broth can boil for as little as 2 hours in a pressure cooker such as an Instant Pot or up to 48 hrs. On the stove or in a crockpot. Here is the recipe that I use.
1-Proline: Proline helps the body break down proteins. It helps improve skin elasticity and smoothness, also to regenerate cartilage and heal joints, reduces cellulite & helps repair leaky gut.
2-Glycine: Is used to make glutathione & bile salts, for blood sugar regulation and digestion. It prevents the breakdown of protein tissue like muscle. It is a neurotransmitter that improves sleep, memory, and performance.
3-Arginine: Helpful for proper kidney function, wound healing and proper kidney function necessary for immune system function. It is also needed for the production and release of growth hormone & helps regenerate damaged liver cells. It is also needed for the production of sperm.
4-Glutamine: Bone broth is an excellent source of glutamine. Glutamine protects the gut lining, provides metabolic fuel for cells in small intestine & is great for metabolism and muscle building
Bone brothis a source of bio-available nutrients that is easy-to-digest. Its amino acid structure and high gelatin content soothes and heals the gut and helps with the absorption of nutrients from other foods also.
Possibly Nature’s Best Multi-Vitamin!
It has over 19 easy-to-absorb, essential and non-essential amino acids (the building blocks of proteins).
It has collagen/gelatin, which helps to form connective tissue.
It provides nutrients that support digestive functions, immunity and brain health.
Bone broth is low in calories yet high in minerals that most people are lacking.
6 Key Nutritional Compounds that help provide all these wonderful Bone Broth Benefits:
Collagen is the most abundant protein in our bodies. It’s found in our muscles, bones, skin and tendons.
It is Bone Broth’s source of immune-boosting properties. You’ve probably seen this in your roasting pan after it has cooled (the jiggly jello layer) and thrown it away. I bet you will think twice next time you dump this into the garbage disposal!
Collagen is the protein found in connective tissue of vertebrate animals. It’s abundant in bone, marrow, cartilage, tendons and ligaments. The breakdown of collagen in bone broths is what produces gelatin.
Some of the benefits of Gelatin (the breakdown of Collagen):
Gelatin helps people with food allergies and sensitivities to be able to tolerate those foods better;
Collagen protects and soothes the lining of the gut and can aid in healing IBS, Crohn’s, ulcerative colitis and acid reflux symptoms;
Gelatin promotes probiotic balance and growth of the good bacteria that we need;
Bone broth increases collagen, reducing the appearance of wrinkles and reducing cellulite;
Gelatin helps break down proteins and soothes the gut lining, which helps with leaky gut syndrome & the autoimmune disorders that go along with it;
Gelatin provides bone-building minerals that help to prevent bone loss and reducing joint pain.
What is the difference between Bone Broth, Broth & Stock?
Broth is typically made with meat and can contain a small amount of bones (think of the bones in a fresh whole chicken). Broth is typically simmered for a short period of time (45 minutes to 2 hours). It is very light in flavor, thin in texture and rich in protein;
Stock is typically made with bones and can contain a small amount of meat (think of the meat that adheres to a beef neck bone). Often the bones are roasted before simmering them as this simple technique greatly improves the flavor. Beef stocks, for example, can present a faint acrid flavor if the bones aren’t first roasted. Stock is typically simmered for a moderate amount of time (3 to 4 hours). Stock is rich in minerals and gelatin;
Bone Broth is typically made with bones and can contain a small amount of meat adhering to the bones. As with stock, bones are typically roasted first to improve the flavor of the bone broth. Bone broths are typically simmered for a very long period of time (often in excess of 24 hours). This long cooking time helps to remove as many minerals and nutrients as possible from the bones. At the end of cooking, so many minerals have leached from the bones and into the broth that the bones crumble when pressed lightly between your thumb and forefinger.
Ways to use Bone Broth:
for soups & stews
to drink (my favorite)
to cook veggies in for extra vitamins & nutrients
to make sauces
use in place of water
When I first started the AIP Paleo lifestyle, I drank several cups of bone broth daily to heal my leaky gut & started feeling better than I had in years. I still make a pot every week. I love the way it makes me feel. Even my 16-year-old daughter asks for it, especially if she’s feeling a little under the weather or a little blue (you know, teenagers). One of her favorite soups that I make is Coconut Chicken Soup. A couple of other favorites are Hamburger & Purple Cabbage Soup & Hamburger “Fauxtater” Soup
Where to buy Bone Broth (If you don’t want to make it yourself)
In my opinion, the best way to get broth is to make it yourself. Here is my recipe. This is the least expensive and most nutrient dense way to get broth if you can find quality (grass fed, organic) bones locally. If you can’t, or don’t want to make it, you can get it here at Thrive Market or you can find it on Amazon.
Sarah has spoken about the benefits of activating your nuts here. But did you know that you can also activate your grains and legumes as well?
Just like nuts, legumes and grains contain antinutrients. These are the things that make them difficult to digest and often result in a bloated grain or bean belly. But the dangers of antinutrients go deeper than this.
They inhibit nutrient absorption: A good example of this is the antinutrient phytic acid, found in many grains, nuts, seeds and legumes, which interferes with the absorption of zinc, iron and magnesium.
They block digestive enzymes: Which wreaks havoc on the gut. You can read more about the importance of gut health here.
The only way to get rid of antinutrients is by activation
Activation is basically soaking the nut, grain or legume for an extended period of time. Activated nuts are put through a dehydration process (it isn’t necessary for grains and legumes), which makes them last longer and taste delicious, but it’s during the soaking process that the magic really happens.
There is a bit of contention about the period of time you need to soak nuts, grains and legumes to adequately neutralise the antinutrients, but as a general rule of thumb at least 12 hours is adequate.
Note: We spoke to our friends at Pureharvest, who are quite versed in the art of activation (see below). They stressed the importance of discarding all soaked water and rinsing your grain, legume or nut after soaking.
Just so you know, this is a sponsored post, but the opinions are our own and we researched the topic and came to these conclusions independently.
If you’re a fan of activating we’ve got some good news on the dairy-free milk front!
A few months ago we announced that Pureharvest had made the switch and were activating all of their almond milk. Well, it appears they’ve caught the activation bug and they’re not stopping there.
Pureharvest has just announced that all of their soy milk products are now activated too, and they’re in the process of ensuring all of their grain-based milks (rice and oat) will follow suit.
This is great news for anyone who has digestive issues when it comes to nut, legume or grain-based milks.
Pureharvest have the only activated nut, legume and grain-based milks on the market and we dig that all of their milks are fructose free, too.
We’ve also just gotten word that Pureharvest are working on a range of activated nut butters (we know, too exciting!), so keep an eye out in stores for those.
In the meantime, you might want to try your hand at making your own activated nut butter.
Do you soak your grains and legumes before cooking them? Have you noticed a difference?
Original article and pictures take iqsresponsive-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com site
