Boost your wellness with this super bone broth protein

written by

posted on

November 15, 2019

First, let’s get this straight. Bone broth is not a regular stock or broth. It’s the superhero of stocks. Some call is liquid gold.

Where stock and broth are boiled for a few hours, bone broth is simmered for up to 24 hours. Bone broth should also contain vinegar, which draws additional nutrients from the bones.

There are a lot of amazing benefits of bone broth, but today we’re going to focus on one - collagen!

Collagen is a protein that contains specific amino acids that are essential for rebuilding bone, connective tissue, and skin. These little amino acids do so much for your overall wellness.

According to ConsumerLab’s reviews, 1 cup of store bought bone broth contains anywhere from 2.5 to 11.5 grams of collagen. I assume that a homemade bone broth made from quality pasture raised bones (you know, the kind that’s like jello at room temperature) would have 11.5 grams of collagen or more per serving.

There are many nutritionists, health coaches, and practitioners that recommend collagen supplements anywhere from 10-15 grams per day. So 1 cup of bone broth per day would cover it. And, since the only side effect of too much collagen (if that’s even possible) is a tummy ache, feel free to have as much as your body says it needs.

Collagen helps repair a leaky gut.

Your intestinal walls are made up of microscopic folds or “villi”. The villi are built from amino acids in collagen. The collagen literally seals the leaks.

Collagen improves the appearance of your hair, skin, and nails.

Starting at about age 35, you naturally start to produce less collagen. This is one reason why your hair may get brittle, your skin becomes less elastic and starts to form wrinkles, and your nails may be weaker. Adding more collagen to your diet is a great way to make your hair, skin, and nails smoother, firmer, and silkier.

Collagen impacts your joint health.

Like oil in a car, collagen allows your joints to move smoothly. As you age and collagen depletes, adding more collagen to your diet will help ease any pain or stiffness when your body moves.

Collagen supports bone formation, growth, and repair.

Your bones are made of ⅓ collagen. This is what allows them to be flexible. Adding collagen to your diet may support bone health by increasing the mineral density. There are studies that show collagen can also help with osteoporosis.

Collagen also supports your heart and liver function.

Specific amino acids in collagen can help your liver and heart repair itself from the damage caused by normal function.

And a great thing about bone broth is that it’s easy to make. You can find our bone broth recipe here.

It’s important to note that the quality and source of your bones will significantly impact the quality and amount of collagen in your broth. Please make sure you are sourcing from farms like ours that raise truly pastured animals.

Miller’s has a bunch of bone options for making an excellent bone broth: beef marrow bones, beef bones, pork bones, chicken neck and back, stewing hens, and more!

To make things a bit easier for you, we created a bone broth collection where you can buy bone broth as well as ingredients to make it yourself.

And please remember to not throw away the leftover bones from your steaks, roasts, and other cuts. Those can be made into bone broth within a few days, or stick them in the freezer (along with your veggie scraps) for making bone broth later.

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*Photo by Jules

Pastured Meat

Health and Nutrition

Cooking

Ugh greenwashed labels. What does it take to get ___ on a label anyway?

Not a fan of the confusing, greenwashed labels in store? Yea, me too! And it's especially real for me, because I'm responsible for getting our labels approved with the "powers that be". Here's a little story with a big inside scoop... I made new labels for our bone broth a little while ago. It didn't go as smoothly as planned. Why? I put the little icons about our farming practices on them. They look like this: Yup, despite being 100% accurate and true, they were denied!! We're not allowed to put those statements on our food labels. So, I asked the USDA guy, "What would it take to get those claims on the labels, anyway?" The answer was kinda shocking. First off, there's some guidance on wording. Silly technicalities in my opinion. For example, you can't use the term "No Spray" but you can say "Produced without the use of synthetic pesticides." Or another example is that you can't say "No Routine Antibiotics or Vaccines" but you can say "Raised without routine use of antibiotics or vaccines." Second, the processor needs to update their documents to provide traceability. In other words, they need to document how they make sure the bones for our bone broth don't get mixed up with bones from other farms. I mean, this is pretty simple, especially with small batch foods like ours. But the documentation needs to be meticulous. Drafting it in government-approved language can be time consuming and/or costly. And lastly, once you get the wording and process right, you need proof. This was the real shocker for me: Want to know what proof would suffice for all the claims above? A 2-3 sentence affidavit (AKA a super short letter) signed by all farmers that supply us. That's it!? This lead me to a bunch of questions: What if a company submits a letter from one farmer but actually has other farmers that supply them, too? What if a company changes farmers? Will they submit new letters?What if a company's farmers change their practices in the future? Will they immediately update their labels?Are the "powers that be" checking on this? Is anyone checking on this?Is this why most farms and food facilities don't allow outside people coming in? It seems to me that, if a business isn't doing what the label says, the only way to find out is via a whistleblower. And the only way to make them stop is to take them to court. You know, like what's happening with Vital Farms and their pasture raised egg claim right now. It seems to me that, all that good natural stuff on labels - grass fed, pasture raised, antibiotic free, etc - doesn't mean it's true. Certifications are a little better, but the same kinda thing can be said about those, too. This is why, at Miller's, we choose to NOT sell in stores. No wholesale for us. In fact, we don't even have an on farm store. We only sell directly to our customers via our website. And, we choose to only get certified for what's required. This way, we can make our own natural standards. And, we can provide you will all the info and proof you need. Descriptions, photos, blog posts, test results, and more. So, what do you think? Should we do the affidavit thing to get claims on our bone broth labels? What proof do you need to feel confident in your food choices? I'd love to hear from you. Comment below (no account required - just start typing) or contact us 😊