Surprising Benefits of Bone Broth for Gut Health

If you know me, you know you can catch me sipping on 2 to 3 different drinks at a time in the morning ⁠— my coffee, a green juice, and some bone broth! There are several reasons why I love drinking them, but I love drinking bone broth for gut health benefits!

Today I’m sharing why I’m so passionate about bone broth and why you should jump on board!

First Off, What is Bone Broth?

Bone broth is the nutrient-rich liquid that is left over after meat bones and connective tissue are simmered down in water over a long period of time. You can make it at home or buy high-quality brands at your grocery store. If you buy yours, I recommend buying organic brands to get the highest quality broth, especially for healing purposes. I also recommend using brands that use grassfed, regenerative beef bones or pasture-raised chicken.

My absolutely favorite brand is FOND bone broth (Use code TAYLORDUKESWELLNESS for 10% off your order). They use the best bones! Cows are grass-fed and regeneratively raised. Chickens are pasture-raised. They have so many delicious flavors, but without icky ingredients, flavorings, and additives. Instead, they simmer their bones with fresh, organic herbs for maximum flavor and health benefits. I also love that the entire process and packaging is plastic-free! They use glass bottles – this is huge for avoiding microplastic toxins.

Benefits of Bone Broth

• Amazing source of amino acids

• Contains gut-healing properties

• Supports proper immune response

• Encompassing anti-aging properties

• Helps your joints

• Rich in glycine

• Aids in reducing inflammation

Scientific Proof of Bone Broth

I know, I know, that’s A LOT of amazing benefits! But if you’re like me, you’ll want to know the scientific proof of bone broth and know how this works. So, I’ve gathered some research to back up these claims. While I love drinking bone broth for optimizing my gut health and simply just enjoy the taste, there are also several other amazing health benefits.

Amazing Source of Amino Acids

When bone is boiled down, the collagen is broken down into its building blocks, which are amino acids. In fact, collagen contains 19 amino acids (including essential and non-essential amino acids that are needed for optimal health) including tryptophan, glycine, glutamine, and more. These amino acids play a role in hormone production, act as neurotransmitters, and are needed for protein synthesis.

Contains Gut Healing Properties

Bone broth contains the protein, gelatin. Yes, that gelatin that you use to make jello! When you picture the consistency of gelatin, you can imagine how drinking bone broth can help with the smooth transit of food through your intestines. It’s vital that food move smoothly along to allow proper absorption. Not only that, but bone broth, with its amino acid content, can help reduce inflammation, that is contributed to irritable bowel disease and other gut inflammatory conditions.

Bone Broth for Leaky Gut

The collagen in bone broth also nourishes your intestinal lining and reduces inflammation which can help heal the gut from leaky gut. This is when your gut lining becomes more permeable, allowing larger, unwanted molecules into your bloodstream. Glutamine, found inside of bone broth, can help with restoring this mucosal barrier (aka gut lining)

Supports Proper Immune Response

Since the majority of your immune system lies in your gut, drinking gut-supporting bone broth can help your immune system! By reducing inflammation and fixing the lining of your gut with the provided collagen, amino acids, and gelatin in bone broth, you’re helping to reduce food sensitivities and intolerances, skin issues, and autoimmune disease.

When your gut is healthy, your immune response can actually react appropriately within your body. When your immune system is in overdrive because of a leaky and/or inflamed gut, it can cause inflammation throughout the body and contribute to the annoying and even painful symptoms you’re experiencing. If left unaddressed, it can even manifest into diseases.

Anti-Aging Properties

The amount of collagen you produce is associated with the appearance of your skin. Unfortunately, individuals between the ages of 25 and 34, start to see their collagen production decline and that’s when you start noticing the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles.

Collagen from bone broth can help restore your collagen levels and help improve the look of your skin by providing protection against UV-induced damage of DNA, apoptosis, and mutations as well as improving the skin microbiome. 

Great for Joint and Bone Health

Bone broth protein benefits are also fantastic for joint and bone health. Since bone broth is packed full of collagen, calcium, phosphorus, and amino acids, it makes sense that if you drink broth, you’ll supply your body with bone and tissue building blocks for your body! It’s important to keep your supplies of collagen up (especially as you age) because when it declines, it could increase your risk for osteoporosis and joint issues. 

If you’re experiencing joint pain related to inflammation, read my article here for some tips.

Aids in Overcoming Estrogen Dominance

Bone broth can help address your estrogen dominance and PMS symptoms. One contributor to estrogen dominance is poor gut health.

Your estrobolome, which is located in your gut, contains the enzyme, beta-glucuronidase. This enzyme plays a role in regulating your estrogen levels. If your gut health is damaged or unbalanced, beta-glucuronidase levels could be elevated, causing problems. This enzyme turns the inactive form of estrogen back into the active form, making your overall estrogen levels increase. This is NOT what we want because this leads to estrogen dominance and its’s undesired symptoms.

Drinking bone broth can help heal your gut and support normal levels of beta-glucuronidase and regulate proper estrogen levels.

Best Bone Broth for Gut Health

The best bone broth for gut health is going to be first and foremost, an organic brand or made from organic meats. Beef, pork, veal, lamb, and game bone broth have the highest amounts of collagen protein. But keep in mind that different bone broths provide different amino acid concentrations. So, I recommend switching up the brands and the type of bone broth from time to time to reap the most benefits.

Easy Bone Broth Recipe

Honestly, a bone broth recipe doesn’t have to be difficult! As a mama, I know convenience is what’s going to help me the most in staying healthy. I won’t tell you to cook down some bones for hours (unless you totally want to do that!)

But with a busy schedule like mine, I love heating up some organic bone broth on the stove from FOND Bone Broth (Use code TAYLORDUKESWELLNESS for 10% off) and throwing in some turmeric, ginger, and Himalayan sea salt for some more added anti-inflammatory benefits. I pour it in a mug or my yeti and drink it along with my coffee and/or green juice.

You can also heat this up with some rice and use it to add flavor to your staple meals.

While I focus on the benefits of bone broth for gut health, it’s also a great daily drink to help your overall wellness and help ease your daily and nagging symptoms. So, have I convinced you yet? Are you adding this to your daily practice?