Bone Broth Benefits, Bone Broth Nutrition & How It Can Relate To Back Health.
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Welcome to the Back Pain Solutions Podcast – Bone Broth Benefits, Bone Broth Nutrition & How It Can Relate To Back Health.
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Introducing Bone Broth Benefits, Bone Broth Nutrition & How It Can Relate To Back Health.
Bone broth has been used in traditional cooking for many years to create great tasting dishes. Indeed, evidence exists that soup was consumed in some form over 20,000 years ago and in some cultures, hens were reared specifically for making soup with the meat being used for other dishes. However, aside from the culinary benefits, bone broth has a range of health benefits due to its nutritional profile. In traditional cultures, consuming bone broth formed part of the practice of ‘nose to tail’ eating whereby all parts of an animal were consumed. This practice helped to ensure the intake of all the amino acids that are required to support the healthy function of essential structures throughout the human body.
In this episode, we introduce some of the bone broth benefits and discuss how those benefits can relate to back health. We discuss bone broth for drinking, and some of the scientific proof for bone broth. We also outline a simple process for preparing your own bone broth, highlighting some of the key steps to making it taste great, whilst making it quick and simple to prepare. In order to make anything sustainable, it’s important to make it achievable and the steps outlined in this episode should do that. As a result, introducing bone broth, or bouillon, into your diet can become part of a wider approach to improving your overall health and supporting your back-pain recovery.
Some of the things you’ll discover…
- Some of the nutritional benefits of bone broth such as gelatin which supports the soft tissues in the body.
- What slow cooker to consider for making your own bone broth, and the volume to look for?
- Should you drink bone broth warm or cold and why?
- Why making friends with a good butcher can save you a lot of time and hassle when making your own bone broth!
- Some of the key nutritional benefits such as amino acids, fatty acids, gelatin and vitamins A and K to name a few.
- The simple steps, and recipe, for making a great tasting bone broth which doesn’t take up all your time!
Show Highlights
There is no single, or magic, formula to overcoming back pain so don’t assume that bone broth will be a quick solution to your health problems. However, this can be a great addition to your overall recovery plan and making considerations for the foods that you eat should be a focus.
To summarize, this hot drink has long been consumed by humans and there are an incredible number of bone broth benefits including the support of your back health. It makes an excellent addition to any diet and can be used in a multitude of meals.
When it comes to sourcing bone broth, you can very easily make your own at home. Ask your local butchers, or even farmers, if they can supply you with a range of bones, or consider roasting a whole chicken and save the bones for cooking your broth. Alternatively, bone broth is increasingly available to purchase pre-prepared so this could be an easy start for you.
Whichever way you choose to get your hands on this nutritional product, be sure to consider making bone broth a staple in your diet.
Interview Transcription
Unknown Speaker 0:00
When we’re young, we move with freedom and confidence with a great resilience to injury. But somewhere along the line we develop poor habits and become more vulnerable to back pain. Back Pain solutions features evidence based and practical advice to help you take back control of your health and get back to the activities you love. This is your guide to better back health through movement. So join us as we demystify some of the commonly held beliefs about back pain and build your confidence to a stronger back the smart way.
Ben James 0:28
Welcome back to the back pain solutions podcast Everybody with me, Ben James, and as always my co host Jacob stain, but we’re here to help educate you on your back health and get you back to the activities you love. As always, head on over to smartstrongco.uk, get a free copy of our ebook, download that and start taking back control your back health in the next seven days, some real great actionable advice, to really start to take back control of your back health and start to understand some of the issues the problems. There are a lot of people are facing and some of the things that they’re doing every day that are causing their back pain to remain or to get worse. So take advantage. Get on over and have a read and give us some feedback, because it’s always welcome. Today, we’re talking something a little bit different. We’re talking about bone broth or Boolean, becoming more and more popular as a nutritional supplement or even a replacement food in the diet. What’s that going to do with back health? Why would you consider it? Well, we’re going to answer those questions today on this episode of the back pain solutions podcast. So Jacob, this is something that you’ve been taking making for some time, I haven’t. And it’s something as always, as I’m looking at reviewing nutrition and the foods that I eat. It’s something that I’ve been reading about and considering. Why should I consider it? Why did you consider it and are you making your own? Are there good places to buy it? Let’s dive in and answer some of those questions.
Jacob Steyn 2:02
Thank you, Ben. Yeah, I’ve been using the Bouillian for or I’ve been making my own Bouillion for a few years now. Actually. I’m currently on my third crock pot because they don’t last that long when you do 20 hour or 30 hour Boullion sessions on a constant or regular basis.
Ben James 2:22
And so you’re wiping out your, you’re wiping out your cookers.
Jacob Steyn 2:27
Oh, yeah. Yeah, the first one I took back and the shop said, you know, it was within a year you can have another one but the second one, when that broke, I had to buy a new one.
Ben James 2:39
Yeah, well, have you’ve got any recommendations, just quickly, just for the listeners?
Jacob Steyn 2:44
The crock pot, the basic crock pot, I’ve got the 4.7 I think it’s nearly five liters in 4.7 or 5.7. It’s the biggest one out there. And it has a ceramic bowl and I quite like that, that it’s not a nonstick metal. I like the idea that it’s a ceramic coated bowl, which is natural, you know what I mean?
Ben James 3:06
Yeah. Got you. Okay, so be prepared to wipe them out with
Jacob Steyn 3:11
Unfortunately, unfortunately, I’d like them to look to last a little bit longer, but this is how it goes. And so.
Ben James 3:18
There’s a business opportunity
Jacob Steyn 3:20
Yes
Ben James 3:20
Bone broth crockpot
Jacob Steyn 3:22
So I, I’ve been using it for a long time now. And I always have a very good feeling from it. You know, and I’m already eating quite healthily. So it’s not that I have this amazing change when I have the balloon, but as a snack throughout the day, it works perfect for me. And so it’s kind of an addition rather than a replacement for you. Absolutely. Yeah. You know, and also of my wife, if she wants to, you know, have a snack and she doesn’t want necessarily get some calories into a body especially not in the form of carbs and you know, we’re eating quite low carb. So if we want to get snack in thats salty and good for the gut and contains a little bit of fat not a lot depends on how much you live in there but it’s packed with nutrients then the Boolean works amazingly well.
Ben James 4:12
Okay, and where did you start with it? Did you did you buy it because increasingly now it’s available isn’t it for from whether it’s online in shops, farm shops, maybe you can you can buy it pre prepared. Did you ever do that? Is it an easy option to start with? Or did you just crack on and and just make your own and test and iterate and change? And
Jacob Steyn 4:34
Yeah.
Ben James 4:34
Get the recipe that was good for you or..
Jacob Steyn 4:37
I started straight off making my own because I was I was quite often I read around a little bit and I saw especially the gaps diet g a p s by Campbell. She and their protocol is very much into their protocols is aimed at fixing the gut for a big part. And they use a lot of, yeah, bullion related products, all homemade, you know, with great advice and really good information and some science to back it up. And so that’s where I started. That’s how I got motivated to start my bullion and start experimenting and then in the beginning I had a I had a fair few batches that were awful. And I’m going to give some tips today into making sure that it’s you know, you don’t go through all the mess I went through but if you get it right, it’s really tasty and it’s great.
Ben James 5:36
Yeah, yeah, for sure. And like you say, Do you are you doing any fasting and taking Bouillion or bone broth? Drinking it during your kind of weekly nutritional plan, or is it like you say just an addition more than anything?
Jacob Steyn 5:54
It’s It’s more than just an addition I do the fasting mimicking diet. Maybe once in two weeks. I’ve been a little bit lazy lately, but I try if I can, I aim to do it once in two weeks, sometimes once once in three weeks and so I take a whole day where I only have an avocado in the morning avocado and evening. You know, so I keep my carb intake very low and I have a high source of fat and then throughout the day I drink my homemade Boolean just to make sure I nourish my gut and the bacteria my gut because as we know if you fast especially for a whole day, you don’t eat anything throughout the day. Then you you have the danger of your gut bacteria changing and that actually becoming a problem when you start eating the following day again, but the the balloon helps to maintain the gut profile the bacteria profile just like it is and so you get through that nicely and smooth you know.
Ben James 6:55
Got it. Got it and you are you drinking it cold, warm or doesn’t matter.
Jacob Steyn 7:01
Always warm, always warm. So…
Ben James 7:04
Is that palatable thing?
Jacob Steyn 7:08
Sorry, is it?
Ben James 7:10
Is it? Is it about the palatable and making it nicer to drink warmer? Or is that a nutritional thing as well?
Jacob Steyn 7:17
No more for the taste. Exactly. So, I have a little milk jug. And I just I know how much I have to scoop out whether it’s for myself or for myself and my wife and then or a friend sometimes. And so I just eat it up in a little jug. Very quickly, you know, on the hub.
Ben James 7:35
Yeah. Okay. Let’s talk about some of the science behind it. And then we talk talk about how you prepare it, what you what some of the tips you have for making it quantities, you know, on a daily basis that you would you would consider or recommend and then we can kind of link it back into or why Could this be good for for back health and and not just back health, gut health but you know, musculoskeletal health as well. So there is a lot of research Now, obviously, we’ve talked previously about nutritional, the depth of nutrition and the depth and nutritional advice out there. What are some of the benefits that that you’ve come across that maybe you’ve experienced by taking Boolean on a daily basis?
Jacob Steyn 8:21
Yeah. So, so To be honest, I think the benefits I feel, although I’ve noticed myself is the fact that I feel good, you know, I mean, when I know my gut is doing well, the rest of my body is doing well. Generally speaking, for sure if my gut is not doing well, then the rest of my body isn’t doing well. So that’s my makeup and that’s what I’m very aware of. And so that’s something I pay attention to. But if we look at the research and I was looking a little bit and there isn’t really that much research on bouillion itself, I you know, I read one on one person was describing it as such saying that it’s very difficult to trace what all these what all the nutrients in the Bouillion is exactly doing. And, but you know, besides that, if you go and look at what’s in the Bouillion, then you really get an idea of Okay, what’s this stuff going to do for me? So that’s the question, you know, what are you drinking? What’s inside the bouillion? And that depends very much on the type of bone broth that you’re making. So are you using fish bones? Are you using chicken bones are using cow bones or game? So I quite often I asked the butcher, the local butcher in the hunting season. He knows me by now. So he just calls me I would say, I’ve got some game bones would I like it? And I’m like, Yeah, please. And so he just, he prepares one kilogram packs for me. And I’ll take maybe 10 one kilogram packs of bones and I’ll freeze it in an on a weekly basis. I’ll just defrost it and prepare it. You know?
Ben James 10:00
Yeah, and a question here, I guess, around the bones that you get from the butcher, in what kind of format ache because I asked that question, you know, is it for people that maybe are at home? they’ll cook a chicken for maybe a Sunday lunch or for a meal? Can they just take that that kind of chicken carcass? Throw that in the stock pot? Or what what should they be looking for if they’re considering doing that? Or if they’re looking to source bones? Because I think that’s a quite a key point if you’re looking to make your own.
Jacob Steyn 10:32
Yeah, so I in the beginning, I was I was buying whole chickens and I was debugging them myself. You know, and I must be honest, I’m not a butcher. So I think quite often it was, it was a mess. You know, I if I had to take the chicken breast out in one piece, it came out in two pieces, or I had to cut little bits of the bone at the end and that was my lack of skill, but I was I was doing that a lot I was buying a few chickens and I was the burning them and so to use those carcasses to to make my own boullion.
Ben James 11:10
And when you say ‘deboning’ you will literally just get in as much of the tissue off the bones that you could and it was literally bone or we leave in some of the tissue aren’t just just out of interest?
Okay.
Jacob Steyn 11:20
Yeah the the chicken wings and the legs. I didn’t do bone them I just dibond the rest of the of the of the chest and the back as much as I can. And then afterwards I would keep the chicken leg bones and the chicken wings you know the leftovers and I would use those also for for making money on but you know in the beginning I was doing that but the point I want to make is that after a while I’ve got a busy schedule after a while it just didn’t go anymore so i i thought you know this is way too much work and and it’s great if I didn’t have much else to do, and I’d like to be efficient and I don’t want to waste and I want to use everything. But in the end, I was just like, okay, now I you know the amount of stock or broth that I’m making, I need to figure out something else. So I then I started going to the butcher and at the butcher, I specifically tell him Okay, well, look, you have a few choices, you can you can ask us for bones, and you’re gonna be making bone broth, and that’s good. But you can, if you want to be more specific, you want to get more gelatin gelatin off the bone and you need to ask for knee and ankle. And so,
The butcher knows very well what do you mean with this and they know very well what it’s used for. So they’re not going to look at you strange or, or ask you well knee or ankle. What are you going to do with that so they know very well. They will take a whole knee and they will cut it into pieces for you. So you have little blocks. And that means you’ve got more surface area obviously of the knee instead of putting the whole knee in there in the slow cooker. And you can just see the amount of cartilage in the ankle and in the knee. But even beforehand, so you know, go well this is when you when you boil this up, it’s gonna it’s going to provide you with a lot of gelatin, a lot of cartilage. And so then
Ben James 13:18
Yeah and lets.
Jacob Steyn 13:20
Yeah no go for it.
Ben James 13:20
And gelatin. Let’s talk about gelatin because that’s a key component of Bouillion a bone bone broth that is a benefit and is has a lot of nutritional benefits for us in terms of consumption. So that’s amino acids, essential amino acids, but you know, also iron vitamin A, K, fatty acids, etc. And, and this is where a lot of the benefits are coming from nutritionally.
Jacob Steyn 13:47
Yeah. So the the cartilage from the, that’s on the bone that’s get that gets broken down into all that becomes gelatin. When you when you boil it up. Remember, the idea is not to boil it, the idea is to have it simmering. So you know, it’s just lightly bubbling. And in a slow cooker the benefit of that so you can set it for 20 hours, the max is 20 hours on the on the setting. And so it can just slowly bubble away. And so we don’t we keep the temperature just high enough, but we’re not boiling it. So we’re not destroying as much as we would when we have a really hot boiling pot. The cartilage becomes gelatin, and in the gelatin, which obviously then becomes a running substance or a runny substance in the Boolean that contains the essential amino acids. So it’s packed with amino acids and that that’s amazing that you actually you’re drinking that you know.
Ben James 14:48
Yes, exactly. And you saying well, would you recommend that this could be a instead of taking other supplements or again alongside again, as always depends on the the balance of your diet overall anyway, clearly.
Jacob Steyn 15:06
I think you are better off taking or having Bouillion, bone broth, if you do it properly, then buying chondroitin sulfate or glucosamine supplements, absolutely, you know, then you’re getting it in a natural form. It’s exactly what you should be getting. And it’s not been going through a process or a process where they prepare it for you and make it into a powder or a tablet. So I think absolutely, yeah, this is massively beneficial and instead and most likely, I mean, I’ve not looked at research but I have a gut feeling. The amount of amino acids that you get in from the gelatin is just as just ample.
Ben James 15:50
Yeah, and obviously the the the other additional benefit from a nutritional point of view when we’re talking gelatin specifically we know that the research has shown increasing the amount of collagen in tissues as a result. And clearly, when we’re trying to relate this back to back pain, specifically, we know the back pain generally as a result of tissue damage, often the case. So, this is specifically aimed at, along with other nutritional approaches, maximizing that healing process, supporting that healing process so that we can maximize our potential for recovery, not just focus on as always symptoms of a back problem and trying to get to that root cause and just deal with it just with the exercise based approach or, or other, you know, tests and procedures but nutritionally, if we’re at optimum, then we’re supporting those tissues. Collagen is such a big component of connective tissues, whether it’s ligaments, muscles, tendons, and as a result, if we’re taking supplements like this, such as and then clearly that could be a beneficial aid in recovery.
Jacob Steyn 17:05
Absolutely. And, you know, that’s what I tell a lot of my patients as well just try it. Just try it. You know, I’ve had I’ve conversed a few patients to actually buy a slow cooker over the years.
Ben James 17:19
Yeah.
Jacob Steyn 17:20
Some of them are doing in the pot. But you know, and I remember one patient quite clearly, she lives on a farm here in the Netherlands. And she, we made a massive plan for her, you know, she had a lower back vertebrae was really not looking good on the X ray. And, you know, if I remember well, there was a bit of plate disruption and a bit of swelling in the bone and I said, Okay, let’s give it six months and worked out a little training program, but we just not stopped her diet and we added some bouillion she was up and open for everything and she just went straight for it. Within a few months, it was, you know, the recovery was just amazing.
Ben James 18:06
Yeah, and I mean, you know, as always, this isn’t, this isn’t something to take that’s gonna cure your back pain. This is just that supplement on that journey to recovery as are a lot of other bits of information that we share and the advice that we provide, you know, this is all just supplementary and supporting that, that recovery. So, like you say, Jacob, it’s a case of saying to patients, you know, try it, let’s let’s rethink the diet, let’s rethink nutrition, as well as focusing on passive techniques, certainly exercise based approach to back recovery. Let’s look at the other things that could support that journey to recovery. And this is just one of those things and the nutritional value that you get from bone broth Bouillion is such that it’s going to support musculoskeletal health. So it’s certainly going to be a benefit. It’s not going to give you any negative results. So why not give it a go? Why not try it? You know, it’s a no brainer alongside other other approaches. And with that in mind, you can buy it now pre made, but that’s quite costly. You said you’ve always made your own what’s, what’s a good recipe for people as a as a takeaway to, to maybe start in the next couple of days, obviously, you’ve got to find a source of bones to be efficient, from what you’re saying. So having a discussion with local butchers and things that’s not not a big hurdle, but in terms of a recipe to make it palatable, tasty, and get that get that right nutritional value what’s what’s your approach at the moment.
Jacob Steyn 19:41
So I so here’s the biggest tip that I learned, after a few batches that I had to really force myself finishing wasn’t really that bad, but it was, you know, could have been better. So the first biggest tip, you’ll see it online as well as you can either make it you can boil it up without having cooked the bones first, or you can put your bones in the oven for 20 minutes on a medium temperature and let it cook through. And so that makes a big difference in the taste if you pre bake in the oven your bones, so you have some heat going through the whole bone, you know, depending on how big your bones are, for chicken bones, it’s going to be a little bit less if it’s if it’s big, if it’s knee and ankle and and bones like that, then you have to cook it a little bit longer. And then you basically have the taste in your belly on that it’s been it’s been cooked, you know instead of the raw bone that you just boil up. And so that makes a big difference for the taste. And if we look at a recipe, so I keep it simple.
Ben James 20:51
So just just back on that Jacob what sort of temperature? How long would you would you put the bone in the oven for?
Jacob Steyn 20:57
I’d go for 20 minutes depending on your oven depending you know, medium, medium temperature 160 but keep an eye on it. So you don’t want to you don’t want to burn the cartilage you want to make sure that you know that stays intact otherwise that that’s where you get the nutrients from so you don’t want it to go. You don’t want to scorch the, the cartilage and then…
Ben James 21:21
Okay, so that medium heat 20 minutes should be good.
Jacob Steyn 21:24
And then and then the recipe I would say like i said i keep it quite basic. So I prepare my bones in the oven. Then I put them in my crock pot, and then I add two tablespoons of apple cider vinegar. And so what I know of that is that it helps to draw minerals out of the bones and also affects the flavor positively. And then I put a lot of salt. So I’ll put like three medium heaped tablespoons of Celtic sea salt. That’s, you know, that’s a fair bit of salt, but mixed Herbes. That’s why, you know, I just keep it simple with a fair bit of mixed herbs. And then I’ll switch it up between..
Ben James 22:12
Just dried mixed herbs.
Jacob Steyn 22:13
Just dried either Italian or herb de Provence, French mix herbs. And then I’ll put, you know, if I’m lazy, I’ll just chuck two onions in there. I don’t peel them. I just cut them in half. And that’s good enough as they cook through, you know that you know, something like I cook a lot and I hate the thing I hate the most is pealing the onions.
Ben James 22:36
I share that frustration. Yeah.
Jacob Steyn 22:39
And then.
Ben James 22:40
Okay so two onions.
Jacob Steyn 22:41
Yeah, if you don’t want to put onions you put like celery. And erm… let me see that’s yeah, that’s all I do. So then I fill the water up almost to the brim its bubbling away
Ben James 22:54
Okay so no set volume. Just fill it just fill it up. Pretty much it.
Jacob Steyn 23:00
Yeah if you have if you have the big crock pot and you have one kilogram of bones you fill it up and it provides you with about three and a half liters of bouillion.
Ben James 23:12
Nice and then you … 20 hours?
Jacob Steyn 23:15
20 hours. Exactly. Sometimes it will go into the keeping warm setting after 20 hours if I’m not getting to it quick enough so I suppose it’s a little bit longer. But yeah minimum 20 hours.
Ben James 23:29
And then what you do with it afterwards how you get in and out what do you store and in and er, and how much, how much are you taking on a daily basis?
Jacob Steyn 23:39
So the the crock pots handy you take the ceramic bowl with everything inside of it out of the crock pot out of the crock pot itself, you know the casing which heats up the bowl, and so I take that out, and then I have a big pot and I have a biggish sieve. And so I pour. So I kind of I have a big metal spoon with holes in it and I made sure the bones don’t go along but I keep them in the crock pot. And then I pour all the juice through the sieve. So all the Herbs and things get caught up in the sieve. And then erm… I leave the bones in the crock pot with the onions and everything and then I have all the juice in this big bowl, you know, take the sieve out, and then I let it cool down for usually five, six hours, you know, or from the morning till the evening when I get back. So I don’t want to put this hot, big hot pot in the fridge I wanted to cool down first, and then I put it in the fridge. And overnight. Next morning, I’ll have this thick layer of fat on top of the Bouillion and that’s what a lot of people think, oh, there’s a lot of look at Bouillion and they go there’s a lot of fat on it or in it. And actually there’s almost no fat. All the fat goes to the top and I scrape that off. So, so then you have that just then you have a gelatin this thick substance and and I use a glass mug and I scoop that out into glass jars 500 millimeter glass jars.
Ben James 25:26
Okay, and then you’ll freeze it ultimately and take one out a day.
Jacob Steyn 25:30
or
Exactly so in the beginning I was like, Oh, can I can I freeze this glass jar was fully on and I was like, you know, it’s gonna, it’s gonna break or something and I’ve I’ve only had a couple of times where the glass jar actually broke and that’s because I filled it up too much. And so when it froze, it expanded and it expanded and it popped off the bottom part of the glass jar. So don’t fill it up too much. If you if you leave like centimeter free at the top, then you don’t have to be afraid of putting your glass jars in the in the freezer, it’s gonna be absolutely fine.
Ben James 26:09
That’s a great tip. That’s a great tip. I bet other people have fallen foul of that in the past and that expense a great point. So that’s a great, simple recipe to add a little bit of nutritional value to the diet pretty easily as, as always, you know, getting those bones, maybe an initial challenge, but once you overcome that hurdle is quite clearly quite a simple thing to make, and the gelatin and the nutritional benefits that you’ll get for musculoskeletal health back health. It’s absolutely worth a try. And what we’re saying is, it’s a supplement. Clearly, it’s not gonna be a magic potion, but we’ve got to try these things. And if you’re suffering, along with our advice, give it a go. Give it a whirl. And as always, thank you, Jacob. And for people listening, please head over to the iTunes website and give us a rating give us a review helps to increase the show value as we learn lessons from the feedback we’re getting and also helps us to answer some of the questions that we’re getting in and shape some of the episodes that we do moving forward. So we really appreciate the reviews and the ratings that we’ve got so far. So thank you, everybody that’s done that and, as always, head on over to the smartstrong.co.uk website, there’s a contact us page, throw us some questions. We’re here to help. And we’ll continue adding value as we move forward with future episodes. So Jacob, thanks again. Thanks, everyone, for listening. And we’ll join you again on the next show.
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