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What’s all the fuss about? Isn’t that what grandma called soup?

What I find fascinating about bone broth is that across all cultures, there is something similar that has been used traditionally to heal nearly everything. I’m thinking British Chicken Mulligatawny, European Borscht, Italian Ribollita, Japanese Tonkatsu soup, Korean hotpot, Malaysian Pork Bone soup (Bah Ku The) and Vietnamese Pho soup.

Rich in essential amino acids (glycine) and numerous nutrients (magnesium), bone broth has been called the Jewish penicillin and even Chicken Soup for the Soul.

Eating too much eggs and muscle meats can result in a buildup of the amino acid methionine that leads to higher homocysteine levels. High homocysteine levels have been linked with increased heart problems.[i] One way to balance this is to increase the amino acid glycine that is rich in bone broth.

The best thing about bone broth: low calories and nutrient-dense

The best thing about bone broth; it’s very low in calories and can make you feel full so can be helpful ‘filler’ if you are trying to lose weight.

So is bone broth the same as soup? To me, bone broth is soup that has been boiled for a long period of time to draw out the goodness of collagen and nutrients.

What do you make bone broth from? Mostly from meat carcasses. Here’s the thing, different meats have different amino acid components:

Arginine and glutamate were highest in turkey bone broth while hydroxylysine was highest in beef bone broth and hydroxyproline as well proline were highest in chicken bone broth. [ii]

Is bone broth safe?

And is it true that bones sequester heavy metals like lead? This is a serious accusation seeing elevated blood levels of lead are linked with side effects like learning deficits in children or neuropathy in adults. The answer is not so straightforward as there are many variables: type of meat, cooking time, addition of acid and liquid (tap/filtered water) used to make the broth.

The US FDA’s[iii] maximum daily intake for lead from food are 3 µg per day for children and 12.5 µg per day for adults.

Here’s the thing: there have been mixed results whether bone broth is contaminated with lead: Monro[iv] found 9.5 μg L(-1) (skin and cartilage) and 7.01 μg L(-1) (bones), compared with a control value for tap water treated in the same way of 0.89 μg L(-1)) while Hsu[v] did not find any significant amounts of lead.

In the Hsu study, addition of acid to the broth increased the amounts of calcium, magnesium, lead, chromium, copper and Aluminium extracted, but not for iron and zinc. Luckily the increases for lead, chromium and aluminium were smaller, and mostly not significant.

How does its lead compare to other types of food? Compared to meat, fish, potatoes, rice and beans, fish contained the most lead in a Spanish study[vi]. Other sources of lead toxicity include air pollution, water and contaminated foods. It could all ‘boil down’ to one thing: how much is consumed? A 250ml bowl of bone broth would contain 1.75 μg lead, lower than the maximum daily intake of lead.

Here’s the litmus test:

  1. What do you feel when you drink a good-old fashioned soup? Nourished and love? Is it the ultimate comfort food? Or do you feel the opposite? Some individuals have troubles breaking down histamines and free glutamates and complaint of headaches after consuming bone broth. These individuals may find meat soups that contain less of these ingredients more suitable.
  2. Think of your oldest, healthiest relative that you aspire to: what was their diet, nutrition and lifestyle like? Was bone broth featured? If yes, you may have the OK from your genetics point of view
  3. How much is safe to drink? This would depend on what else you eat, exposure to lead and the reason you’re consuming bone broth. For myself, I make bone broth 2-3 times a week to incorporate essential amino acids and minerals from a food source. The amino acid glycine can balance the amount of methionine I eat from muscle meat and reduce homocysteine levels (thought to increase inflammation in the body)

If you’re still concerned about lead toxicity, you can see your GP and request a whole blood lead test.

Best bone broth recipe

For those of you foodies, I attach my favourite recipe that I have fine-tuned over the last 7 years. It’s easy as you chuck everything into the slow cooker and wait patiently till it’s ready. And it’s extremely morish. Enjoy!

7 year old Slow Cooker Spiced Oxtail Bone Broth

3 osso busco + 500g beef bones

1 large tbsp butter

5 cardamom seeds (remove husks)

6 cloves garlic, minced

2 large onions, minced

1 thumb ginger, minced

2 bay leaves

1 tsp cloves

2 carrots diced

2 sweet potatoes, diced

½ cinnamon stick

1 thumb turmeric

2.5 cm galangal (optional)

1 tsp salt

  1. Pan fry onions, garlic and ginger in a pan with butter until fragrant
  2. Make beef broth by adding everything including (except osso busco) into the slow cooker. Cook for 4 hours
  3. Brown osso bucco with salt and pepper then add to slow cooker. Cook for another 2 hours
  4. Add seasonal veg and serve with fried onion

For more tips on incorporating diverse foods to increase micronutrients in your diet, go here
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References:


[i] Peng HY, Man CF, Xu J, Fan Y. Elevated homocysteine levels and risk of cardiovascular and all-cause mortality: a meta-analysis of prospective studies. J Zhejiang Univ Sci B. 2015;16(1):78-86. doi:10.1631/jzus.B1400183

[ii] Shaw, M. H., and N. E. Flynn. “Amino Acid Content of Beef, Chicken and Turkey Bone Broth.” Journal of Undergraduate Chemistry Research 18.4 (2019): 15.

[iii] US Food & Drug Administration. Lead in Food, Foodwares and Dietary Supplements. Accessed 28/5/22 at https://www.fda.gov/food/metals-and-your-food/lead-food-foodwares-and-dietary-supplements

[iv] Monro JA, Leon R, Puri BK. The risk of lead contamination in bone broth diets. Med Hypotheses. 2013;80(4):389-390. doi:10.1016/j.mehy.2012.12.026

[v] Hsu DJ, Lee CW, Tsai WC, Chien YC. Essential and toxic metals in animal bone broths. Food Nutr Res. 2017;61(1):1347478. Published 2017 Jul 18. doi:10.1080/16546628.2017.1347478

[vi] Perelló G, Martí-Cid R, Llobet JM, Domingo JL. Effects of various cooking processes on the concentrations of arsenic, cadmium, mercury, and lead in foods. J Agric Food Chem. 2008;56(23):11262-11269. doi:10.1021/jf802411q

Author

  • Therese Pharmacist Health Coach Podcaster The Enlightened Pharmacist

    Therese is a consultant pharmacist, evidence-based health and wellness researcher, health coach and self-confessed wellbeing addict. As the host of The Enlightened Pharmacist podcast and webinar series, Therese regularly presents group workshops and seminars, and has a practice working with patients one-to-one who have improved their health outcomes for the long term. Having experienced chronic health issues herself, Therese understands that the struggle with maintaining health and wellness is real. She has spent countless hours with patients facing chronic conditions including kidney disease, fatty liver disease, obesity, high blood pressure, stroke, metabolic syndrome, respiratory issues and more. Inspired by the success her patients have experienced, Therese has created this workshop to share the effective strategies and shortcuts she uses to help people understand and implement every day, so you can reclaim your health with confidence. Therese is on a mission to help 10,000 individuals reclaim their health for the long term - you too can be part of her revolution.

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