Bone broth is a popular home remedy to ease joint discomfort for many. No home remedy will ever replace or supersede the advice of your doctor though! Now that the weather is getting colder, you can at least warm up with a method known to ease joint pain and discomfort used around the globe.
Bone broth is not quite the same as normal broth or stock, not quite. It is actually pretty close to stock. The main difference lies in the difference between broth and stock. Broth is thinner and is made with more actual meat than bones. Stock is thicker and made with more bones than meat. The stock extracts the powerful and vital collagen through its long cook times and plentitude of bones. Often, it is agreed that if the liquid part of your broth/stock gels when chilled it is stock and if it remains decidedly liquid then it is broth. The reason behind this is that if the liquid has extracted a sufficient amount of collagen then it will gel when chilled. Chilling makes it much easier to remove the excess fat as well, which is a nice bonus.
So what makes bone broth so great for joint pain? Besides the fact that a nice warm mug of bone broth can help warm you as you sip it on a cold day, it is also because of the collagen content! Bone broth is full of nutrients and rich in collagen which our bodies use for our joints. Our natural collagen production goes down as we age. To what degree we can directly utilize dietary collagen, people have been swearing by it for hundreds of years. And it has been a remedy given to the sick to ease their symptoms since nearly as long as humans have been cooking.
So consider giving a warming mug of bone broth a try this winter. Just make sure that it is of high quality as many that are sold premade at the store are not. It is of course best to make your own if possible. Keep a few freezer bags in the freezer to collect vegetable scraps and bones into and when your bags are full, make a big batch of bone broth. There are hundreds of recipes online, even vegan versions that use specific plants to reap the same collagen boosting properties of the original.
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